We live in an age of instant gratification. This era of hyper connection has caused the demand for instant results to truly penetrate every corner of our lives. Movies and TV shows begin streaming in seconds. Retailers offer same-day delivery services (delivery by drone, anyone?). Apps eliminate the wait for a cab. Even a romantic relationship can be just a swipe away.
When we want something, we want it now. Period.
However, the increasing availability of the ‘instant’ makes us forget that some things do, in fact, take time, and usually, those are things that are worth the wait.
Results from inbound marketing are such an example.
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Our first few months with a new client are often tricky. They see the practical impact of what we’re doing, the logic behind the content we’re creating and how we’re distributing it, the value in the offers and campaigns we’re building out–they recognize the importance of all of it. But the results aren’t exactly apparent as soon as the plan is launched. Maybe the first month or two will show a small uptick in traffic or conversions, but not the large scale turnaround they were hoping for when they jumped on board the inbound marketing train.
But that slow burn into results is kind of the point. Inbound marketing isn’t a video that was created with the intention of racking up hundreds of thousands of views in a few hours, or a meme meant to generate a thousand social shares. And that’s intentional, because those thousands of shares are only momentarily engaged in that piece of content. They are not quality leads. The metrics might look nice temporarily, but it’s a vanity metric, and is not doing anything long-term for your business.
Inbound marketing relies on long-term, slow-burning campaigns. You need to build a sense of trust and authority with your customer base. It will take more than one or two relevant blog posts to demonstrate your expertise in their area of interest. You don’t just want to send one e-mail, but build a campaign of automated e-mails that continuously nurture your contacts. One or two strong social posts may peak their interest in your site, but you’ll need just a few more than that to keep them engaged, turn them into frequent site visitors and, ultimately, convert them into customers.
These are the steps to building a relationship with your audience, and like it or not, they take time.
You don’t just want to capture their attention; you want to capture them as customers.
You want engaged quality leads; not one time visitors who come and go based on one push. You need to lay a solid foundation of values and relevance for your audience, and rushing that process will make for a messy and ineffective framework.
And like we said, the wait is worth it. 6 months into your campaign, you’ll not only start to see the results you were hoping for, but you’ll also be generating a ton of evergreen, relevant material that can continuously be repurposed for outreach opportunities, elongating the effectiveness of your marketing campaign even further.
Want proof? We recently compiled a case study on one of our clients, HeatTrak Snow Melting Mats, and though traffic hovered around slightly higher numbers for the first few months of the campaign, it had doubled by the fourth month in. Same with contacts–trickled slowly, but the 4th month saw the number multiply by 5. Not to mention a revenue increase of 68% over 4 months across the residential and industrial divisions. Oh, I almost forgot–their products are, as implied by the name, seasonal, and these results all happened in the off-season.
I don’t list these stats to brag about our success–though promoting our wonderful clients is always fulfilling :). I elaborate them to demonstrate that waiting is worth it. It took time for HeatTrak to see results, but those results were what they wanted and more.
Our world is being tailored towards instant gratification, and with so many things just literal seconds away, it’s hard to stop focusing on the end result. But if we take a different approach to goal-setting, and focus on the journey in reaching the outcome, then that outcome will not just be more meaningful –it will last longer.
Your internet service provider? You should want the fast connection and instant results. Your marketing plan? Settle for the slow-burn approach to get long-term quality results that will shape the next stage of your business’s growth.
Author: Ruthie Abraham
I’m the president of The Brand Builders. We bring targeted growth, lead generation, and content marketing to life for industries including manufacturing, consumer goods, and business supplies and services. We are a full service Inbound Marketing Agency focused on serving our clients with measurable results and long-term success. I… View full profile ›
