If you have invested in adopting an inbound marketing methodology in your company, the logical thing is that you expect results: improve brand awareness, create an audience, convert leads, go through the different stages of the conversion funnel and, finally, close the sale.
But what happens when our inbound strategies don’t work and we don’t get the results we expected? Well, it happens that we have to stop to analyze what is happening and see if we can detect the cause of the failure. To help you, I want to share with you the 20 questions to ask yourself if your inbound marketing isn’t working.
The 20 Questions To Know Why Your Inbound Marketing Is Not Working
What KPIs are you monitoring?
The KPI (for short) is the fundamental metric that tells us whether our strategy is delivering the results we seek. It is essential to define them correctly at the beginning of each project to stay on track.
What conclusions can you draw from your metrics?
Today marketers have endless data at our disposal. While it is important to focus on the key metrics and not get lost in unimportant details, it is also important to have an overview and analyze how different indicators are related to each other to get clues about what may be failing in our inbound marketing.
How do these conclusions affect your plans?
The best analysis is useless if we do not put it into practice. For this reason, the marketing team must know how to convey their conclusions to the rest of the company and make them translate into concrete actions.
Are you measuring the right things?
Key performance indicators are not universal, but each company must define its own based on its situation and its specific objectives. Perhaps the problem is not that your inbound marketing is failing, but that the metric you are measuring is not the most appropriate to reflect the results.
Do you know what you want to achieve with your marketing?
This question has more crumbs than it seems. Although we may think that there is always a common goal (“sell more”), the way to achieve it can vary greatly from company to company. If you haven’t done it yet, it’s time to rethink what your brand’s customer journey is like and what are key points you can influence.
Have your goals changed since you started doing inbound marketing?
This question is very important since we live in a highly changing environment and your company must be able to adapt to it. If your way of marketing hasn’t changed in recent years, maybe it’s time to consider evolution.
When was the last time you set your business goals?
If each year you just copy the goals from the previous year’s plan, it is a very clear sign that you need to reflect on this topic.
How is the communication between your marketing and sales teams working?
To guide clients from brand discovery to final conversion, the marketing and sales teams must be perfectly coordinated. Make sure they use the same criteria and tools and that they meet frequently to share their work.
Do you think that the inbound marketing solution you are using is suitable for the results you are looking for?
Sometimes we continue to use the same tools out of inertia, but the scale of our project or our objectives have changed.
What recommendations would you make to change the results?
Imagine that you are telling your marketing plan to a person who does not know your company. This will help you assess the situation “from the outside” and see what ideas you can come up with for improvement.
Have you done A / B tests?
The tests A / B Allow us to test hypotheses and small-scale solutions before deploying them throughout our marketing. Use them to test different ideas and see which ones look the most promising for improving your inbound marketing results.
Do you need to check your messages?
A company’s discourse must evolve to remain relevant. If you haven’t reviewed your copy in a while, it may be a good idea to give it a thorough review.
Do your potential customers identify with your content?
In the end, the most important thing to get results is to deliver the right message to the right people. Your content must show that you know your target audience perfectly and that you know what they need at all times.
When was the last time you investigated your buyer persona?
Defining a buyer persona is one of the first steps to follow in a marketing plan, but it is not set in stone. Businesses and their customers evolve, so if your inbound marketing isn’t paying off, you may need to rethink who you’re targeting.
Are your creative processes working?
The creatives of your inbound marketing must be in line with your brand, faithfully reflect the message you want to convey, and be ready on time. If any of these requirements are not met, we must review our creative process.
How often do you update your content calendar?
The content plan of a brand must be able to adapt to the current situation and vary according to the results of the company. Therefore, it is highly recommended that you review it periodically.
What campaigns and content are planned for the rest of the quarter and the year?
Give them a good review and think about whether you want to change anything after answering these questions.
Are your strategy and content aligned with the customer journey?
The journeys buyer are becoming more complex and multichannel time, so you should periodically review your strategy to make sure it is well suited to the actual behavior of your customers.
Are there any tactics that you haven’t used yet that you should try?
The world of digital marketing is constantly changing, so it is necessary to keep up to date with the latest trends and encourage yourself to try new solutions.
What is your competition doing and how is it performing?
If other companies in your industry are doing inbound marketing, analyze their campaigns and results for inspiration.
