Why Your Inbound Marketing Doesn't Actually Work

If you’re like me and you’ve been involved in digital marketing for a while, you’ve probably heard people say things like “inbound marketing doesn’t work” or “you can’t get leads just from content.”

While there’s some truth to those statements, they don’t take into account that there’s more than one way to create an effective inbound marketing strategy.

They also tend to be made by people who don’t know what they’re talking about. So let’s explore why those claims are bunk and how we can improve our own inbound efforts so that they actually do work!

Inbound Marketing Does NOT Work

Key Takeaways
1. Understand Common Mistakes: Recognize the frequent errors and misconceptions that hinder effective inbound marketing.
2. Embrace Effective Tactics: Discover strategies for optimizing inbound marketing efforts and ensuring a higher ROI.
3. Prioritize Conversations: Focus on meaningful interactions rather than relying solely on buzzwords in your marketing strategy.
4. Expand Your Circle: Broaden your network and connections to enhance the reach and impact of your inbound marketing.
5. Evaluate Strategy Effectively: Regularly analyze your inbound marketing approach to identify and rectify shortcomings.

Table of Contents

You’re Attracting The Wrong People

It’s a sad fact, but not all people are interested in your products and services. Just because you have an amazing product doesn’t mean that everyone wants it.

The same goes for your services, too you might be offering something that could benefit other businesses, but there are still plenty of people who don’t need what you’re selling.

To avoid this problem from happening to your business, take some time to identify the types of customers you want to attract. Are they already buying from other companies? If so, why wouldn’t they buy from yours as well?

Are they happy with their current solutions or do they seem frustrated by them? What makes you stand out as an alternative option?

Once you’ve answered these questions and come up with answers that make sense based on how customers interact with each other right now (i.e., through word-of-mouth or social media), then it’s time for action!

You’ll need to focus marketing efforts on attracting those exact types of people: potential buyers who care about making purchases only when necessary (but never when there aren’t any good deals available).

Once again: Your goal should always be turning cold leads into warm ones people who know about what kind of value there is behind branding slogans like “Buy One Get One Free!”

That’s why we said earlier in this guide that one-way businesses can improve conversion rates is by focusing more attention towards building relationships rather than just making sales pitches all day long.”

Building a successful inbound marketing strategy requires implementing effective tactics to ensure a high return on investment. Explore our guide on Inbound Marketing Tactics for a High ROI to learn valuable insights and techniques for optimizing your content’s impact.

Your Calls To Action Are Too Vague

Your call-to-action (CTA) is a critical part of your inbound marketing strategy. It’s the button or link you use to encourage a visitor to take the specific action you want them to take.

The purpose of your CTA is simple: get people who are interested in what you have to sell, find it and buy it without wasting their time or money. That’s all there is to it!

But too often, businesses make the mistake of trying too hard with their CTAs or making them vague. They try overcomplicating things by using fancy words and copywriting techniques that don’t work, or they simply forget that they need one at all!

Your Email List Is Out Of Date

Make sure your email list is up-to-date. You can’t expect to send out a campaign that’s relevant if you haven’t maintained a current database of contacts.

To do this, start by updating your subscriber list and removing any emails that are no longer active or have expired. Then, segment it based on various criteria (i.e., location) to help you target the right people with your content in the future.

Don’t let one email address be responsible for multiple contacts it’ll make it difficult to keep track of who’s who and how they interact with different types of messages over time. It also means there will be more opportunities for spam complaints when lists get too large!

Inbound marketing often remains underutilized due to various reasons. Discover the key factors contributing to this issue in our article on Underutilization of Inbound Marketing, and gain a better understanding of how to overcome these challenges.

You Don’t Have Enough Content

The content on your website is the backbone of your inbound marketing. Content is what will attract visitors to your site, keep them there, and ultimately get them to convert. If you don’t have enough content on your website, it’s going to be difficult for you to generate leads and sales.

If you’re looking for a quick win with no budget, then creating more content might seem like an impossible task. But if done correctly and it doesn’t have to be expensive it can be one of the best investments you’ll ever make!

You’re Not Tracking Your Analytics Correctly

Inbound marketing is not a magic bullet. It’s a strategy that requires hard work, dedication, and a willingness to learn from your mistakes. And if you’re not tracking your analytics correctly or at your efforts may be wasted.

If you want to optimize your inbound marketing campaigns, then you need to know how they’re performing.

You can’t know whether something is working or not if you don’t track it! If one day you realize that your lead generation has flatlined and none of the leads are converting into sales…is it because no one wants what you’re selling?

Or is it because the wrong people are seeing the wrong ads? The only way to figure out which is true is by analyzing the data from past campaigns so that next time around (when running another campaign), we can tweak our targeting until we start getting better results.

