How to Assimilate Inbound Into Your Workflow
Implementing an inbound marketing model into an outbound (traditional) marketing workflow is no easy flip of a switch.
At opposite ends of the marketing strategy spectrum, inbound and outbound marketing take two different approaches to increasing leads, conversions, and getting consumers interested in what you have to offer.
But what if outbound marketing agencies didn’t have to implement inbound marketing at all?
What if it was the other way around?
Staying Inbound
Like we discussed earlier, inbound marketing is more like a personality and less like an emotion. Inbound marketing has staying power, and ultimately drives and directs the decision-making and tactical approaches to an overlying marketing strategy.
In essence, inbound marketing is the marketing strategy.
Agencies don’t adopt inbound. Inbound adopts the agency.
In other words, maintaining an inbound marketing-led workflow means that inbound marketing doesn’t adapt to the agency’s current workflow–rather, the agency’s workflow adapts to inbound marketing.
Consider an advertising agency–we’ll call them Agency A–that works mostly in the healthcare space. They’re looking to adopt an inbound-centric model and flip the script on their current work approach and workflow.
While healthcare is a massive industry with plenty of opportunity, Agency A is more niche. It is selective with its clientele, and typically will only work with small-to-medium sized healthcare providers.
So what are some things Agency A should consider before weaving inbound into its workflow?
Organization
While Agency A might not have to worry about the complex organizational chart of a 200 employee operation or the bureaucracy of a multinational enterprise, there’s still organizational structure to consider.
For inbound marketing to be successful, sales and marketing workflows need to be on the same page, both within the agency and client-side. Sometimes that means moving parts–and people–to assemble the best personnel to carry out an optimized inbound strategy.
Content
As the reigning king of the digital marketing world, producing and promoting quality, value-oozing content is as important as any part of a marketing strategy.
An inbound approach demands good content to be produced frequently and consistently–without it, driving traffic to websites, landing pages, and CTAs is a much more treacherous road to travel. Make sure relevant keywords are included in your content titles and are sprinkled throughout your body copy.
Solid, well-written content does not need to sacrifice good SEO and high search volume. Inbound commands great, unique, value-driven content. Are you ready to produce it?
Optimization
Inbound marketing is much more than organization and content production. Following up with projects, client relationships, and lead-generating campaigns is not an optional step–inbound thinkers would always rather follow up “too much” than not follow up enough.
But optimization stretches far beyond client relationships.
A right digital marketing and SEO approach will help drive more users to become leads which will drive more users to become converts, etc. At the end of the day, part of a strong inbound methodology includes continuous optimization of digital work and trust-based relationships.
With these things in mind, integrating an inbound marketing approach into your workflow should be more seamless than strenuous.
Ready to get the inbound ball rolling with an inbound approach? We have the perfect minds for the job! Get in touch with us below to learn more about how your company can improve its workflow with inbound.