Is your inbound marketing program falling short of expectations? You’re not alone.
In HubSpot’s Eighth Annual Report on the Future of Inbound Marketing and Sales, 65 percent of companies cited lead generation as their top marketing challenge, As many as 80 percent of marketers reported that their lead generation efforts were only slightly or somewhat effective.
In fact, nearly a quarter of marketers didn’t know whether they’re efforts were even paying off — yikes!
Converting leads into sales has become increasingly difficult in the last five years; one reason may be that today’s digital landscape is fragmented and chaotic: Given their diversified channel preferences and ability to engage in instant communication, consumers are rapidly changing their behaviors and brand expectations.
Consumers report, for example, that display advertising is more intrusive today than it was two years ago: Four out of five people have abandoned a web page because of a pop-up or auto-playing video ad. Marketers rank outbound marketing tactics, like paid advertising, as the top waste of time and resources.
It’s no surprise, then, that many small businesses feel more pressure than ever before to continually crank out a steady stream of leads via inbound marketing. After all, if fewer leads are converting, then the best way to hit sales goals is to increase the pool of leads, right?
Not necessarily!
Just ask the marketing team at Medjet Assist, the air medical transport and travel protection company, which recently oversaw a significant sales boost, using a re-tooled inbound marketing strategy that brings fewer leads into its pipeline.
“Our inbound marketing has always generated a steady stream of leads, but not all of the leads were qualified,” Bill Miller, chief sales and marketing officer at Medjet Assist, told me. “Our sales team ended up investing valuable resources on leads who were never going to convert.
“By taking the time to understand our target audience and testing different call-to-action messages, we honed our lead generation to focus on those most likely to convert. The result: more qualified leads and more sales. Less is more!”
In this…