You’ve devoted time and energy to your Inbound Marketing campaign, but you’re seeing less-than-stellar results. Maybe your conversion rate has fallen or your website traffic has reached new lows. Even worse, perhaps you’re seeing little sales growth.
Finding the root of the problem can help you recover from this all-too-common setback. Following are four reasons your Inbound Marketing strategy just isn’t working.
1 | Poor Site Design & Optimization
The Problem: People visit your website from outside sources, such as links on social media and other blogs, but very little from the search engines. You might also notice that visitors land on pages within your site, but they often stay for just a few seconds. High bounce rates and low organic traffic could indicate a problem with your website’s design or optimization.
The Fix: A professional design can help boost performance. You want your website to look clean, modern, and professional. However, you also have to optimize each page for search traffic. Make sure Google can find your content by using keywords strategically, adding metadata, and including titles and alternate text on your images.
2 | Lack of Incentives
The Problem: Everyone likes to get something for free, but you’re not using that strategy to capture contact information and earn the goodwill of your target audience. Most people won’t part with their email addresses or consent to future communications unless you offer something in exchange.
The Fix: Neil Patel of Marketingland recommends creating detailed, in-depth guides for your target audience and giving them away for free. Not only is this a great way to build your contacts database, but it also helps establish your authority in your industry and attract organic search traffic.
3 | Unclear Goals
The Problem: You sometimes see spikes in traffic or experience high levels of sales, but those heady victories eventually taper off, leaving you in the same position as before. You’re not seeing steady growth as a result of your Inbound Marketing strategy.
The Fix: Sporadic, uneven, or backsliding metrics often indicate a lack of direction. You haven’t devised or articulated clear goals for your team, so everyone is working toward a different end game. The only way to get back on track is to establish common goals for your Inbound Marketing strategy. Get everyone on the same page.
4 | Inconsistent Messages
The Problem: Consumers are hardwired to recognize inconsistencies. When they sense conflicts in a business’s message, they start to wonder why those conflicts exist. This breeds mistrust. If you’ve noticed that more people are opting out of communication with your business, or if you’ve had trouble with customer retention, inconsistent messages could be the problem.
The Fix: It’s back to the drawing board. Start analyzing your email campaign, website copy, social media communications, and any other content you share with your audience. Do you see any inconsistencies that could negatively impact customer loyalty? If so, start bringing all of your media into alignment.
Inbound Marketing has taken the business world by storm for good reason: It works. However, if you’re making the above mistakes, you might see inconsistent or disappointing results. Getting back on track may be easier than you think. Let us put our experience to work for you by requesting a consultation so we can help you find ways to salvage your Inbound Marketing strategy.