Users Can’t Find Your Contact Information

It’s important to consider where your users are in the buying process when you’re creating a contact form. If they haven’t even thought about their problem yet, then it’s unlikely they’ll fill out a form asking for more information about your product.

On the other hand, if they’ve already formed an opinion and are actively researching solutions, then it’s quite likely that your contact form will be filled out by them as they move through their decision-making process.

You also need to make sure that your contact info is easy to find on every page of your website so that users can reach out at any point in the buying cycle.

Asking people who have just read an article on how much time they waste standing in line at Starbucks if you could send them more content via email is not going to work well;

However, reaching out with similar messaging after someone has navigated through several pages of blog posts or watched videos on YouTube may be much more successful (assuming there was something relevant mentioned earlier).

Expanding your network and connections is essential for inbound marketing success. Learn how to broaden your reach with our comprehensive guide on Expanding Your Inbound Marketing Circle, which provides practical tips and strategies to grow your influence.

You’re Not Letting Users Access Information Easily Enough

You don’t have to be an expert in UX design to realize that a user experience is key. It’s often said that the best way for users to find what they’re looking for on your website is through search, but this isn’t true if you’re not giving them enough information about what’s available.

If someone wants something specific, are they able to find it quickly? Or will they spend hours trying to search through every possible variation of their request?

Make sure there are clear instructions on how people can access the various parts of your site and get in touch with you should they need help or more information.

Then make sure there is no barrier between those instructions and the actual information being sought no pop-ups or other forms of roadblocks that stop people from getting started right away!

Your Content Isn’t Optimized For Search Engines

Putting keywords into the title, subheadings and body text of your content is a great place to start. If you have a blog post about “How To Get Your Article Published On Forbes,” then make sure that phrase is included in the title of your article.

Similarly, if you have an infographic about “The Top 10 Organic Pest Control Tips For Gardeners” then use those phrases in the alt attribute (alternative text) of an image file that goes with it. This will help search engines know what it’s about without having to view it first!

Another way you can optimize for search engines is by using keywords in meta descriptions, meta keywords, and headlines:

Your Content Isn’t Optimized For Mobile Devices

If you’re not thinking about mobile users, you’re falling behind. A whopping 85% of consumers use their smartphones to search for businesses online, so if your website isn’t optimized for this type of device, it’s time to get on board!

The first step is making sure that your site is responsive and optimized for mobile users.

This means creating a layout that adapts automatically based on what device the user is viewing it from not only does this make it easier for customers to navigate on their phones (or tablets), but it also helps increase conversion rates across all devices.

Next up: make sure your content works well on mobile platforms as well. When people are looking at websites via their phones or tablets they may not have much time before they jump over to another website;

Therefore, each piece of content must have its URL so that when people click away from an article or video they haven’t finished reading (and don’t think about returning).

There will be an easy way back into what they were doing previously without having to search through several pages just trying to figure out where exactly within the site one was last located before jumping ship in search of something new!

Curious about the significance of inbound marketing and why it matters? Explore our in-depth discussion on Why Inbound Marketing Matters and What It Is to gain a clear understanding of the concept and its implications for businesses.

Your System Isn’t Lead-Centric

The problem with your lead generation isn’t that it’s not working. The problem is that you have no idea who the leads are and where they’re coming from.

Lead generation is probably the most important part of your inbound marketing campaign and it should be treated as such.

Lead generation is the first step in the sales funnel and it’s what allows you to build relationships with potential customers and create opportunities for further engagement throughout the buyer journey.

Without it, there are no leads to nurture or feed into your sales process and without those things, there’s no way for you to make money through paid advertising or any other form of marketing!

If a prospect gets one of these unsolicited emails directly from an unknown source (like an overzealous email list), they’re going to delete it without reading any further than the “from” line at best;

If they do open up any message but don’t see anything relevant within moments (like how many times have we seen someone stumble upon our blog post only because they clicked on another link while typing something else in itintonto Google search bar?), then why would anyone stay around long enough?

It’s Not Responsive Enough

Responsive design is important because it’s the only way to ensure that your website will look good on any device.

It’s not just about making your site look good on mobile devices like smartphones and tablets, though. Responsive design also ensures that it will display properly on desktops and laptops, which are still the most popular ways people access the web today.

You Don’t Have A Lead Nurturing Program In Place

The first step to creating a lead nurturing program is choosing the right software. The most common software used for lead nurture marketing is Marketing Automation Software like HubSpot, Marketo, or Eloqua.

Alternatively, you can use an email service provider such as MailChimp or AWeber for the same purpose.

A lead nurturing program involves sending out emails to potential customers that have shown interest in your product by clicking on one of your ads, filling out a form on your website, or signing up for an email newsletter.

