Common Marketing problems and how to solve them with Inbound Marketing

At some point, every Marketer will encounter problems in their strategy or funnel that they don't know how to solve. You could be facing a multitude of issues: from leads not converting to trouble measuring your results. You're not alone! It's completely normal to run into Marketing problems of these sorts, and luckily, mbudo is here to tell you how to find a solution with Inbound Marketing!

In this post, discover the 10 most common Marketing issues and how to solve them with Inbound Marketing tactics. 

1. You don't have a clear Marketing strategy

The biggest problem in Marketing - and the hardest to define - is not having a clear Marketing strategy or vision. Without a well-defined strategy, your Marketing efforts will be off from the very start of your project. In order for things to go smoothly and achieve desired results, there are many key points that you must define right from the beginning:

• Create an overall Inbound Marketing strategy, or a roadmap of your plan/project
• Define the KPIs of your strategy
• Detail specific Marketing actions you will take
• Assign responsible players for each action
• Set a timeline and stick to it
• Have consistent meetings and communication
• Report back on your progress and continue with your strategy or make adjustments

2. Your data is disorganized, on different platforms, or simply lost

Abig barrier to Marketing success is your data; mainly, how you are storing, organizing, and updating the data you have on your prospects and customers. Many businesses use a number of tools and platforms to store data, which can lead to lost information, data in different formats, etc.

In order to resolve issues like these, choosing the right CRM and Marketing platform is essential. If possible, use an Inbound Marketing tool like HubSpot where you can have your CRM, Marketing, and Sales/Service activities all in one place. This helps keep contact information organized and eliminate friction. Discover how to migrate your CRM to HubSpot. 

You'll also want to develop a process for database maintenance and updating, as well as perform an annual database audit to clean out old or unwanted contacts.

3. You're attracting the wrong prospects

Are you finding that your prospects aren't the right fit for your products or services? Or you're attracting a large number of low-quality leads? This is one of the most common Marketing problems that exists and it has to do with your target audience. In Inbound Marketing, the solution to this problem is to create Buyer Personas. 

A buyer persona is a semi-fictional representation of your ideal customer based on market research and real data about your existing customers. - HubSpot

Defining your Buyer Personas (BPs) helps you understand the problems and needs of both current and potential customers. You'll find it easier to position your product or service as a solution, and create content that appeals only to the right prospects. 

To develop your BPs, you'll need to look at several things: real customer data from your database, information provided by the sales and customer service teams, conducts interviews with interested customers, use forms to gather information, and rely on market research. You can also develop negative Buyer Personas, which are people you don't want to target. 

4. Your website has a high bounce rate

Your website tends to be your most important Marketing and Sales tool. If your website has a high bounce rate, meaning the percentage of people who land on a page on your website then leave without clicking on anything, you need to fix this quickly so as to not lose out on potential customers. 

A website that's not working how it's supposed to could be for many reasons, which we detail below:

• Branding and design: The first thing that web visitors notice is the branding and design of your site. It should be clean and simple, with a flow and organization to the pages, and as little text as possible. You may need to think about doing a website re-design, and you can use the concept of Growth-Driven Design to carry it out. 
• User experience: Consider aspects such as the page loading time, device responsiveness, navigation and menus, etc. All of these things affect the user experience and can contribute to visitors turning away after just a few seconds. You may need to include your IT expert to investigate the more technical aspects involving domains and servers, for example.
• Content: Take into account all of the assets you're linking to including landing pages, blog posts, forms, videos, contact pages, and more. Each piece of content should serve a unique purpose and be clearly written, educational, and valuable to prospects. If your content is not convincing or relevant, visitors will bounce. 

5. You're failing to convert online visitors

Lead generation and conversion is the way that you will gain potential customers. If you're failing to convert online visitors, this could be a big problem for your company's bottom line. 

Landing pages and forms are crucial in capturing the personal information of prospects. But it's not enough to have these elements; the landing pages need to be segmented for your Buyer Personas and the forms must be optimized according to the amount information you're asking for and the offer you're providing in exchange. You should consider the different content formats you're using and whether they are of interest and value to a prospect.  

