How the HELL Do You Promote an Offer? 3 Fundamental Steps

At this point, we’ve discussed the different elements necessary to build an inbound marketing campaign (an offer, a call-to-action, a form, a landing page, and a thank you page). I suggest you go back and review that post here to get up to speed.

Today, I’m going to take the mechanics of inbound marketing a step further and share how to make your campaign successful. An effective inbound marketing campaign typically includes an email campaign, lead nurturing, and analytics measurement. Let’s take a closer look at each of these elements below.

1) The Email Campaign

Now that you have a CTA, an offer, a landing page, a form, and a thank you page, you’re ready for your email campaign. Create an engaging email letting your existing contacts know about your new offer. Talk about its value and benefit, but keep it short and concise. The goal of this email is to get people to the landing page, where they’ll have access to more information, so you don’t need to include every single detail here.

You can embed your CTA in the body of the email to direct recipients to the landing page. Make sure your email is mobile-optimized (most people check emails on their phone nowadays) and shareable via social media as well.

2) The Nurturing

Nurturing a new lead is a huge part of the sales process. You want to move your leads down the aforementioned sales funnel, and email campaigns associated with your offer is a great way to accomplish this.

The cool thing about email campaigns is that you can automate them. If you start off sending your contact list an email with an offer, you can follow up with an email three days later, and again two weeks later, and a month later, etc.

The first email you send should contain a top-of-the-funnel offer, like some exciting social media marketing statistics or website design tips.

The second email should move your contact a little further down that funnel; ask them to read some of your blog posts, or include links to a middle-of-the-funnel offer.

Finally, send them an email campaign that includes a bottom-of-the-funnel offer, like a pricing list or contact form to get in touch with you about your services directly.

Don’t be afraid to make a phone call, too! If you have a lead that has consistently opened and clicked every single email, downloaded every offer and read every blog post, it’s probably time to pick up the phone.

3) The Analytics

Measure everything. Which offers are doing well? Which ones are performing poorly? Dig into your website analytics to see how many online visitors are viewing your offers, clicking links, and filling out forms. Is traffic coming from social media, organic searches, direct links, referrals, or somewhere else? Make sure you are collecting data and analytics surrounding every single inbound marketing activity so you know what’s working and what needs improvement.

As we like to say here at Wild Boy, we use analytics to figure out what’s on fire and then sprinkle a little gasoline on it.

Don’t just ooh and ahh over the numbers. Use them to make changes and tweak campaigns moving forward. Evaluate how much time, effort and how many resources went into each inbound marketing campaign and determine if you got a sound return on your investment (ROI). A campaign can be successful but not profitable. Make sure yours are both.

Now We're There!

Everything listed above is but one small piece of a comprehensive inbound marketing strategy. If you’re doing one part really well but falling short elsewhere, your efforts could be all for naught. A great marketing agency could help you keep everything running smoothly and consistently, so don’t be afraid to reach out for help if you need it.

Now that you know what an offer really is, do you have any questions? I would be more than happy to answer them in the comments below.

George Thomas is an inbound marketer at Wild Boy, an interactive integrated marketing agency in Massillon, Ohio. He lives and breathes inbound marketing, specializing in social media strategy and business management. For reasons unknown, he has a cardboard cutout of The Biebs in his office.