How to Tell If It’s Time to Ditch Your Traditional Marketing Strategy

If you purchased a laundry detergent only to discover that it didn't clean your clothes, would you keep using it?

What about toothpaste? You keep brushing, but you never get that clean feeling? Time to switch brands, right?

Simply put, if something isn't working, we often replace it without hesitation. 

While all of this seems logical, for whatever reason, traditional marketers are continuing to settle for outdated techniques that deliver insufficient results.

Whether you're afraid of change, struggling to get the green light from your boss, or simply don't know where to start, you're falling behind. 

This is why we've detailed four signs that it's time to ditch your traditional efforts and wake up and smell the inbound. 

Your content isn't sticking

If you're in the market for a new surround sound system, where do you turn first?

Do you sit in front of your television waiting for a Best Buy commercial? Do you patiently wait by the mailbox for the mail man to deliver a flyer for some limited-time promotion?

It's time we stop pouring our marketing budgets into such costly traditional methods. Not only does content marketing cost 62% less than traditional marketing, but it generates 3 times as many leads.

Rather than blasting out your marketing message to everyone only to reach no one, it's time that you refocus your message to appeal to the important ones. 

Buyer personas provide businesses with a semi-fictional representation of their ideal customer that can be used to tailor marketing messages to ensure resonance.

The thing is, quality buyer personas aren't always easy to piece together. Rather than use this as an excuse to carry on without them, consider partnering with an inbound marketing agency that has extensive experience in building out well-defined personas. 

You're unsure how things are performing

According to Ifbyphone's 2014 State of Marketing Measurement Survey, over a quarter of respondents are required to provide monthly marketing measurement reports to their CEOs and leadership teams. 

With the demand for reporting metrics on almost every aspect of your marketing campaigns on a steady incline, it's important that you have the tools necessary to keep track of it all.

However, the trouble with traditional marketing is that it can be tricky to measure. When your boss wants to know the effectiveness of the billboard your recently invested in, where do you start?

Inbound marketing initiatives are easily trackable, even more so if invest in a marketing automation software like HubSpot. If my boss asks me to report of the ROI of our social media marketing, I have the ability to show him how much traffic and how many leads we're generating through any given channel. I can even tie sales back to specific tweets or posts. 

With a clear understanding of how things are performing and how particular channels are stacking up against one another, businesses can streamline their efforts, improve efficiency, and reduce costs. 

Sales is beginning to forget what a lead is

Most salespeople's salaries are based on commission, so if leads are down, they'll be the first to light a fire under marketing. 

The trouble with traditional marketing is that it's difficult to produce leads through outdated techniques, let alone quality leads. 

In order to attract quality leads, your business needs to have targeted, resourceful content in place to catch their attention.

This is where an optimized website comes into play.

If I had to guess, I'd bet that your website is pretty outdated, am I right?

Inbound marketing encourages businesses to strategicaly use there website to create a conversion path for prospects. Through compelling CTAs, landing pages, offers, and thank you pages, inbound business are able to attract, convert, close, and delight more customers than you could ever imagine. 

A steady stream of high quality leads should be enough to put out that fire. 

You don't know the difference between Twitter and Instagram 

Tweeting, filters, hashtagging. You keep hearing these foreign terms come up in conversations with friends, on TV, and in articles, but you're just not getting it. 

You're thinking to yourself, "How is any of this newfangled crap going to help my business?"

Believe it or not, 72% of consumers rely on this "newfangled crap" you speak of to make their purchasing decisions. So while you're busy resisting the transition, your competitors have their hands full with opportunity. 

Now I've got your attention, huh?

Social media is one of the most powerful marketing tools available to businesses looking to attract new business, convert and close prospects, and delight existing customers.

It allows businesses to join the conversation, build and strengthen relationships with prospects and customers, and generate brand awareness. 

But before you hop on and start tweeting and hashtagging, it's important that you learn the lay of the land. Here's a little something to help you get started.