Intelligent Inbound® Marketing Is a Lifestyle Choice

At SmartBug^®, we eat, breathe, and live inbound marketing, but if you’re not a lifetime follower, it can be a hard perspective shift to see inbound as a way of life. The hard truth is that Intelligent Inbound^® isn’t sexy (though we try our best), but it’s made to last. Here’s why.

Intelligent Inbound marketing isn’t a fad diet. It’s not a get-rich-quick scheme. It’s not a set-it-and-forget-it model. Intelligent Inbound is long-game, incremental work that will put your company on top and beat out competitors because, simply put, it just works. 

We know that’s not what you want to hear. It’s no surprise that when you pay for a marketing agency you’re looking for instant ROI, which means big wins fast. But often the small incremental build is what will help most in the long run. What SmartBug is best at is building brands that last and teaching companies how to commit to a different way of bringing in customers.

Marketing Fad “Diets” vs. the Intelligent Inbound Lifestyle.

Maybe you’re looking to drop some of that quarantine fifteen, so you try a juice cleanse or a detox tea. Maybe after a few weeks of being so hungry you contemplate eating cardboard or a lot of trips back and forth to the bathroom, you actually lose the weight. Despite that harrowing journey, we all know how this story ultimately ends. The weight comes back. Why? Because, it’s not sustainable. 

Similarly, if you eat a triple cheeseburger, large fries, and a Coke for every meal, working out for 30 minutes a day isn’t enough. You might not put on the weight, but you’re still not healthy. If you eat a balanced diet every day but never do any cardio or strength building, you won’t be strong. 

What does it take to be healthy and strong? It’s the unfortunate truth that everyone hates—you have to do both. You have to commit to a lifestyle that not only helps you meet that original goal, but also helps you maintain it and surpass it. 

Marketing is the same. No amount of click-funnel buy-ins, professional networks, or SEO plug-ins will give you the kind of quality growth you really need. To be perfectly clear, we’re not saying that you, a savvy, experienced, and educated marketer, are falling for pyramid schemes when the success of a business is in your hands. But what we often find is that the pressure of reporting big number changes can result in quantity over quality-driven results. Things like SEO and funnels can take a lot of time, and it’s easy to give up on them too quickly. For instance, at SmartBug, we recommend at least six months for an SEO strategy to take a measurable effect. 

We know it can be hard to convince non-marketers that a long-term, sustainable growth plan is the best move when there are lots of pop-ups saying, ”Get X amount of Leads in Half the Time!” The question is, will they convert? Furthermore, will they become an evangelist of your work? Probably not, and eventually, after spending lots of money going down different short-term rabbit holes, you will arrive back at square one.

Committing to a Marketing Lifestyle Change

How can you become that devoted Intelligent Inbound follower we talked about? The good news is that SmartBug is here to do all the heavy lifting for you. All you need to do is commit to a slightly different way of thinking when it comes to bringing in your best customers. Think of it like this: You buy the gym membership, but we’ll do those early morning workouts for you, and in the end you have a six-pack. Everybody wins!

SmartBug is here to help you make the commitment and guide you along the way. Not only are we inbound experts, but we also have a deep understanding of the pressures you face and the goals you want to achieve. We believe in acting as a partner to help you achieve the healthy marketing lifestyle of Intelligent Inbound.