.
Many people new to inbound marketing wonder how long it takes for the methodology to start working -- how long after you start blogging, using social media and optimizing your site for search engines will you find your inbound marketing pot of gold?
Recently, Ken Karnack asked exactly that question on the inbound marketing forum.
In the conversation that followed, Dan Ronken shared the results of his first month setting up a website and promoting his business using the inbound marketing methodology. Over the past month, he has set up his website, pullnotpush.com, and generated quite a bit of traffic.
Blogging regularly, Dan has created a fair amount of content thus far and seen a few leads come in already as a result. In fact, one of his more popular posts attracted 650 unique views. His blog already has over 50 subscribers. Over the past month, he has generated 6,295 page views and 988 site visitors.
Dan credited much of this success to the education he has received from Inbound Marketing University and following the inbound marketing methodology.
While everyone will experience different results, following the methodology, continuously creating content and optimizing your website will yield a higher number of organic leads. Below are four lessons to learn from Dan's first month for people thinking about testing the water in inbound marketing:
1. Jump Right In
Don't wait to have the perfect strategy before you get started with inbound marketing. While it is important to have business goals laid out before you take actions, don't get hung up on all the particulars of how you will reach them. It is best to jump right in and refine your internet marketing strategy as you go. The sooner you start experimenting with it and learning what works, the sooner you will see results.
2. Find a Balance
Don't "get lost" while trying to get found by trying to do everything all at once. Dan says that he spent a disproportionate amount of time "creating the perfect keywords for every single page" and neglecting the other "get found" opportunities that are a part of inbound marketing.
While it is necessary to do some preliminary research, don't spend too much time optimizing for keywords. Go after the low-hanging fruit first to optimize for the words that have the highest traffic.
3. Track Your Results
Tracking the number of visitors to your site, inbound links, and company mentions are great ways to see how effective you inbound marketing efforts are and where you can improve. The grader tools are effective ways of measuring such factors and pointing out what is lacking.
4. Don't Stop
You need to continue to optimize for keywords and producing original content. The internet is constantly changing and being stagnant after you have optimized once and written a few articles will result in a much longer amount of time to get noticed. Realize that this process takes time, but that it will end up paying off in the form of good relationships with potential customers and more organic leads to your website.
SEO for Lead Generation Kit