A self-assessment tool to help you determine how ready you are to use Inbound Marketing tactics to reach more customers. Buyer behavior is changing, but channel marketing isn’t changing with it. Many companies are still using pushy outbound marketing tactics. Modern buyers want to work with companies who are more oriented around teaching and learning.

1. Inbound Marketing
Checklist for VARs
A Self-Assessment Tool for
Modernizing Your Marketing

2. Table of Contents
Introduction
Inbound Marketing Checklist
Capabilities Review
Scoring Your Checklist
Conclusion
2

3. Introduction
Buyer behavior is changing but channel marketing isn’t changing with it.
Many companies are still using pushy outbound marketing tactics.
Modern buyers want to work with companies who are more oriented
around teaching and learning.
The Inbound Marketing methodology pioneered by HubSpot provides a
great example of what life could be like for the channel, but it’s always
been positioned for direct marketing with no equivalent approach to take
for the channel.
Inbound Marketing provides a framework to modernize channel
marketing, so that brands and you, their partners, aren’t left behind by
the changing market.
By collaborating with your brand partners, there’s an opportunity to
modernize your marketing efforts by establishing core digital marketing
capabilities and leveraging content and programs from the brands.
The good news is that you may already have some of the capabilities of
Inbound Marketing and not even know it.
Until now.
We’ve put together a checklist—comprised of the capabilities that are
essential for inbound marketing success—for you to use as a scorecard.
It’s an easy way to figure out where you are…and where you can go.
3
Mike Moore
VP, Channel Strategy at Averetek

4. How to Use the
Inbound Marketing Checklist
4
As you review each capability, consider the following:
• Your partner marketing programs: how well do you take advantage
of the programs and resources made available by your brand
partners to achieve the level described for each capability?
• A group of partners: how well do you partner with other VARs,
learning solutions, partners, etc. to market? Can you bolster your
skills through collaboration?
• The squeaky wheel: do you need something from your brand
partners that they don’t currently offer? A training program to learn
new marketing skills? Content or resources to run a marketing
program? The most vocal partners help shape the brand’s agenda.
Level 1 Level 2 Level 3
Basic Skills Proficient Skills Advanced Skills
+1 +3 +5
1. Print out the checklist on the next page so you can track your points
as you review the Inbound Marketing capabilities that follow.
2. Read through the descriptions of the different inbound marketing
capabilities and examples of how they are applied to your marketing
efforts at varying skill levels.

5. Inbound Marketing Checklist
5
Capabilities Level 1 Level 2 Level 3
+1 +3 +5
Blog
Keywords/SEO
Social Media
Calls-to-Action
Landing Pages
Forms
Contact Management
Email
Workflows
Smart Content
Total
Grand Total
Instructions:
1. Review capability descriptions for all sections in pages 7-11.
2. Score your capabilities.
3. Tally your scores and check page 12 to see how you fare.

6. INBOUND MARKETING
CAPABILITIES REVIEW
Review the following capabilities and record your
score as you go.
6

7. Blog
Writing a blog is decidedly more creative than crafting other business communications.
Blogs afford great flexibility on topic and allow the writer to show more personality.
Anyone is able to blog on LinkedIn, and that’s a great starting point.
To what extent do you blog?
7
Level 1 Level 2 Level 3
Blog on LinkedIn; post
monthly or bi-weekly;
blogs contain basic calls-
to-action.
Blog hosted on company
website; post weekly;
blogs contain variety of
calls-to-action.
Regular blogging;
interaction with
commenters; cross
posting other thought-
leaders’ content; blog
subscriptions for readers;
blogs use compelling and
specific calls-to-action.
+1 +3 +5
Keywords/SEO
Websites say so much more than what is visible on the screen. The proper keywords and
SEO techniques need to be in place to drive website traffic. We are advocates of
optimizing for organic search traffic—get what you can for free before buying keywords.
To what extent do you use keyword/SEO techniques?
Level 1 Level 2 Level 3
Have a website with basic
content; have basic
keyword strategy; identify
10-20 keywords relevant
to the business based on
your buyers and what type
of searches they’re likely
to do; have the ability to
track keywords.
Optimize for those
keywords in your content
website pages and blog
articles; apply basic level
of analytics tools (Moz,
Google) to learn how and
why organic search traffic
gets to the website.
Employing outside tactics
and tools to manage SEO
and keywords; identifying
related keywords to
expand reach.
+1 +3 +5

