The 3rd and final step in developing an inbound marketing strategy for your business is to analyze. Deceptively simple right? We analyze conversion rates, closed-loop reports, overall performance tracking data, lead scores, landing page effectiveness and a number of other pieces of data that can and should be collected.

Whew, that’s a lot of data isn’t it? Some of it may be data you haven’t even realized should be collected. This is one of those propositions in life where the devil truly is in the details. Many attack social media with zeal, applying traditional methods from the interrupt model of marketing and fizzle out quickly when things just don’t turn out the way it was anticipated. Then, it is either concluded that social media doesn’t work or that the return on investment is low. Neither of these conclusions is entirely accurate since social media efforts were applied as an end in themselves rather than tools as a means to an end. The end you want to be working toward is meeting the business goal carefully identified much earlier in this process. Sometimes that can and should be as simple a goal as setting out to build a social media audience of followers – a community.

Now we have all three steps right here for you to follow, but the intricacy of each step will require a lot of time, thought and resources to build. There truly is no once size fits all and there is no hard and fast formula in that the tools continue to evolve almost daily and will require us to adjust with them in developing what formula our individual businesses will follow. It is these subtleties that will offer countless individual, highly customized paths in order to achieve success.

My focus here will turn to breaking down the pieces for you into smaller bite-sized morsels. It is really so much more about shifting your thinking. Once your mind shifts to this newer method of giving away content, promoting that free content and attracting relationships versus the past model of constant “buy my stuff” or “here’s how good we are” and related messages, you will find an explosion of ideas swirling all around you. The process will no longer seem so complex, very big for sure as you start out, but the complexity will begin to fall away.

So, where do you start? Go back to the first step of inbound marketing here on this site. Start thinking about how to get found. Can people find you online? Meet these basic steps first since they are the foundation to this entire process and will be part of the formula from now on as you continue to update content. It will take time or a lot of money to build the foundation. Either you will have to spend the time to create the content volume and set up all of the tools or you will pay for these things to be done for you. A large financial investment equals faster stockpiles of content and channels for spreading it. Here is where the playing field is leveled for small business, even though it will take longer, a committed small business owner has the same opportunity to build this content using their own time and sweat equity and this is where passion to succeed can really make a difference.

You can have the most amazing website in the world, the best product, the best everything but if people cannot find it nothing else in this process will save you as far as Internet and online marketing is concerned. There is an enormous shift taking place even as I type this post. SEO is beginning to move down the list and social media presence and mobile applications move up.

Next week I’ll start posting details about the tools you can use and the intricacies of getting found online. You will learn the details that will allow you to either tackle the process yourself or educate you enough to outsource this task. You must have a clear understanding in order to know what you are buying and how to evaluate the cost of these services. The Internet is changing every day. We must be fluid, change with it and make learning part of our daily routine. It will be nimble businesses that rise to the top in this new world.