Also, you need to incorporate email nurturinginto your process. This means, that once a contact leaves their personal data, they are entered into a lead nurturing cycle that will send them a series of emails with relevant content. Email nurturing helps lead prospects closer to the sale. 

6. Your prospects can't find you in search results

Online search will account for a large portion of your website visitors and end customers. This means it is very important to have a Content Strategy. The Inbound experts at HubSpot have developed the concept of Pillar Pages and Topic Clusters to organize content and make it easier for search engines to position your pages. A pillar page is a core topic that you want to rank highly, with clusters of related topics linking back to the pillar. 

Additionally, you can employ the techniques of Search EngineOptimization and Paid Media to help bolster the positioning of your content. SEO tactics include the use of organic keywords, an optimized title and meta description, alt text in images, correction of broken links, etc. Paid Search and Social can be used in conjunction with organic to increase brand awareness and reach a broader audience.

7. You're having trouble qualifying leads

If you have a high number of leads or a small Sales team, you need to know which leads to prioritize in order to respond quickly and efficiently to the most important ones. Not responding fast enough or wasting time on unqualified leads is one of the most common Marketing issues. There are many solutions that Inbound Marketing offers. 

First of all, you need to develop Lifecycle Stages to mark each stage of the lead nurturing funnel. For example, a typical categorization of lifecycle stages is: visitors, leads, Marketing Qualified Leads, Sales Qualified Leads, opportunities, and customers. You should know what actions classify each stage; for example, a lead has filled out a generic form, but a Sales Qualified Lead has filled out a form requesting a meeting with a sales agent. 

Lead Scoring can also be set up to assign "points" to leads based on their characteristics and actions. With platforms like HubSpot, you'll take advantage of machine learning, AI technologies, and predictive lead scoring. 

8. Your internal teams aren't working together

With different teams having different responsibilities, it's easy to see how tasks could slip through the cracks and the players involved not be on the same page. 

For Marketing, the most common misalignment is between the Marketing and Sales departments. In fact, in order for Marketing to succeed, you need the support and collaboration of the Sales team. This is where Marketing and Sales Alignment comes into play. 

To improve conversion of Marketing leads and improve ROI, there are many ways you can align your internal teams: 

• Schedule recurring meetings between the departments. 
• Develop common KPIs and clear actions to achieve them.
• Create an SLA for the responsibilities and tasks of all players involved.

9. You don't know if your Marketing efforts are paying off

Oftentimes Marketers have trouble rationalizing their actions and proving that they're having a positive effect on the business. Although many professionals view Marketing as solely a creative industry, it is actually very analytical too. This means that you need to get metrics involved to analyze your data, measure results, and report on ROI. 

The solution is the use of analytics tools and an expert Marketing platform. As already mentioned, HubSpot is the #1 Inbound Marketing platform and features reporting across all pages, channels, and contacts. With the social media integration, you can also take advantage of metrics provided by Google Ads, Facebook, LinkedIn, and more. 

10. You don't have enough time, resources, or expertise

There never seem to be enough hours in the day to do everything you have on your agenda or to achieve the goals you've set forth. To maximize your time and resources, the first step is involving Marketing automation in your strategy. The most common forms of automation are workflows, chatbots, and automated emails, but nearly everything you can think of can be automated. For example, automate an internal notification when someone fills out a form, or automate a welcome email send when someone signs up for your newsletter. 

If you're struggling with a lack of expertise, the solution is to outsource your Marketing to an expert Marketing agency like mbudo. Inbound Marketing agencies have knowledge, experience, and expertise across the Marketing spectrum, can help you with all of your Marketing activities from strategy to implementation, and use the latest tools and technologies to grow your business. 

If your business is suffering from any of the Marketing problems listed above, you're not alone. But not to worry! As you can see, Inbound Marketing has the solution to each of them. If you'd like to delve further into where you could be encountering problems in your Marketing funnel or strategy, get in touch with mbudo and we would be happy to help!