Inbound leads are the fuel that keeps your business running, so why not target them as your metric for a focused “sprint” of process improvement this month?
We have five ways you can see genuine growth in inbound leads in just 30 days, so let’s get to it!
Double Your Blogging
In inbound marketing, the most powerful tool is your blog. This is the core part of your platform, your #1 opportunity to connect with your prospects, and the writing that will define your brand voice for the majority of people who come to recognize it.
So, your blog is the first place to increase inbound leads.
Here’s how:
If you have a small team or deal with a lot of complex, technical subjects, adding a large quantity of blogs in a short time might sound like a tall order. You can make it go faster by consistently using a clear, straightforward process for planning out each post.
To launch into it, read The 10 Step Process You Need to Write a Kick Ass Blog Post.
And remember: Evergreen content is always easiest and fastest to write. An evergreen post is made up of introductory information or facts useful to most readers who are just starting their research – and that will rarely, if ever, go out of date.
While most sites have some evergreen content, very few exhaust that well of potential ideas.
In this era of declining organic reach, posting frequently on social media is essential. Your posts get the most visibility on services like Twitter, where every post appears on every follower’s timeline – and the least on Facebook, known for its “filter bubble” that pushes brands and creators toward paid traffic.
In either case, more frequent posting means more engagement and, ultimately, more leads.
Volume counts, but you should also feel confident you’re adding value. Implement these tips:
One way to make all this easier is by using a social media management app like Tweetdeck. A good social media suite should allow you to queue as many posts as you need to up to a month in advance with hands-free auto-scheduling that aligns with your audience’s most active hours.
Just as vital, it should allow you to seamlessly shuffle posts between the different social media networks. An app that handles things like word count restrictions and image dimensions makes it easier for you to maximize impact of each social account and stay focused on priority tasks.
Of course, there’s a best time to post on social media too.
Find out about that here: What Are the Best Times to Post on Social Media?
If your blog posts aren’t leading people toward a conversion, they aren’t helping you with your inbound leads. People very rarely make the jump from a blog post straight to contacting your sales team – or even joining your email list – without an explicit call to action.
And in most cases, they’re looking for a fair trade that justifies opening their inbox to you.
So, with today’s long buyer journeys in mind, be sure your blog posts are all connected to your offers. Offers should be clearly sign-posted – often with a big, juicy graphic, but at the very least, with an eye-popping CTA button that makes use of color contrast and crackling copy.
Email is one area where you can’t just push the pedal to the metal and pour on the speed. Every email you send will probably result in at least a handful of unsubscribes, and increasing how much you’re doing overnight might push some of your fence-sitters to unsubscribe.
That said, your goalpost is 30 days – and there’s one great thing you can do in just 14:
Split test.
Headlines, copy, and graphics are all areas where traditional split tests yield helpful insights. When it comes to email, though, two areas stand head and shoulders above the rest: Your subject line and the preview text that will show up in the majority of email clients.
Invest two weeks into optimizing headlines and clarifying your best practices for them. Then, when you’re ready to send a whole new batch of emails, they’re more likely to capture the qualified inbound leads that you really crave.
For our last thought on inbound leads, a fun and easy one: Infographics.
People love infographics – some experts estimate they are most likely to be shared out of any type of content, even video. A well-designed infographic is a fascinating peek behind the curtain that takes complex, possibly familiar data and distills it down to its most exciting elements.
Just remember to follow these strategies for success:
Add all these techniques together and you’ll soon see an improvement. Ideally, you’ll have 5% to 10% growth in your inbound leads in just 30 days.
Keep building on what works and refining what hasn’t caught on: Within a few quarters, you might be doubling those inbound leads.