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The notion that establishing a web presence will turn your website into an engine where prospect after prospect will find you on search or social, read your material, and instantly fill out a form on your website is not the reality. It’s sort of how it works, but the majority of business never takes this route. Prospect Behavior Let’s discuss buying behavior, first. We’ve written about micro-moments and customer journeys before and I’d encourage you to read the post. The fact is that people don’t find you in search results, visit your home page, and buy your services with that simplicity. In fact, the data provided by Cisco shows that the average business has over 800 distinct journeys (please read the ebook we wrote on this). If you’re a service company (like our agency), here’s how a purchase journey often works: Word of Mouth – a client often mentions us to their colleague when they’re looking for assistance that we can provide.

Search – the prospect searches online for your business and finds your website and social. Website Fax Lists – that prospect visits our website.  resources that may help them make the decision, the team they’ll be working with, and what credentials or customers that we’ve already done work for. Content – the prospect reads your content and may even download or request additional information. Follow – that prospect sometimes connects with us socially, sees what kind of work we’re doing, asks people in our network how we are to work with and whether or not we can handle their problem. Subscribe – many times the prospect isn’t in a position to buy, but they are doing research and so they subscribe to your newsletter to keep in touch and get fed with valuable advice. Meet – that prospect connects with us through the Word of Mouth connection to get a personal introduction. After meeting, they determine whether or not they trust us and we start doing business. Or Contact – sometimes the prospect contacts us directly via email or phone to set up the meeting with us.



Given that process, do you see where inbound marketing fits and what it’s actually providing your business? That’s quite a different funnel than what inbound marketing sites often share, which is: Search – for a topic and find your site ranked. Download – register and download collateral. Close – get a proposal and sign. Inbound Marketing ROI Given this range of behavior, can you see how difficult it is to attribute your inbound marketing to your overall sales and marketing strategies? If you have an outbound sales team, virtually every sale is attributed to that team – especially if they’re experienced and already nurturing relationships with prospects you wish to do business with. The questions for inbound marketing need to include: When you close a prospect, did they visit your site in the sales process? When you close a prospect, did they sign up for a newsletter?