If you are investing time, money, and resources into inbound marketing, you want to be sure that your inbound marketing efforts are actually working. However, it can take a long period of time to see the organic results you are seeking. The good news is you can look at these five areas of inbound marketing to assess how your efforts are working.
1. SEO Ranking
With 89% of internet users looking for products and services through search engines, SEO is the bread and butter of your inbound marketing campaign.
Rankings are Improving – While you might not be at the top of the results for all your search terms yet if your ranking are steadily improving, it’s a good sign your inbound marketing is on the right track.
Search Terms and Keywords – High ranking keywords are important, but these actually need to be driving traffic to your site. Monitor the traffic that is coming to your site through your top keywords.
Quality links – Inbound links are one of the most valued and important aspects of inbound SEO. Are you still engaged in link-building? What is your link profile doing for your traffic and rankings? Continue to monitor these aspects of your SEO.
2. Visitor Traffic
It’s not hard to see that the more visitors coming to your site, the better your inbound marketing progress. But you need to also see that you’re bringing in the right kind of traffic to drive your business.
New Visitors – Check that your increase in visitors is not just returning customers, but new, unique visitors as well.
Time on Site and Pages per Session – Once you know who’s visiting your site, you want to evaluate how long they are spending there, and how much they look around. This can help you tailor your contact with them.
Bounce Rate – Bounce rate is the percentage of people who land on your site, then leave without clicking on another page.
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3. Email Marketing
Two important inbound strategies are email marking and drip campaigns. Email marketing software should be a part of your marketing approach to monitor key performance indicators.
List Size – you want your subscriber base to continue growing at a regular pace. The more email subscribers, the better, because it can equate to a broader potential customer base. How do you get more subscribers? This is where you will need to put out valuable content offers so visitors give their contact information in exchange for your content.
>> Read 5 Ideas to Make Sure you are Putting Out Valuable Content!
Open Rate – The open rate is how many people are actually looking at emails they receive from you. If you find you are not getting many ‘opens’, try changing your subject line and test if your open rate increases.
Click-Through Rate – Is an indication that people are following a link to your website, increasing the possibility they convert into customers.
4. Social Media
Today’s potential customers expect a social media presence and it is a great way to find new leads. Social media platforms build trust and brand recognition while promoting engagement with your customer base.
Active followers – The more, the better, as each follower represents an opportunity for potential customer engagement.
Post Likes and Post Shares – Tells you how good your content is, how engaged your audience is, and can what people think of your brand.
Comments – Inform you about how customers view your brand and allow you to engage them in conversations.
Reach – Social media allows you to track who your posts reach, even if customers don’t engage with posts.
Click-Through Rate – This indicates how well your posts encourage viewers to click through and visit your site.
5. Visitor Conversions
Of course, the best indicator of successful inbound marketing would be seen in more people visiting your website and converting into actual quality leads.
Percentage Visitors Converting – Look at how many visitors convert into leads, compared to how many visitors you generally have. Having visitors does very little for your business if none convert. Track visitors to conversions (such as form fills); conversions to leads (those ACTUALLY interested in your services); and leads to customers.
The performance indicators of your inbound marketing efforts can be used to set goals and benchmarks for the results you want to achieve with inbound marketing in the future. Coordinating a successful and targeted inbound marketing campaign, while also evaluating and adjusting this strategy can take a lot of work. If you want to see a greater return on investment for your inbound marketing efforts, talk to Leads Ngin today about a professional approach to your inbound marketing.