8. 8
Level 1 Level 2 Level 3
Create company page on
Facebook, LinkedIn,
Twitter and Google+,
maintaining pages with
current information, and
sharing new content
weekly. A passive effort.
More proactive in
engaging the audience;
interacting with others
and their content;
participating in
conversations; social icon
links on company website.
Moving beyond company
social channels by
involving individuals at the
company; cross linking
other websites and
content; serving contacts
content based on what
they’ve shared on social
media.
+1 +3 +5
Social Media
People use social media in their personal lives. Making the move to using social networks
professionally can be a simple way to get content in front of potential customers without
a hard sell. Choice of platform—Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, Pinterest,
YouTube—will depend on the target audience and type of content you’re sharing.
To what extent do you use social media?
Calls-to-Action
A strong call-to-action is one that compels a visitor to take the requested next step. The
benefit needs to be clear, as does the deliverable you’re offering.
There are many best practices to planning and delivering calls-to-action that are
appropriate for the buyer personas you’re targeting that produce the intended action.
To what extent do you offer strong calls-to-action?
Level 1 Level 2 Level 3
Leverage vendor-provided
content as an offer.
Original content
compelling enough to
drive conversion.
A variety of calls-to-action
aligned by persona to
cover all stages in the
buyer’s journey.
+1 +3 +5

9. 9
Landing Pages
Calls-to-Action drive traffic to landing pages, which is where prospective customers fill out
forms to take advantage of the offer presented. Landing pages should be clean, clear, and
informative.
To what extent do you use landing pages?
Level 1 Level 2 Level 3
A simple landing page
with a whitepaper or other
top of the funnel offer and
a short-form.
A complete campaign with
a landing page and
appropriate offer aligned
to the stages of the
buyer’s journey (attract,
convert, close).
Multiple campaigns with
landing pages to address
a variety of buyer
personas at each stage of
the buyer’s journey.
+1 +3 +5
Forms
Forms work in concert with calls-to-action and landing pages. Ideally, forms ask for a
small amount of information in the initial buying stages. As the customers move deeper
into the buyer’s journey, forms can go beyond basic questions and attempt to qualify the
prospect.
To what extent do you use forms?
Level 1 Level 2 Level 3
Form capability exists on
the your website; basic
offering with a form
gathering contact name
and email address.
More compelling content
to offer, with form that
gathers business card
details; tracking of
information; beginning to
use progressive profiling—
building on to the
customers’ profiles as they
fill out more forms.
Customer-specific
offerings, more in-depth
forms with questions
about the customer’s
business needs and
intended purchase; more
advanced use of
progressive profiling,
creating content with the
specific intent of gathering
specific information to
qualify prospects.
+1 +3 +5

10. Contact Management
Contact management is an important part of doing business at all stages of the customer
lifecycle, so you need to have these capabilities in place from the start. When it comes to
closing business, it’s all about contact development. Do you store contact information in a
CRM? How are sales interactions and marketing activities incorporated to get a complete
picture of what the customer is interested in?
To what extent do you use contact management?
10
Level 1 Level 2 Level 3
Collecting and managing
contacts in a central
database.
Management of
information, incorporating
several sources: website,
social networks, sales,
marketing, etc.
Synchronized engagement
with contacts across sales
and marketing, with
coordinated and
intentional messaging,
including nurture
programs.
+1 +3 +5
Email
Email communication needs to be carefully crafted and contain information relevant to
the prospect. An email should be a follow-up to the prospect’s activity on your website
(filled out a form, clicked on an offer, etc.) or interaction with social media accounts.
To what extent do you use email?
Level 1 Level 2 Level 3
Periodic email campaigns
to promote an offer.
Regular email campaigns
to promote an offer based
on interests the prospect
expresses.
Always-on email
campaigns using
intelligence from
prospects’ activities that
nurture and develop
interest in products and
services.
+1 +3 +5

