It’s here, folks. The one time each year when it’s acceptable to eat as much as you can, take a nap and then eat again. (And of course, spend time with loving family. Yada yada yada.) That’s right, it’s Thanksgiving. And here’s something you may not guess could be compared to Thanksgiving: Inbound marketing. But Turkey Day and the Inbound process have a lot in common…

1)   Planning

• Planning for your Thanksgiving meal could take days, weeks, even a month. What side dishes? Who’s on the invite list? What needs to be brined and when? The list is never ending.

• The same never-ending list goes for Inbound. You MUST have a plan. Put together a strategic inbound plan outlining your current position, initiatives, quality lead definitions, target audience, goals, etc. This plan is what you will use to keep everyone (both sales and marketing) accountable.

2)   Shopping

• Now it’s time to shop. After all, you have to find the ingredients for all those side dishes. And don’t forget to pick up your pumpkin roll.
  
  
• With inbound, the next step in the process is to shop for all of your content. Perform a content analysis of everything you currently have on hand. Can it be revamped into an offer? Can your old case study become a new blog post? Content, content, content. It drives people to the top of the funnel, allowing more leads to fall down into the funnel (translation: more customers).

3)   Prepping

• So, now it’s time to get ready for the big day. You rinse, cut, mix, stir and bake. Put the rolls in last, so they don’t overcook.
  
  
• Now that you have a library full of inbound content, it’s time to start cooking up campaigns. Build all of your offers, CTAs and workflows. Add email marketing automation, in order to keep in contact with your leads. Also, keep your social media calendar in mind to stay on time and on target with your overall content strategy.

4)   Eating

• You have waited a year for this day to arrive. You can finally sit down and enjoy. Don’t be shy. Go up for seconds, even thirds. But don’t eat too quickly!
  
  
• Now that your preparation is done, you can finally enjoy all those incoming leads. You, as a marketer, have brought in qualified leads. They are downloading, reading and responding to your content. Job well done. But, don’t get complacent – you must continue to feed the funnel!

5)   Cleaning

• Here’s the worst part. It’s clean-up time. You wonder why you can’t just use paper plates, but you don’t want to compromise the overall experience.
  
  
• You may have traffic in your funnel, but your job is far from over. You must continue to nurture your contacts by offering content they will be interested in and by building a nurture workflow. (HubSpot even has a fancy “Customer Nurture” workflow recipe you can use.)

CPV wishes you all a Happy Thanksgiving! And, if you have any inbound questions, we would love to help you find the answer.