An Inbound Marketing Breakthrough: Tim Ferris & The 4-Hour Work Week

How would you like to work a total of 4 hours next week? Crazy, right?

Tim Ferris doesn't think so.

Ferris is the author of The 4-Hour Work Week. The book is based on the concept of getting the most done for your business in the least amount of time, hence the name The 4-Hour Work Week.

While Tim is not an inbound marketing guru, his insight on how to design businesses are essential aspects of the inbound marketing design and implementation. His authorship represents a strategic approach to making the largest impact for your business and life in the least amount of time.

Tim Ferris as the Strategic Inbound Marketer

The author of The 4-Hour Work Week highlights strategy as the core of successful entrepreneurship. Without strategy you can never devise a system that produces a positive return. Ferris uses the acronym “DEAL,” which means Definition, Elimination, Automation, and Liberation.

Now what does “DEAL” have to do with inbound marketing concepts? Essentially, DEAL is the lifeblood of every internet marketing campaign and here’s why.

1. First, we need to define a finite group of reliable variables

• keyword research

• target audience

• conversion standards

2. Second, we need to eliminate superfluous costs and activities

• focusing on the investments with greater return

• focusing on inbound as opposed to outbound marketing

• allocating resources amongst the campaign properly

3. We need to automate tasks to feasibly build and manage inbound marketing campaigns

• autoresponders

• lead nurturing campaigns

• data analytics

4. We need to be liberated from tasks that can either be automated or outsourced so that the campaign runs successfully. It’s irrational to take on every aspect of inbound marketing without having the support needed to get everything done correctly and consistently.

The acronym DEAL lays out the process of becoming what Tim calls the “New Rich.” People who work apart from the mass movement and who are into innovative and revolutionary strategies are exactly what inbound marketing is.

If you’ve been following our blog lately, you may have noticed that we’ve been exploring many topics associated with mass marketing techniques vs. inbound marketing techniques in the digital arena. Over time we’ve assessed that mass marketing is not only ineffective in the current climate but also shortsighted and over-priced for small to medium size businesses. Inbound marketing is literally at the forefront of innovation because very few people and businesses understand how content creation, lead nurturing, engagement, and all other inbound techniques fit together to increase revenues and build sustainable ventures.

The reason The 4-Hour Work Week is so relevant to inbound marketing is because it focuses on creating machines that create results, and maximizing one of the most valuable commodities of all; time.

Using Tim Ferris’ Dreamline to Plan a Successful Inbound Marketing Campaign

Tim Ferris’ Dreamline process takes the idea of detailed planning, investment, and return and makes the idea of machine building like the inbound marketing machine a tangible, actionable concept. Tim lays out the formula for success by creating dreams into a simple formula of: do, be, and have.

So how can we use Tim’s Dreamline to plan a successful inbound marketing campaign? Well, the idea here is insight. The Dreamline allows you to detail everything necessary to create an inbound marketing campaign, how much it should cost you realistically, and the time frame for these results.

These plans usually focus around the same central themes; mathematics, planning, and specific details. Developing a plan using these themes will give you an opportunity to outline your desired end results, the milestones the will allow you to achieve the results, the actions necessary to meet and surpass milestones, and how to measure milestones for completeness. It should include the cost per-month to fund the campaign, as well as the exact steps daily to make all these things happen.

As you can see this is the ultimate form of resource allocation and project management. Details are important to every successful inbound marketing campaign. You should always clearly define projects from inception to completion otherwise you leave your ventures susceptible to variables like the influence of failure.

If you’re building a business with inbound marketing campaigns as your primary marketing vehicle, you should have a plan to ensure these endeavors are fruitful.

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