Let’s be honest, microwave cooking is insanely fast. I’m hungry now…and in less than three minutes I can have a hot microwaved meal at the ready for consumption. Fast, efficient, hot and ready to go! When I was in graduate school that was a lifesaver!
That is the upside. The downside you already know. Microwave meals lack a certain level of…..well, nutrition! They may be fast and fill you up right away, but over the long haul they can leave you pretty unhealthy, if for no other reason than the high sodium content! You’ll be well preserved, but not so healthy.
Then there is the beloved crock pot method. I know, you can almost taste the beef stew your mom used to make, can’t you? You can smell the savory flavors as you walk in the front door, and your mouth is starting to water at the thought of the meat that will fall apart on your plate, and the thoroughly cooked carrots and potatoes, seasoned through with the taste of the broth. I just ate dinner and I’m craving it! The joy of the crock pot meal is that while it takes longer to cook, the result is (barring an unforeseen turn of events) almost always a delightful meal that nourishes and draws you in.
How many of you have a memory of the last microwave meal you ate? Unless it exploded and caused a fire or something, I’m guessing not many of you!
Why the memory lane about cooking?
Well, one of the realities we face as professional marketers is that a lot of folks come to us who are in a hurry to change things in their business. Many times, they have waited until they feel a bit desperate before entertaining the idea of actually investing in their marketing, so they need big results and fast. While there are some techniques and ways to provide short term and fairly fast return on investment (ROI), the truth is that all good marketing takes TIME. That is true whether we are talking traditional marketing (TV, Radio, Print etc.) or digital marketing (web based).
Inbound Marketing = Crock Pot
Here at Half a Bubble Out, we are huge believers in the philosophy of Inbound Marketing. Inbound marketing is all about creating remarkable content consistently that is meaningful to your customers and prospective customers.It is by far the best way to grow your presence online, drive traffic to your website, and ultimately gain more customers. That’s the good news.
The bad news is that I was reminded tonight what one of our friends, Rachel Coger has been known to say: Inbound Marketing operates like a crock pot, not a microwave. There are a lot of ingredients, they take time to simmer and be ready for consumption, but the end result is highly nutritious marketing! You provide great content for your clients, delighting them, and you provide great content for your prospects, drawing them into your sales cycle so that you can begin to interact with them and help them see why your product or service is exactly what they have been looking for.
We’ve been writing blogs about Inbound Marketing for almost two years now. We’ve gone from knowing it was a great idea, to implementing the methodology with a number of clients in a variety of industries. In every case we have seen positive results. Growth in website traffic, growth in leads who are qualified, and most importantly, growth in leads turning into customers. For most of these clients it required some patience and trust for about 6-9 months, but their patience and trust has paid off, and the results are coming in.
So, two thoughts for you.
One. If you are waiting until you get desperate to start marketing, think again. The best strategies take time to develop and implement, so think about what it means to start before you are desperate.
Two. If you are already feeling a bit desperate, make sure that whoever you work with is talking about both short term solutions (microwaved, efficient but not sustaining) AND long term solutions (crock pot approaches). The latter requires courage and perseverance, but we promise the results will be mouth-watering and memorable.
Are you brave enough to be patient and wait for the best?
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