For example: If someone downloads a free ebook from your site and enters their name and email address then they become part of your database which will be used throughout this process (also known as “staging”).

Now let’s say that you are using Mailchimp as an email service provider and want people who have downloaded the ebook but haven’t made any purchases yet so far then choose this option within “Automations” where it says “Advanced Actions”, select “Send Email Campaigns.”

Under “Create A Campaign” which will bring up a popup window where you can set up rules based on different criteria such as specific actions taken by customers who subscribe via different channels such as clicks vs options etc.

Your Automated Messages Are Robotic, Predictable, And Repetitive

You may be sending out tons of automated messages, but that doesn’t mean anyone is reading them.

Automated messages should be personal and engaging, not robotic and predictable. They should be short and to the point without being repetitive no matter how many times you’ve sent this email before, it’s never been written specifically for each reader before they opened it.

Finally, they need to be relevant to the reader: If a person has never signed up for your newsletter before (or if they’re not in your database), don’t send them an offer too soon; instead, wait until you can build a relationship first before pouncing on them with offers galore!

On top of all these considerations for automated emails in general there are two additional things we’d like every marketer who sends out an email blast regularly to take into account: timeliness and consistency

It’s Laggy Or Broken

To understand the importance of website speed, you need to first understand the different types of website speed. There are three main types:

Time to First Byte (TTFB) is how long it takes your server to respond after receiving an HTTP request from a browser. This is often measured in milliseconds (ms). A lower value indicates better performance because it means faster responses for users.

Download Speed refers to how quickly your page loads when viewed by a user who has already downloaded all of the required resources from your server and cache.

This metric may not be relevant for sites with large amounts of content or for dynamic websites that need time before they become fully functional on each visit.

The third metric, Page Speed Index (PSI), measures both TTFB and Download Speed together by taking into account multiple factors such as server response time and several HTTP requests needed during rendering time.

It Doesn’t Use Video

Video is an extremely powerful tool for inbound marketing. It’s a great way to engage customers, convey information and share your brand story. Video also lets you share your expertise and be seen as an authority in your industry.

To illustrate this point, let’s look at some stats:

Effective inbound marketing goes beyond buzzwords and focuses on meaningful conversations. Discover more about this approach in our article on Inbound Marketing: Conversations Over Buzzwords, where we delve into the importance of genuine engagement in your marketing strategy.

It’s Not Accessible To Different Types Of Readers

Have you ever read an article on the internet that was so detailed and comprehensive, that it felt like it would take you weeks to finish?
And then there are those articles that are so brief and vague, that they barely make sense.
The problem is that most marketers aren’t paying attention to how people read online.

They write content in one style and expect everyone to understand it regardless of their level of experience or knowledge.

But if your readers don’t know what a “content strategy” is (and even if they do), will they be able to appreciate your brilliant essay on why it’s important? Or will they just get bored and move on?

There Are Errors On Your Site (Broken Links, Dead Pages)

If your website has broken links, dead pages, and other errors, it’s a big turn-off for users. This can be a sign of a lack of attention to detail, care, or respect towards visitors.

The Copy Is Filled With Fluff, Jargon, And Buzzwords Instead Of Valuable Information

Use plain language.
Use simple words and short sentences.
Break up long paragraphs with subheadings, bullets, or images.
Include video, images, and animations to break up text and make it more digestible for the reader. If you’re using a lot of text in your emails or social media posts, post it on your blog first so you have an easier time editing later!

There Is No Value Exchange (Lead Generation Forms)

You’re on the right track with inbound marketing if you have a website, blog, and social media presence.

But if you haven’t set up lead generation forms that capture contact information from visitors so that you can contact them at a later time you might be missing out on valuable leads.

Lead generation forms are an easy way to collect information about potential customers without much work on your part.

They also give people the opportunity to subscribe to your newsletter or download a white paper or e-book directly from the site, which can help increase engagement with your content and make it easier for people to convert into customers down the line.

The best part? You don’t even need to come up with content ideas yourself! Just use one of these pre-written templates:

There Are No Case Studies Or Testimonials From Real Customers

You don’t have case studies or testimonials.
No one knows if your inbound marketing is helping you bring in new customers.
Case studies are more technical, while testimonials are more personal.
Case studies are more objective, while testimonials are more subjective.

You’re Figuring It Out As You Go

Figuring it out as you go is the most frustrating thing about inbound marketing, and yet, it’s impossible to avoid. You need to have a plan before you start an inbound marketing campaign; otherwise, you’ll waste your time and money on countless wrong choices and dead ends.

You need a goal when starting any campaign so that if things don’t work out as planned, at least there will be some benefit to be gained from your experience.

