inbound-marketing

196Inbound Marketinggratification from practicing more. In other words, there isa big hurdle at the beginning of learning to play guitar andthis hurdle weeds out those people not fully committed.Once you get over the barrier, however, the benefits accruequickly in a most satisfying way.Learning to do inbound marketing has a small hump inthe learning curve in a similar way as learning to play theguitar does. In order to get maximum value from inboundmarketing in the form of leads, you need to stick your leg inthe water for a couple of months to start, not stick your toein the water for a couple of days. The benefits come veryslowly at first, but they accumulate until you reach successivetipping points. For example, if you just start writing ablog, you do not get much benefit. If you write a blog andyour company builds a large following in Twitter, then youget much more benefit from every blog article you write,as you can spread your blog articles through your Twitternetwork (1 + 1 = 3).You’ll come to points in this process where you’ll want togive up, and only those who persevere will make it through.The reality is that none of these individual steps is all thatdifficult, but they take perseverance.If you have not started doing inbound marketing yet,get started today before your competitors do. If you havedipped your toe in the water and haven’t seen results, putyour whole leg in. We have seen inbound marketing workfirst hand for hundreds of companies in a myriad of differentindustries—we’re confident it will work for you if youpersevere and continually learn.Tracking Your ProgressGo to your calendar and physically block out some timeevery day of the week for the next three months dur-