Marketing, Sales Trends, and Business Growth: Are They Connected?

"If you have more money than brains, you should focus on outbound marketing. If you have more brains than money, you should focus on inbound marketing." - Guy Kawasaki

Ever feel like you’re in a rut? Are you doing the same old marketing pieces, the same old way, the same old meetings, the same old cold calling, the same old chasing after business? Are you having a hard time understanding why you can’t reach the decision makers like you used to? Pay attention to your gut.

If it feels like you’ve lost your luster, your A-game isn't what it used to be, congratulations, you’ve just recognized that to remain relevant, and grow your business, you better learn fast how to offer solutions. It is true, cold calling IS dead!

I came across this great blog from Hubspot. 20 Enlightening Pearls of Wisdom From Marketing Experts. Why is this relevant? Because marketers are recognizing how important it is to be relevant, they know that leveraging content will position their clients to drive leads.

We recently spent time with a new client who, in the process of learning how we can help him, started with the first step. He listened to his gut, and recognized he needed some input. What we loved about the process with this particular client, was how many questions he asked. He would apologize and we kept encouraging him to ask more!

• “I have an eCommerce site. How will inbound marketing help me grow my business and keep my existing customers coming back?”
  • How quick is your site? How fast does it load? How easy is it to navigate? 74% of shoppers will leave a site if it doesn’t load in 5 seconds on their smartphone.
• “Is my customer service department going to be able to handle the calls?”
  • Here are some best practices for ecommerce customer service. Customers do not want to make inquiries for basic questions. They won’t call, they’ll move on.
• “We tried using inbound marketing software in the past. It didn’t work for us.”
  • What we’ve seen is, companies who buy the software, and don’t have an certified inbound marketing specialist and team managing that strategy, will get frustrated and see it as a software glitch.
  • Inbound marketing requires a team of inbound marketing specialists, all focused on the strategy, always tweaking, and managing the end goal, gain qualified leads and nurture them to close.
  • A strong certified inbound marketing specialist recognizes and will work with you to bring together both sales and marketing (Smarketing!) ;)

In the 2013 State of Inbound Marketing Report, Hubspot shares, “Inbound concepts boost website conversions: Inbound marketers double the average site conversion rate of non-inbound marketers, from 6% to 12% total. Marketers see an average website conversion rate of 10% industry-wide.”

Are marketing trends and business growth connected? ABSOLUTELY!