You Must Be Able to Measure Performance and Prove ROI

Watch Marcus Sheridan deliver the seventh principle of this playbook.

“Is our inbound marketing content working? I have no idea.”

Too many companies fall into this trap of committing to inbound marketing and creating content, but failing to put the technology in place that they need to show that their hard work is (or potentially isn’t) paying off in traffic, leads, and sales.

Inbound marketing isn’t easy. It is a long-term commitment, and to make it worth the time and effort, especially to skeptical decision-makers, it needs to show return. This is especially true when you want to see the efforts grow with time. 

You see, for many companies, marketing is still listed as an expense on their books. It’s something they invest in heavily, but don’t really see a bottom-line impact from. 

However, with its digital methods, inbound marketing, when done correctly, makes this no longer true. 

Thanks to the internet, 70% of the buying decision is often made before sales even enters the picture. That means 70% of what used to be traditionally handled by sales is now owned by marketing — driven by the content they create and the efforts they make. 

In other words:

Marketing plays an even larger hand in generating revenue than sales does and it can prove it.

Marketing and sales automation platforms, like HubSpot, provide you with a clear, definitive, real-time picture of how your inbound marketing is performing. 

These tools will track and monitor your efforts so you can see direct ties to sales. They also help you report on this to the rest of your team. 

With that data in hand, you can send a monthly email out to all staff to show what content is driving the most measurable results for your company. You can also point out which of your in-house experts helped to produce that content, thus creating champions within your organization.

“This article from Jenny has already generated 30 new leads this week.”

“That video from George we released last month? It’s closed more than $4 million in revenue.”

Do whatever it takes to make everyone aware of these victories. This will not only show the direct numerical impact of your inbound marketing but make your team even more invested in participating. The success of inbound is based on their success. 

Furthermore, tracking and reporting on your performance can only help you improve your efforts. 

When you can see which articles, pages, videos, etc., are doing best or worst, you can refine your strategy to maximize the most effective elements. 

You can know what deserves more investment and perhaps what should be sunset. On the other hand, if you don’t track your performance, you may be wasting time and effort on things that aren’t delivering and never know it.

Tools like HubSpot can help avoid this. 

Let’s put this into action

• Take our audience-favorite course, Fundamentals of ROI Reporting in HubSpot. In it, you’ll discover exactly how to set your HubSpot portal to track the return on investment of your digital marketing efforts, specifically as it relates to revenue. And you’ll learn how to do it all in under an hour.
  
  
• Then, learn how to create your own content ROI wins newsletter. Content ROI newsletters not only bring visibility to the content you’re creating that’s the most effective for closing deals, but it also keeps everyone at your company excited (and aware of) the ROI your content is generating.
  
  
• Copy our free content ROI newsletter template to start sharing your content wins with the rest of your company.
  
  

So, what’s stopping you?

As you consider this question, reflecting on the seven principles I just shared, we’re sure that a few barriers to success might come to mind. 

Buy-in might be a particularly tricky issue at your organization, or maybe you’re nervous about taking on the overhead risk of hiring a full-time employee as your new content manager.

Whatever the case may be, here’s what we know to be true – your journey toward creating your own culture of inbound at your company will not be easy. It will, however, be worth it.

Listen to your ideal customers. Obsess over their questions. Teach your team. 

Become laser-focused on the goal of establishing your company as the No. 1 teacher in your space. When you do those things, the sky's the limit in terms of your growth potential. 

Yes, there will be roadblocks and seemingly steep learning curves in your path. But you will overcome them with your persistence and dedication. And this playbook is your first step toward writing the first chapter in your own inbound marketing success story.

Avoid the most common mistakes and be confident that your team is executing They Ask, You Answer at the highest level. Schedule a free session with an IMPACT advisor to develop the plan that’s right for you.