As an inbound marketing consultant, the most difficult job I have is managing client expectations. To be honest, the concept of inbound marketing always makes sense to people when they hear it. It sounds very logical and they can’t wait to get started. Sometimes, despite my best efforts, they look past the hard work and only see the new leads raining down on them like so many pennies from heaven.
When that happens, I take responsibility because it’s my job to make sure that my clients are well informed and properly prepared. Unfortunately, I don’t have a perfect track record with that. And so I have two goals for this post. First, it’s another attempt at clarifying the process and its benefits. Second, it’s also a cautionary tale about any other consultants who might be trying to sell you on a quick fix.
Developing Content
If you know anything about inbound marketing, then you understand that content is its cornerstone. This is one exception to the marathon vs. sprint metaphor. Content is definitely something that can be fast-tracked. And while you can’t buy your way to the top of organic search results or build a quality social media audience, you can spend money to build quality content more quickly.
However, creating the content and promoting it are two different things. Inbound marketing is a way of life, not a one-time campaign. If you create gobs of content and then release it all at once, the benefits will decay quickly and you’ll never tap all of its value. The idea is to create a content conveyor belt that is always running and always delivering value to people. This is what builds a reputation, attracts links and amasses audiences.
Establishing SEO Credibility
This is where so many businesses get themselves into hot water! There simply are no shortcuts to climbing the organic SEO rankings – anymore. There used to be many techniques that worked and could get websites at the top of the rankings for competitive keywords in just a few weeks. But Google has caught up with those cheaters.
If you or your SEO consultant have been getting results from these shortcuts, then the best case scenario is that they stop working someday and your rankings fall. The worst case is that Google slaps you with a penalty or – worse yet – a one-year stint on the black list.
Building true SEO credibility requires links and social signals (shares, likes, plus-ones, pins). These are all assets that take time to build and grow. They can be rushed to some extent but building a high quality footprint takes time, mostly because it takes time to build an audience.
Speaking of which…
Building an Audience
Yes, you can purchase Twitter followers. Yes, you can purchase Facebook ads for your fan page to build its likes. And sometimes those are effective tactics. But for the most part, a quality, highly engaged audience simply has to be built organically. And unless you are fortunate enough to release a viral video or start an Internet meme, this does not happen quickly. People need to discover you. Word needs to spread.
And even if you do manage to build an audience quickly, it serves as a red flag to many people. One of the first metrics I look at when someone follows me on Twitter is the ratio of their Tweets to followers. If they have 200 Tweets and 10,000 followers, then I know they’ve purchased those followers and have not built their audience organically. There is a high likelihood that they’re a spammer and only care about their numbers.
People want to follow accounts that care about their audience, not the scoreboard.
Compound Interest
Finally, one of the main reasons why inbound marketing can’t be rushed is that its biggest benefits come from the phenomenon of compounding. When you spend time or money on advertising campaigns, the benefit usually ends as soon as you stop spending that time and money. But when you create a blog post or eBook, the benefits live on.
It’s the difference between an expense and an investment. When you invest money, (ideally) it will gain interest over time. But the real magic of investment is compound interest. The benefits grow over time because they build on top of one another. The same is true with content marketing and link building. A link begets another link, which begets another. And a new fan shares your content, which leads to 2 more fans, and so on.
Where advertising is linear, inbound marketing is geometric! But just like investing money, the serious gains are usually made over the long haul. Sure, some people will catch a stock at just the right moment and make a fortune but those are the exceptions. Most successful investing is done carefully over a long period of time.
So if you’re at the starting blocks, my advice is to pace yourself and make sure you’re in it for the long run. Don’t burn yourself out or set false expectations of being able to sprint all the way to the finish line. And if you’re well into the race and still not seeing the benefit, stay at it and keep plugging toward that finish line.
