What do you think of when you think of a campaign? Do you think of the meticulous planning that went into the World War II D-Day campaign? Do you think of the data-driven strategy of President Obama's 2008 campaign? An effective inbound marketing campaign is actually quite similar to those two campaigns. Like the D-Day campaign, a B2B inbound marketing campaign pulls together disparate assets like keyword strategies, blogging, conversion-centered design and lead generation offers to achieve an overarching strategic goal. Like the 2008 Obama campaign, an inbound campaign targets a distinct audience with message tailored to appeal to it. When done properly, a great inbound marketing campaign can achieve success like the Allies did with D-Day and Obama did with his 2008 campaign. Here are 5 incredibly simple hacks that will tilt the odds of success in your favor.
Narrowcast your campaign
We have always advised SMB companies to focus on narrow, distinct niches as an integral part of their growth strategies. By specializing in a targeted industry, geography or size of company, you can achieve results with customers in your targeted niche and leverage that success to expand within the niche.
The same approach applies for B2B inbound marketing campaigns. Choose a product line, market segment or geographical area to build your campaign around. The more narrowly focused, the better. If you target a specific product line to a targeted industy in a defined geographical location, it's much easier to create content that resonates with your target audience and gives them a reason to convert on your lead generation offer.
If you choose a broader-based campaign and try to appeal to a diverse audience, you're likely not to please anyone. Again, the more segmented your campaign is, the higher your conversion rates, email click-throughs and blog views will be.
Set SMART goals for your campaign
An inbound marketing campaign is only successful if the value it generates exceeds the cost of running it. If you decide to promote a new eBook and hope for the best, you will most assuredly be disappointed in the results.
SMART goals are Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Timely. An example of a SMART goal would be to generate 50 marketing-qualified leads from the IT industry in the 90-day campaign period. If you know the value of a marketing-qualified lead, you can easily calculate the campaign ROI from your results.
If your campaign goal is new sales, a cascading waterfall of SMART goals is appropriate. For example, if your SMART goal is to generate 10 new customers in the 90-day campaign period, you may need to generate 100 leads. To generate 100 leads, you'll need to drive 1,000 visitors to your website. In this example, your waterfall flow will be web visitors to leads to sales. You will have 3 separate SMART goals - visitors, leads and sales.
Keep in mind that you SMART goals don't have to be for sales or leads. You may set SMART goals for donations, new blog subscribers, consultations or free trials.
Build your campaign around a premium content offer
Your inbound marketing campaigns should be built around a premium content offer that has enough value to your target audience that they are willing to take the desired action to get it. For example, in exchange for a free trial of your software, your audience will need to give you their contact information (and perhaps a credit card number) to get the free trial.
A premium content offer could be a video, an eBook, a webinar or a free consultation. To be successful, the perceived value of your content offer must exceed the price (contact information, demographic information, etc.) you ask from your audience. The more you ask for, the greater the perceived value of your offer needs to be. For example, when you ask for a credit card number of a telephone number, you must offer a high-quality offer to generate conversions.
The blog articles, social media posts and other campaign assets have one goal: to promote conversions on your premium content offer.
Be consistent throughout your campaign
Your SMART goal should have a consistent look, feel and tone throughout all of its elements. You should target keyword phrases that appear consistently in blog articles, calls-to-action and landing pages. You should use consistent branding across your campaign assets - the same color schemes, imagery and fonts should be used across your campaign efforts.
Consistency is a key element of a successful conversion path. The copy, colors and graphics of your call-to-action should carry through to your landing page, giving potential leads a natural series of actions to follow that result in them completing the lead generation form and receiving your premium content offer. If you break that consistency, you essentially break your promise to the potential lead and they will likely bounce from your site without completing the lead generation form.
Keep analytics in mind when building out your campaigns
When discussing SMART goals, we mentioned the importance of being able to measure the ROI on your inbound campaigns. This requires you to measure analytics for the blog articles, landing pages, emails, calls-to-action, social media posts and other elements of your campaign. Inbound marketing software like HubSpot allows you to track each element of your campaign and provides a unified report (see below)
By consistently monitoring analytics throughout your campaign, you can optimize tactics during the campaign to produce the greatest ROI.
An inbound marketing campaign is a series of processes designed to achieve a desired result. Whether it be lead generation, new sales, trial software subscriptions or donations to a non-profit, a strategically coordinated approach will produce the best results. Use these 5 incredibly simple hacks for your B2B inbound marketing campaign and you will get the results you desire.
