It’s common for people to think that inbound marketing alone will generate an immediate spike in leads. Although this can happen if a campaign goes “viral”, albeit rare, inbound marketing is a long-term play. As with everything in life, balance is the key.
Inbound marketing is opposite of advertising. Effective advertising, which is often much more expensive than inbound, can generate that spike in results, however, once you turn it off, the results go away. Inbound marketing is more like investing in the stock market, where results compound with more content you release and followers, subscribers, and database contacts you build. Also like investing in stocks, your investment will continue to produce returns even if you stop contributing since past content will continue to get found in search engines, generating traffic and leads for years to come.
It may be a few months before you can start seeing a true ROI from inbound marketing, but the long-term benefits will power your future sales efforts and can significantly increase the value of your business. A recent study from HubSpot reports that 83% of respondents saw a measurable increase in lead generation within 7 months, and 65% reported seeing a measurable increase after only 4 months — And remember, performance gets significantly better over time.