How To Get Started With Inbound Marketing In 20 Minutes

Don’t let a lack of time keep you from getting into the inbound marketing game. As most of us lead busy lives, we usually can’t find the time to write that odd blog post or keep up with the twitterverse.

It’s no secret, that it takes time and consistency in order to reap the benefits of inbound marketing. Nevertheless, the hardest step is usually the first, which is getting started and committing yourself to it.

Let’s get started. Put on your thinking caps; because it’s time to kick-start your inbound marketing in the next 20 minutes.

Getting Started With Inbound Marketing In 20 Minutes

Plan of inbound action

Begin with a short plan of action to help you get a clear understanding of what you want to achieve, what you’re going to do and how. No need for a full-blown marketing plan here – a paragraph will do just fine.

Here are a few questions to set you on the right path:

  1. What do you want to achieve?
  2. What will you create? (e.g. blog posts, white papers, eBooks)
  3. What will you share? (Industry news, blog posts, reports)
  4. How are you going to share? (e.g. email, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.)
  5. What are you going to talk about?

Set up a blog

Blogging is the key ingredient for you to get the most out of inbound marketing.

It’s the most affordable way of increasing your online presence, driving traffic to your site and creating engagement.

Setting up a blog is also easy to do, either create a sub-domain to host your blog or create a page to display your posts on. But remember, to use your own domain and not something like yourblog.wordpress.com.

Set up your social media accounts

Next up, you’ll want to share your posts and news to the world. But first, you need to set up your social media accounts.

You’ll most likely have personal accounts on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Google+. Where you’ll be allowed to create a business page, enabling you to share content with your audience.

Don’t forget to complete your profile and include links back to your site to boost your search engine rankings.

Brainstorm 10 topics for your blog

Obviously you’ll need something to share after you’ve set up your social media accounts.

The best way to start is to brainstorm at least 10 blog topics you can easily write about. What to blog about? That’s up to you. However, you’ll drive more traffic to your site if you publish content that delivers value to your visitors.

Often times people balk at the idea of blogging, largely because they consider it to be time-consuming.

However, blog posts don’t need to be long and can be as short as 300 words. And if you want to stick to our 20 minutes theme, check out Copyblogger’s guide to writing an article quickly.

Post your first 10 tweets and status updates

Before you start inviting people to like your Facebook Page or expecting them to follow you on Twitter. Your page and profile needs to have some content to it first.

Don’t leave it empty, and expect people to “like” a blank profile – give them a reason why they should “like” you. Having an empty profile is the same as inviting friends to your home and not offering them at least a glass of water.

You probably won’t have your own blog posts yet, but to get the ball rolling – update your accounts with news in your industry, along with a short comment or question about the story.

All set? Terrific! Now it’s time to start creating content and engaging with your audience. As mentioned earlier, it takes time and consistency with social media and your blogging to reap the benefits of inbound marketing. Nevertheless, the more content you deliver, the more likely you’ll be found through organic search results.

Let us know how you found our guide useful, and as always, keep in touch with us by following Cuutio on Twitter @cuutio and Facebook.

(Photo credit: Alan Cleaver via Flickr)

Was the article worth sharing?

Subscribe to the cuutio newsletter

It includes insights and tips about marketing technologies and digital marketing

You might be interested in these articles, too