30 common mistakes in an Inbound Marketing strategy
Posted: Mon Jan 20, 2025 10:51 am
The differences between traditional marketing and inbound marketing allow us to conclude that the latter is less expensive and much more effective in attracting customers, positioning the brand and improving the company's image. However, mistakes are often made when implementing it and the expected results are not obtained. Learn about the most common mistakes and avoid them.
Common mistakes in an Inbound Marketing strategy
An inbound marketing strategy is divided into five stages (planning, creation, distribution, analysis and repetition). Look at the most common mistakes in each of them:
Errors in planning
1. Not defining buyer personas
Millions of visitors are useless if there is no marketing with stockholder database possibility of converting them into sales opportunities and clients. That is why it is essential to have clear profiles of your Buyer Personas, based on real research and not on assumptions .
2. Not researching your Buyer Personas well
Sometimes, research is done on ideal clients, but it is done poorly and the necessary data is not obtained to correctly plan an Inbound Marketing strategy. The audience must be segmented as much as possible, tools must be used to create Buyer Personas , and as much information as possible must be obtained from them.
3. Not setting SMART goals
Many strategies are created in the air. They do not know where the business is or where it wants to go. To avoid this mistake, it is essential to set SMART objectives .
4. Not defining the content correctly
Content is defined by its topic, format and purpose. But formats depend on budget, time, the information to be conveyed and the target audience.
Creation errors
5. Not adapting content to the buyer's journey
The buyer's journey, understood as the active research process that a person undertakes and leads to a purchase, is divided into three stages:
Recognition : Your prospect experiences a problem and does research to contextualize and educate themselves about it.
Consideration; you have already clearly defined your problem, given it a name, and need to find solutions.
Decision: You have already found the solution to your problem, and you are looking for specific products or services that fit your needs.
Therefore, it is essential that you know how to create content for each phase of the journey , since what is suitable for one stage may not be suitable for the other.
6. Create irrelevant content
Every piece of content should offer useful information to users. It’s not about publishing “for the sake of publishing” but about delivering value and helping prospects in their purchasing decision.
7. Spamming
When using email marketing, make sure that each user is given valuable content. To do this, you will have to segment your base into different types of customers and cycles they are in. Nobody wants to receive emails full of useless information or information that they do not want to read.
8. Bad content curations
Content curation is a valuable practice for an Inbound Marketing strategy, but only when it is executed with the goal of avoiding plagiarism and offering the user valuable information.
Errors in distribution
9. Using inappropriate dissemination channels
This is a consequence of not knowing your Buyer Personas thoroughly, as you share content on social networks or websites where they have no presence or at times when they are not online.
10. Do not share the content
Everything you publish - especially specialized content offers - must be shared on social networks, on your website, blogs, forums and other dissemination channels within your reach (and where, as we said, your Buyer Persona must be found ). In addition, it will be necessary to sponsor posts to increase the reach obtained. Of course, this must be done with the appropriate segmentation.
11. Spreading too thin
You don't need to post content on all social networks. You should only post on the ones most frequented by your audience.
Analysis errors
12. Incomplete analysis
Analysis should be part of each of the marketing actions you execute.
13. Not documenting content strategies
Common mistakes in an Inbound Marketing strategy
An inbound marketing strategy is divided into five stages (planning, creation, distribution, analysis and repetition). Look at the most common mistakes in each of them:
Errors in planning
1. Not defining buyer personas
Millions of visitors are useless if there is no marketing with stockholder database possibility of converting them into sales opportunities and clients. That is why it is essential to have clear profiles of your Buyer Personas, based on real research and not on assumptions .
2. Not researching your Buyer Personas well
Sometimes, research is done on ideal clients, but it is done poorly and the necessary data is not obtained to correctly plan an Inbound Marketing strategy. The audience must be segmented as much as possible, tools must be used to create Buyer Personas , and as much information as possible must be obtained from them.
3. Not setting SMART goals
Many strategies are created in the air. They do not know where the business is or where it wants to go. To avoid this mistake, it is essential to set SMART objectives .
4. Not defining the content correctly
Content is defined by its topic, format and purpose. But formats depend on budget, time, the information to be conveyed and the target audience.
Creation errors
5. Not adapting content to the buyer's journey
The buyer's journey, understood as the active research process that a person undertakes and leads to a purchase, is divided into three stages:
Recognition : Your prospect experiences a problem and does research to contextualize and educate themselves about it.
Consideration; you have already clearly defined your problem, given it a name, and need to find solutions.
Decision: You have already found the solution to your problem, and you are looking for specific products or services that fit your needs.
Therefore, it is essential that you know how to create content for each phase of the journey , since what is suitable for one stage may not be suitable for the other.
6. Create irrelevant content
Every piece of content should offer useful information to users. It’s not about publishing “for the sake of publishing” but about delivering value and helping prospects in their purchasing decision.
7. Spamming
When using email marketing, make sure that each user is given valuable content. To do this, you will have to segment your base into different types of customers and cycles they are in. Nobody wants to receive emails full of useless information or information that they do not want to read.
8. Bad content curations
Content curation is a valuable practice for an Inbound Marketing strategy, but only when it is executed with the goal of avoiding plagiarism and offering the user valuable information.
Errors in distribution
9. Using inappropriate dissemination channels
This is a consequence of not knowing your Buyer Personas thoroughly, as you share content on social networks or websites where they have no presence or at times when they are not online.
10. Do not share the content
Everything you publish - especially specialized content offers - must be shared on social networks, on your website, blogs, forums and other dissemination channels within your reach (and where, as we said, your Buyer Persona must be found ). In addition, it will be necessary to sponsor posts to increase the reach obtained. Of course, this must be done with the appropriate segmentation.
11. Spreading too thin
You don't need to post content on all social networks. You should only post on the ones most frequented by your audience.
Analysis errors
12. Incomplete analysis
Analysis should be part of each of the marketing actions you execute.
13. Not documenting content strategies