You need a budget before any campaign can begin because if there aren’t any funds set aside for marketing purposes then there won’t be any way for teams of people with different skill sets who all specialize in different areas such as SEO or social media management (to name just two!) etcetera…the list goes on forever!

But maybe even more important than all this is that YOU NEED A TEAM BEFORE YOU START ANYTHING!

Even though I’ve said this over and over again throughout this article thus far…I’m going to say it one more time: YOU NEED A TEAM BEFORE YOU START ANYTHING

You’re Not Patient

The best things in life are worth waiting for. The best things in life are not easy. The best things in life take time and effort and energy to achieve, but the reward is so worth it when you finally get there.

You Don’t Know Where You Stand

Knowing where you stand is important, and it’s a crucial part of any business (or personal) growth plan.

You need to know where you are before you can move forward, set goals for yourself, measure success, and improve your business accordingly. But how can you gather data without having an idea of which metrics to track?

To answer this question, it’s helpful to imagine that the world of SaaS marketing looks like a map with roads connecting various cities:

Customers who have never heard of your product; existing customers who love it and tell their friends; current users who are happy with everything except one minor issue (the one thing they could use help with).

These three groups represent different stages in the customer lifespan funnel and if there’s no way for them to get from point A (where they learned about your product) down through B-E-Z-A then there won’t be any new customers coming through E or Z!

Your Strategy Is To-Do List Focused, Not Customer Focused

Your inbound marketing doesn’t work because you’re focusing on the wrong things. You’re thinking about what you need to do next, not about how that will impact the customer experience.

Focus on the customer, not the tasks: Instead of trying to figure out what your customers want from you and then building something for them (the tasks), focus on understanding exactly what value you offer them and why they should buy from your company.

Then build a marketing strategy around that value proposition and make sure everything in every touch point reflects it to them so that they know it’s true and can feel confident making an informed purchase decision based on this knowledge alone.

Without having to meet with anyone or talk through any features or benefits (which is important because it helps reduce friction when buying).

Your Marketing Is More “Outbound” Than “Inbound”

Outbound marketing is more traditional, and it’s still used by most companies. This type of marketing involves reaching out to people who don’t know you or your product.

It can be done in a variety of ways: advertising on the radio, TV, or online; direct mail; cold calling; email blasts; etc.

Outbound marketing has two big problems: it’s expensive (it costs money to reach out), and it’s difficult to measure how well it works (you never really know if the person you reached was genuine).

Inbound marketing solves these problems by using digital tools like search engine optimization (SEO).

And social media management software that allows you to get found without having to break the bank on advertising dollars or spend time cold-calling prospects who might not be interested anyway.

You Haven’t Crafted A Message That Resonates With Customers

Customers don’t care about your product, they care about their problems. If you want to be successful in your marketing, you need to find out the problems that your customers are facing and then craft a message that is relevant and resonates with them.

The best way to do this is by using customer personas (you can read more about how we use them at Salesforce here).

Once you’ve identified your audience’s common pain points and what they’re looking for from your business, you can create content around it.

Those issues will help them solve their problems and give you an advantage over other companies trying to sell similar products or services.

This will also help define what kind of product or service offerings make sense for your business, helping ensure that every single one of those marketing dollars is spent wisely!

You Try To Be All Things To All People

You think that a company needs to do everything and be everything, when in reality that’s not the case. You need to know your specialty and then focus on it by:

Being clear about what you do
Being clear about who your target audience is
Being clear about what you want to achieve

Conclusion

Inbound marketing isn’t about trying to be everything for everyone. It’s about focusing on the needs of your target audience and creating content that helps them solve their problems.

FAQs

Why is my inbound marketing strategy not delivering results?

Inbound marketing success depends on various factors such as target audience, content quality, and strategy execution. Analyze your approach to identify gaps and areas for improvement.

How can I address the challenges of using inbound marketing in my business?

To overcome challenges in implementing inbound marketing, consider revisiting your strategy, conducting thorough audience research, and optimizing your content for better engagement.

Is inbound marketing still effective in today’s digital landscape?

Yes, inbound marketing can still be effective, but it requires adapting to changing trends, staying relevant, and continuously refining your approach.

What should I do if my inbound marketing efforts aren’t generating leads?

Evaluate your lead generation tactics, optimize your landing pages, and ensure your content speaks directly to your target audience’s pain points and needs.

Are there alternative strategies if inbound marketing isn’t the right fit for my business?

If inbound marketing isn’t yielding results, consider exploring outbound marketing techniques or hybrid strategies that align better with your business goals.

Costantine Edward

Costantine Edward is a digital marketing expert, freelance writer, and entrepreneur who helps people attain financial freedom. I’ve been working in marketing since I was 18 years old and have managed to build a successful career doing what I love.

Why Your Inbound Marketing Doesn’t Actually Work