As the marketing industry becomes more saturated by the day, it’s crucial to stand out as a brand and charm potential customers.

Unlike old-school methods, inbound marketing is all about catching people’s eye, sparking their curiosity, and satisfying their needs with unique products and personalized experiences.

But here’s the thing- being a part of the inbound marketing scene is not just about being creative. You need to have a game plan and set some goals to take your whole marketing strategy to the next level!

What Exactly is Inbound Marketing?

Before you start asking yourself “Why is goal setting important to inbound marketing?” it’s useful to first understand what inbound marketing actually is. 

Inbound marketing is a laid-back strategy where instead of aggressively pushing a brand, product, or service onto your audience, you reel them in naturally.

It's all about creating a welcoming environment that draws in visitors and potential customers, rather than bombarding them with ads or sales pitches. The ladder is known as outbound marketing, but we’ll discuss that another time! 

Inbound marketing focuses on creating real and lasting relationships with potential customers and existing clients. 

The strategy comes in all shapes and sizes- some popular forms include: 

1. Blogging
2. Earned Social Media
3. SEO
4. Email Marketing to Opt-In Lists
5. Influencer Marketing
6. Podcasts
7. Press & PR

The key to success in inbound marketing is to support and help your audience reach their goals every step of their journey with your brand instead of bombarding them with traditional advertising- here is the first step to answer “why is goal setting important to inbound marketing.”

The 4 stages of inbound marketing

The approach to inbound marketing is split up into four different stages: attract, engage, close, and delight. These stages are also known as the inbound marketing funnel. 

1. Attract

To keep things simple, the attract stage is about getting the right people’s attention at the right moment. This is done by sharing valuable information that pertains to what your audience needs/wants.

(Helpful tip: Research current trends circulating your desired audience!)

1. Engage

This stage is exactly as it sounds- it captures your audience by providing the information and products that they are looking for.

1. Close

After you've hooked your audience and gotten their interest, it's time for the "close" stage. Here, you use various methods such as email marketing to nudge them closer to making a purchase.

1. Delight

Finally, it is your job to make sure everyone who buys from your brand is happy with what you gave them. This will turn them into loyal customers and advocates of your company!

Why Inbound Marketing is SO Important

Now that you know what inbound marketing is, let’s discuss why it’s so important to utilize these strategies when promoting your brand to answer your burning question, “Why is goal setting important to inbound marketing.”

1. Inbound marketing strengthens your company’s reputation

Inbound marketing is unique in that you get to show your audience why they should buy your product instead of telling them. 

Whether it’s through a podcast, earned social media post, or blog, customers will come to YOU for their own wants and needs.

Keeping your brand up-to-date with fresh products and services will only benefit you. If you keep producing valuable content that your audience cares about, people will begin to trust and respect your brand. 

Earning mutual trust and respect equals a more positive brand reputation thanks to inbound marketing.

1. It can be personalized

When you advertise through different channels like magazines, you probably tweak your ad content to fit each channel’s audience. 

For example, you’d reword articles and fix ads for People magazine versus Architectural Digest. 

That’s been the way to go for reaching different groups for a long time. But with inbound marketing, you can take it up a notch. 

With TikTok, Instagram, and podcasts increasing in popularity every year, ads can be repurposed but personalized for each platform’s usual demographic. This will drive more traffic to your brand and increase sales tenfold.

1. It grows upon itself

Once you have created your content, it stays on your website for as long as you’d like (& it’s totally free!).

That content will show up in more search results as you are sharing it on different social media platforms, ultimately bringing in new readers constantly. 

As your company gets more love, you’ll build a stream of steady visitors. That means every piece of content you put out packs a bigger punch! 

Plus, when your readers share your content, spreading the word about your brand becomes a breeze!

A great example of a brand utilizing all three benefits is Spotify with its annual #Wrapped campaign.

Spotify personalizes everyone’s most listened-to songs, podcasts, artists, etc., and combines that into a playlist as an “end-of-year gift” to its listeners. 

Spotify users are eager to share their music preferences with their social media followers- creating a lot of buzz for the brand!

What’s your goal with inbound marketing? 

When branding your products and services, it’s easy to say that what you desire is more sales. Of course, that is the ultimate goal, but there are other ways of increasing brand awareness outside of swiping a credit card on your website. 

Take a moment to think about why and how you want your brand to expand. Having a clear game plan sets you up for long-term success.

Do you want to…

1. Increase social media engagement?
2. Repeat business?
3. Up your game in customer satisfaction?
4. Grow website visits?
5. Generate more leads?
6. Have better conversion rates?

Pick one or two goals that matter to you the most. 

Subheading- Setting your goals

Content: Now, let’s get into goal setting for your inbound marketing strategy. After asking yourself those questions, it’s time to personalize them. 

Your inbound marketing strategy needs to be SMART! This means specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound.

Make sure your goals are within reach and realistic to your marketing strategy. Looking at numbers to make sure the baseline goal you set can help you achieve this, while also ensuring your goal is measurable (in numbers).

Of course, it’s also important to make sure your goal is relevant. You want to align your marketing goals with your overall desire as a business.

Setting a time limit on achieving these goals (time-bound) is also extremely helpful to guarantee that they will be met!

It might be daunting but with a determined attitude and a positive mindset, anything is possible!

Why is goal setting important to inbound marketing? 

It’s time to finally answer your question- why is goal setting important to inbound marketing? We could go on and on about why it’s essential for your overall marketing strategy, but there are a few you need to keep in mind. 

Statistically speaking, marketers who set inbound marketing goals are 377% more likely to report success than those who do not. That is crazy!

Setting inbound marketing goals helps you identify what is important to YOU and YOUR BRAND.

Success can be measured numerically, but it’s more beneficial for success to be measured in terms of personal gain. If you are happy, your brand is happy!

Setting goals gives you a roadmap for how to succeed in the market and lays the groundwork for your action plan to reach those goals! 

Finally, you've grasped the ins and outs of inbound marketing and have clarity on why goal setting plays a crucial role in this approach.

We hope you now have a solid background and decent understanding of your question- why is goal setting important to inbound marketing?

Remember, it’s not about how you start, it’s about how you finish.

Take your marketing strategy day by day but always remember to stay motivated, despite not seeing fast results. Take your time, set your goals, and push through- you got this! 

✍️ Written by Lindsey Bart