11. Workflows
Marketing automation technology can be used to help move prospects through the
buyer’s journey. You can design workflows to understand the interests and actions of
visitors, essentially reading the digital body language of their website visits, and then
offering the right next step for that specific person.
To what extent do you use workflows?
11
Level 1 Level 2 Level 3
Manually placing people
on lists for nurture
programs based on
marketing actions like a
form submission.
Automated nurture
programs that run
continuously and offer
calls-to-action that
advance the buyer’s
journey.
Automated nurture
programs with if/then
forks that branch to take
prospects backward,
forward, or on parallel
paths based on their
response or lack of
response to offers.
+1 +3 +5
Smart Content
Personalization is at the heart of a well-developed inbound marketing plan. When the
information collected about a person and their interests is used to change what they see
in an email or on a web page, that’s smart content. This level of personalization requires
sophistication in buyer persona definition, content planning and creation, and the use of
technology to make it all work.
To what extent do you use smart content?
Level 1 Level 2 Level 3
Deliver a personalized
message when a known
recipient is included in an
email program.
Deliver content that
dynamically changes a call
to action, offer, or
message when a known
visitor returns to a specific
page on the website.
Deliver content that
dynamically changes a call
to action, offer, or
message when a known
visitor returns to several
areas of the website.
+1 +3 +5

12. Scoring Your Checklist
12
If your score is less than 15 points:
You are an Inbound Marketing Up-and-Comer. These
capabilities might be new to you, but you are making
strides, and that's what counts.
Next step: Look at all capabilities; identify which one would be
most easily accomplished using the people and resources you
have. Commit to implementing two new or expanded efforts a
year for steady, manageable growth. Enlist your brand partners to
assist you in your quest.
If your score is between 15 and 24 points:
You are an Inbound Marketing Evangelist. You've
achieved a lot, but still have room to grow.
Next step: Look at the capabilities and pinpoint which need a
boost; focus next on those activities. Commit to implementing
three new or expanded efforts a year. Work with your brand
partners on creative ways to achieve your goals.
If your score is between 25 and 50 points:
You are an Inbound Marketing Powerhouse. You use
inbound techniques in a variety of ways and adapt your
methods as your audience evolves.
Next step: Explore those areas where you didn’t score as high and
commit to implementing a new or expanded effort each quarter.
Collaborate with your brand partners to come up with new ideas.

13. Conclusion
You’ve filled out the scorecard…but now what?
No matter your mastery level, the next steps are the same. It’s time to
take a closer look at the effectiveness of the capabilities that you have,
and evaluate where and how they can be strengthened.
Alternatively, if something is lacking, now is the perfect time to formulate
a plan for how to increase your inbound repertoire and apply it to your
sales and marketing activities.
The inbound methodology is engaging, dynamic, and modern. Having
these skills and capabilities is essential to continued growth and
efficiency in marketing. You don’t want to be left behind; rather, you want
to equip your team with the resources they need as they evolve into
industry leaders.
Brainstorm with your brand partners and challenge yourselves to come
up with the most creative ways to adapt the inbound methodology to
your channel. And when you do, we'd love to hear about it!
P.S. Need help enabling your organization with Inbound Marketing
capabilities? We’d love to help.
13
Mike Moore
VP, Channel Strategy at Averetek
Mike Moore serves as Averetek's Vice President of Channel Strategy.
In this role, Mike is responsible for corporate marketing strategy and
operations, and spearheading strategy and initiatives for Averetek’s
growing consulting practice. Mike has spent twenty-one years in the
IT channel as a channel partner and as a channel marketer for
software companies.