I'm a big supporter of inbound marketing. So much so that I built a business around it. It just makes sense to sell the way people want to buy, right? 

Think of the last purchase you made. Did you go online and do research? Check out various options for your purchase? Read online reviews to see what the public thinks of the various options? If you did, your buying behavior matches that of the average buyer, according to the Corporate Executive Board. They found that the average buyer completes 57% of their sales process before ever contacting a sales person.

That's where inbound marketing comes in. Educational content like blog articles, social media posts and videos draw potential buyers to your website. Buying guides, eBooks and webinars convert website visitors to leads. Email marketing and lead nuturing help move the sale down the funnel. If you don't use inbound marketing, you're missing out on a lot of opportunities.

OK, so that's the part that everybody tells you. Here's what they don't tell you.

Inbound marketing helps you get in the game, but you have to close the deal

There's no doubt that inbound marketing is essential for the first 57% of the buying process. I can even make a good case that it plays a significant role in the last 43%. But unless you're an e-commerce company, you're not going to close the deal without a human-to-human sales interaction. It's that simple.

For most businesses, inbound marketing is a crucial tactic to generate the amount of leads your business needs to hit your revenue targets. Unless you get found when they're researching options, you don't even have a chance. But unless inbound is tightly integrated with your sales process, you won't get the sales results you need to hit your numbers. And no amount of inbound leads can overcome a bad sales process.

Inbound leads are different than outbound leads

If you've been around as long as I have, you remember the days of hustling leads any way you could  - whether it be by cold-calling, direct mail or referral selling. You almost always caught those outbound leads very early in their buying process. You spent a lot of time educating leads about how your solution solved a problem they may not even know they had.

Inbound leads are different. You're first contact with them is after they've completed 57% of their sales process. They probably know more about their purchase options than you do. If you try to start educating them from square one, you'll come off as condescending and absolutely not helpful. It's hard for sales people, but you need to let them educate you about their unique problems. It's an entirely different sales process than the one for outbound leads.

Inbound marketing takes time to produce results

It takes time to build social media research and website domain authority that sends organic search traffic to your website. Without some form of outbound help, it will take at least six months before you start seeing increased website traffic and lead generation as a result of your inbound efforts.

If you want more immediate results, you need outbound tactics like search engine advertising or social media advertising. That's not to say it's not a good idea to put in the effort to establish a self-sustaining inbound lead generation channel. It's an essential tactic for the modern sales process. Just keep in mind that it will take time to see a return on your inbound marketing investment. And inbound is not a replacement for outbound sales efforts. An inbound process that works hand-in-hand with your outbound process is the best way to drive sales acceleration.

Inbound marketing is a hard work

Inbound marketing is hard work. To successfully conduct inbound marketing campaigns, you need to create relevant content for your target buyer that educates them and moves them through your sales funnel. And lots of it.

To drive organic search traffic, you need to run your blog like an editor runs a newspaper. You need to publish good content regularly and review analytics to constantly improve. Not to mention eBooks, videos, webinars and the other content you need to move your lead generation needle.

You need to know this before you start down the inbound path. But nobody ever said it was going to be easy, did they?

Summary

So that's what they don't tell you about inbound marketing. It's a fundamental 21st century business practice, but don't expect miracles. If you're smart about it and put in the effort, inbound marketing has the power to fundamentally transform your business.