Inbound marketing leads cost 61 percent less than traditional outbound leads. Not only are these leads less expensive to generate, but they also result in longer-lasting relationships. Plus, inbound marketing improves SEO, shortens the sales cycle and drives revenue. It’s no surprise then that 93 percent of companies use inbound marketing to increase lead generation, according to Hubspot.

While inbound marketing is increasingly seen as a “must-do” sales tactic for small businesses, many small businesses still fail to effectively leverage inbound marketing for revenue growth. In fact, if your business is not careful, you may find that your inbound marketing efforts are costing more money than they are generating. Whether your business is new to inbound marketing or looking for ways to trim costs, follow these tips to boost revenue generation:

1. Focus on “middle of the funnel” techniques.

Don’t put all your eggs in one marketing basket. A diversified approach that focuses on “middle of the funnel” techniques, such as landing page optimization, is generally more cost-effective for small businesses than major PPC campaigns. While paid search is an important component of online marketing, it’s all too easy to blow an entire marketing budget on a failed PPC campaign. This is especially true for smaller businesses that may lack the resources and expertise necessary to build an effective PPC campaign and then ultimately scale-up this campaign for maximum impact. According to HubSpot, blogging and call-to-action pages have a greater impact on lead generation than PPC expenditures. Optimizing your landing page and calls-to-action can be done for relatively little expense and will have a greater impact on revenue growth.

2. Target the right channels

Casting a wider net won’t increase revenue growth. Instead, your business will be bringing in less qualified prospects – and your sales department will be wasting valuable time chasing down all these less-than-qualified leads. Worse, “carpet bomb” marketing campaigns may be turning off the very people you most need to attract. Rather than trying to be all things to any and all prospective customers, focus on the most highly qualified decision makers within an organization. Tailor your inbound marketing pitch to meet their specific needs. In the long run, you will generate more revenue by focusing on the highest qualified leads, rather than trying to attract as many leads as possible.

3. Keep landing pages simple and mobile friendly.

In the world of inbound marketing landing pages, less is more. Sure, you know better than to overwhelm prospective customers with garish website colors, flashy fonts, and six different call-to-action slogans that all scream “Buy Now!!!” (Right?), but there’s a good chance your landing page could still benefit from some paring-down. Is it easily scannable? Do you summarize your main selling point in a few key bullet points? Are lengthy forms causing potential customers to abandon your site, or do your forms make it easy for prospectives to sign-up? And – most importantly – is the landing page mobile-friendly? Don’t underestimate the importance of mobile-friendly content. As more sales prospects increasingly engage with websites via smartphones and tablets, sites that look good on mobile platforms are key to successful revenue generation.

4. Know your inbound marketing metrics, especially your conversion rates.

Is your latest content marketing campaign boosting landing page CTR? Or is that spike due to your new call to action? Effective inbound marketers know to keep a close eye on analytics, especially conversion rates. Low conversion rates are the proverbial canary in the coalmine. A sudden drop in conversion rates signals that there is a problem in your conversion funnel. Don’t wait until your quarterly revenue generation report takes a hit – take immediate action to identify and correct this problem.

Summary

Driving revenue growth from inbound marketing is both an art and a science. By keeping a close eye on your company’s marketing metrics and focusing on tactics with the greatest ROI, your small business will effectively leverage the power of inbound marketing for maximum revenue generation.