Inbound Marketing grows your business. Gardening grows plants that are useful as food as well as plants that are pleasing to the eye. My friends kid me about seeing marketing lessons in everything. However, as I was tending my garden the other day, some similarities occurred to me.
Inbound Marketing, or any marketing for that matter, begins with a good product or service- one that will be the foundation for your growth. The same is true of the soil you use in a garden. If the soil is not fertile enough or doesn’t meet the conditions necessary for the plants you will grow, your plants will not thrive. Start with the right kind of soil, and you will be much more successful. Start with the right kind of product or service, and you will be much more successful.
Inbound Marketing requires you to promote a product or service that is needed by the market and that will suit your target market. When you are planting a garden, you should choose the types of plants that will grow well in your climate. Trying to grow long season crops in the far North is not a good idea because the climate will not sustain them. Trying to promote a product or service that is not a good fit for your market is not a good idea either. However, when the product and the market are a good fit, it greatly increases your chances for success!
Once you have an appropriate product/service and you have the right market for that product/service, you need to present your product/service well. Inbound Marketing uses the internet to help you reach your target market through your online presence. If done well, you will thrive. That means you must have good content on a search engine friendly site that includes compelling offers and calls to action.
In the garden, you have to plant seeds and plants properly for them to thrive. Some seeds need to be nicked or soaked overnight or even refrigerated before planting for the best results. Some seeds need to be planted deeper than others. Planting plants requires the same attention to detail. Some should be planted in little mounds, while others should be stripped of lower leaves and planted deep. Planting properly and presenting properly is another step towards success.
Once your online presence is established, you need to constantly be adding to it and improving it. You can do this by adding search engine friendly content on a regular basis through a blog. You should also continually be adding value by adding more compelling offers and calls to action. In a garden this is the same. You must water and fertilize your garden for the best results.
When you are using Inbound Marketing to grow your business, you must be on the lookout for problems. You need to make sure your navigation remains easy. You must make sure that you are keeping your marketing goals in mind. You don’t want to lose focus. You have to be committed to regularly adding content and improving your offers. A gardener should always be on the lookout for pests and disease so she can stop them before they do damage. Not paying attention to potential problems is not good for the inbound marketer or the gardener.
This analogy could go on and on, but I’ll get to the end- the harvest. If you tend to your marketing or your garden properly, it will produce a bountiful harvest that is a wonderful reward for your hard work. I’m reminded of the Little Red Hen who grew the grain, harvested the grain, ground the grain into flour and made bread from the grain while all her barnyard friends lazed away the summer days. Don’t be the barnyard friends who are hungry at harvest time because they didn’t do any work. Be like the Little Red Hen and do the work and enjoy the harvest!
