I’ve threatened to write this post for a long time. Too long. There are two reasons it’s taken a while for it to happen:

  1. I don’t like writing content
  2. I really don’t like writing content

Ok. The second reason is that it’s uncomfortable to talk about vulnerabilities. For years we’ve helped clients with their Inbound Marketing and have produced amazing success stories. When it came to our own Inbound efforts, we simply fell short.

I fell short.

But why?

Business was good so we didn’t have a pressing need to generate leads for ourselves. Looking back now, that’s just the excuse I used as the co-owner of MINDSCAPE to avoid writing content. I felt that if we’re doing it for ourselves, a lot of that would be falling on me. And while there are a lot of things I am passionate about, writing ain’t one of ’em.

For example, here are a couple struggles I have when I write my own content:

  1. I over edit. As I sit here at 4:43p, I’m sure it’ll be after 7p before I hit publish, if not later. And I am sure I edited this section 3 4 5 6 7 times alone.
  2. I’m overly critical of myself. I spend time analyzing whether or not a statement can be taken the wrong way or challenged. Of COURSE it can be challenged! My favorite is when the SEO community challenges Google’s own statements about their algorithm. Not only can things be challenged, they SHOULD BE! All that analyzing for nothing…

I’m sure I could come up with more, but I don’t want this to be all about me.

Let’s talk about me a little more.

Writing isn’t my thing. But results are. Client relationships, strategy, design, those are all my things. Those are what I am passionate about. Those are the areas I provide the most value to our clients.

And I’m sure you’re just like me. You have areas of your business you really enjoy and other areas you don’t. Even if you enjoy writing, more often than not there are other responsibilities required that make it a challenge to remain dedicated to it in a way that Inbound Marketing requires.

What changed?

Business isn’t just good, it’s getting better by the week. And unless I’m terrible at foreshadowing with my writin’, you know this hasn’t happened on accident.

We decided to make it official with Hubspot and went all in. We moved our site off of our own proprietary platform webTRAIN (that we’ve developed since 2007) and onto Hubspot. We knew to get more out of the platform for our clients, we needed to listen to Jeff. He said, “We have to eat our own dog food.”

With food and bowl in hand, we simply treated ourselves like a client and executed a strategy. And wouldn’t you know it, that strategy meant:

  • The responsibility of writing all the content didn’t fall on me!
  • I could still focus on the things I am passionate about!

No more excuses!

Our results.

With all the right pieces in place and a smile on my face, our Inbound Marketing efforts have momentum and are producing great results for us. Just like we knew they would, but were too buried in excuses to allow us to take the leap.

As you can see in the screenshot below from our Hubspot dashboard, from October 1 to December 31, our visits are up 40% and contacts are up 60% compared to the previous quarter.

Numbers are relative. For our type of business, 48 contacts is a big deal. We still have a ways to go to hit our 50 contacts per month, but we’ve taken the most important step. We started.

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It’s about time.

If you’re on the fence about Inbound Marketing, it’s time to take the leap. Don’t let excuses stop you from producing results. Read pbrand’s post on Calculating the True Cost of Inaction here.

Believe it or not, while we’ve helped clients with Inbound Marketing for years, the overall movement of Inbound is in its infancy and there’s a lot to take advantage of to gain market share and leave your competitors in the dust.

To prove it, ask 5 colleagues what an Inbound Marketing Agency is. Unless you’re in the industry, maybe 1 of those 5 will know. Follow it up asking them what a Web Design Company is, Web Development Company, SEO Company? No matter the industry, 5 of 5 will have a good idea.

You’ve reached the end.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this post as much as much as I’ve enjoyed writing it. You have no idea how strange it feels to type that.

I have so many ways I want to end this! Here are a couple options:

  1. Let’s talk. We’d love to learn about your business and give you ideas on how your company can benefit from Inbound.
  2. Let’s not talk. If you’re still in consideration, do some of your own calculating using the free Value of Inbound Marketing template.