Inbound Marketing System – Keep Focused and In Control

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As this is the ninth and final post in the series on Inbound Marketing, it is fitting that it is about creating an inbound marketing system to ensure you remain consistent in your activities. As the final post of the year, it is also good to remind ourselves that success comes in taking little steps rather than setting lofty resolutions that get forgotten by the middle of January.

Create an Inbound Marketing System

Now that you have your inbound marketing plan and have established your WordPress website and social media outposts, it’s time to start generating and nurturing leads and turn these prospects into customers.

But how do you incorporate inbound marketing into your daily schedule while still working in your business?

A marketing system enables you to consistently execute your activities and see the results. Without a system, you will find yourself in one of two places:

Doing nothing because you don’t know where to start;
Overwhelmed and ineffective because there’s too much to do while still servicing clients.

Create a System that Works for You

As with setting any goals, if you write them down you will be more likely to achieve them. Put your system in writing and make sure that it will work for you. Start simple and expand if you find that you can do more:

Start with an activity plan for when you will do certain inbound marketing activities – write content, scan RSS feeds to share, post on your Facebook Page, etc.
Book time in your calendar to make it part of your daily schedule, and stick with it. Your goal is to stay active and visible in order to continue to attract those that may want to form a trusted relationship.
Be realistic about how much you can invest in time and money on marketing your business. If you only have 30 minutes each morning or at lunchtime, schedule it to do some inbound marketing activity that will benefit your business.

A Sample Inbound Marketing System

My system is probably simpler than you might have expected but like you, I have to balance my time between marketing my business and helping my clients. It works for my business and that’s what counts.

First a couple of recommended tools.

I use Evernote as a way of organizing my inbound marketing activities. I use it to organize content from wherever I am because it works across all of my devices – smartphone, tablet, laptop and desktop – and it syncs to a hosted service so I always have my latest “to do” list or a place to write reminders available to me.

I’ve grown very fond of Buffer App. As I read my RSS feeds, Buffer makes it very easy for me to schedule posts to my Facebook Page and Twitter. I can pick and choose which posts make more sense on either platform and set my schedules so that I can space them out. I can’t wait until they support Google+!

The Schedule

Monthly

Schedule your Inbound Marketing Activities

Spend a couple hours at the beginning (or end) of each month planning your content for the (next) month. Schedule those hours in your calendar so you won’t forget! I do my planning in Evernote so if I have a few minutes to spare, I can jot down ideas for the coming month.

Determine topics for blog. You might want to check out Mack Collier’s Topic Bucket Trick to help you post more.
Write monthly eNewsletter to send to email list.
Define topics other content uses such as free download to grow your email list.
Review my rankings in Google for my top keywords – determine changes if necessary
Schedule the month in advance for times to work on your business!

Weekly

Schedule your time each week to work on your content. Writing consistently is very difficult for many people so don’t get discouraged! The content plan is the most important thing as that helps you decide what to write. Again, I keep a list of potential topics for blog posts in Evernote.

Write content for my blog (well almost weekly!) and optimize.
Review my social media profiles and update as necessary.
Assess my Google analytics to determine keywords that would benefit from more content (and save in Evernote for my monthly planning exercise).

Daily

Figure out a time when you can take care of the daily tasks. I do mine in the morning over coffee and then at lunch. These are times when I take a little break from client work to see what’s happening and stay visible. Does it always work out? Of course not, but most days it does.

Respond to friend, follow and connect requests.
Scan Google RSS Reader for interesting content; Add them to Buffer App to schedule tweets and Facebook Page posts.
Comment on a blog post or two. A comment strategy is a good strategy for building visibility and inbound links.
Post directly to my Facebook Page. Direct posts are automatically sent to Twitter, which then sends the post to LinkedIn. This is not necessarily the best option for all small businesses, but given my resources, I need to be more efficient.

Having a plan and a schedule will make you more likely to succeed. If you book it in your calendar and treat those appointments as you would those with clients, then you will have a far better chance of staying on course.

What is your inbound marketing system for the upcoming year?