What Is It?
Inbound marketing is a business strategy that centers around attracting leads via content and experiences that are curated just for them, thereby pulling potential customers to a company.
The methodology behind it is the concept that customers want authentic, meaningful relationships with the companies they work with—inbound marketing helps create those connections.
Rather than relying on generic marketing tactics such as banner ads, inbound marketing shares targeted messages that are designed to inform and capture attention, thereby generating interest and demand.
Forms of Inbound Marketing
The key is sharing information that customers will find useful, relevant and advantageous. Some of the most effective forms of inbound marketing include:
- Social media posts
- Webinars
- Blogs
- Landing pages
- White papers
- Videos
- Info-graphics
Inbound marketing stages
Attract
Attracting customers sounds like a simple concept. But there’s more to drawing in customers than optimizing your on-page SEO and blasting out new content.
Before you even think about your content strategy or invest endless hours studying how search engines work, you must decide who your ideal customer is. Spend some time developing a buyer persona, an avatar of the kind of customer who will keep coming to your site for information and will think of you first when they’re in the market for the types of products you sell.
Consider the kinds of content that you can provide that match what your ideal customer is looking for on the internet. That’s the point at which you perform search engine optimization (SEO). When assigning a ranking to your page, Google isn’t limited to your keywords, but frequently searched keyword phrases give you a great way to expand your reach. Then, you can build unique content that provides value.
Convert
Once you have attracted a visitor to your site, you want to convert them to a lead. A lead is someone who wants more details about your brand and who gives you information (like their name, email address, and content preferences) in return.
How do site visitors become leads?
You can convert visitors into leads with a call-to-action, also known as the CTA. The CTA can be “Buy now!” But it can also be a request to be added to your marketing email list, download an ebook, or schedule a demo. Quality leads also include enough information to power your outbound marketing efforts. Visitors who give you their email addresses and ask to be added to your email lists are interested in what you have to offer.
Close
The whole idea of digital marketing is digital sales, right? Once you have attracted your ideal customer and converted them into a lead, it’s time for your sales team (or just you, if you are a sole proprietor working alone) to close the sale.
Keep in mind that you may have to move a prospect through your sales funnel. Many leads won’t be ready to become paying customers at first. But polite persistence pays off.
There will usually be a back and forth process until your lead closes the deal and becomes a paying customer. Congratulations! You made a sale!
However, you need to continue delighting them to encourage them to buy more in the future.
Delight
The delight stage is where the fun of digital marketing starts. You have successfully guided your customer through the buyer’s journey. Now it’s up to your content marketing team to keep in touch and give them more information about the solutions they need. Your sales team must make sure your products are meeting their expectations.
Strategies
The most effective inbound marketing strategies center around creating a playbook that companies can use again and again. These strategies allow for scalability and can be measured through metrics such as sales, retention rates, survey results, return on investment (ROI) and social media statistics. New strategies are emerging constantly, and it’s important to stay on top of what methods your target audience wants to engage with.
- Determine your goals. It’s a good idea to align your business goals with your marketing goals. Make sure to use SMART goals when setting your objectives.
- Identify marketing triggers. Marketing triggers are moments in which a site visitor behaves in a desired way, thus prompting an action to occur. For example, when they sign up for your newsletter or provide their contact information for a free e-book.
- Outline the buyer’s journey. Outlining the buyer’s journey, or sales funnel, can help you determine when to make contact with potential clients.
- Invest in the right tools. The right tools can help your team become more efficient and speed up workflows.
- Create valuable content. Optimized content that brings value to the reader can attract visitors to your website and eventually turn them into customers.
- Use different channels. By using different channels, you can distribute your content and maximize your reach.
- Review and optimize. It’s a good idea to regularly review and optimize your content to make sure it is the best.
What are the benefits of inbound marketing?
The benefits of inbound marketing are determined by the amount of quality content you can provide your customers. That can range from product descriptions to advertising campaigns to supplemental content on your website. Any relevant content you can provide readers to educate them on your brand, products, messaging, or related information can be included in your inbound marketing strategy.
Though it can be difficult to assign inbound marketing techniques to specific metrics, you can consider a strategic methodology that includes the number of return customers you have. Repeat visitors or repeat purchases can be metrics of successful inbound marketing. Conducting surveys or interviews with your customers is also a great way to get feedback on how your brand is perceived. A big benefit of inbound marketing efforts is that they can give your brand a voice, and communicating with customers can also help your brand gain trust and credibility.
Additionally, content created for your inbound marketing strategy can also improve your brand’s search engine optimization (SEO). By considering the needs of potential customers who are looking online for certain products, you can make sure there is relevant SEO information on your product pages, example.
In summary, the benefits of inbound marketing include:
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- Helping drive repeat visitors or repeat purchases
- Defining your brand voice
- Building brand trust and credibility
- Improving your brand’s search engine optimization (SEO)
Disadvantages
While inbound marketing offers numerous benefits, it also has its shortcomings. One notable drawback is the significant time investment required to create, distribute, and optimize content. Inbound marketing campaigns often take time to gain traction and generate leads, which can be challenging for businesses that require immediate results.
Furthermore, scaling inbound marketing efforts can prove difficult, as it necessitates ongoing maintenance, significant resources, and a comprehensive strategy. As a result, businesses relying solely on inbound marketing may struggle to achieve rapid growth and may need to explore complementary outbound marketing strategies to maximize their effectiveness.
Outbound marketing, while more than traditional marketing, still has its place in the marketing world. Offering advantages such as quick results, scalability, and control over the message, outbound marketing can be an effective tool for businesses.
Who uses inbound marketing, and why?
Inbound marketing is for everyone who wants to build deeper, more engaged relationships with their customers. If you’re aware of common questions that your target audience frequently asks, content is the best way to answer them.
Everyone who can use inbound, should.
Before developing an marketing strategy, it’s important to recognize that inbound marketing requires you to host and update a living library of informative and interesting content. This can be done on a large or small scale. One must have the ability to devote time and resources to support your marketing content and make it the best it can be for your audience.
It’s especially great for small businesses.
It is fairly inexpensive, and because it creates a living library of branded content. Small businesses with small budgets can use this to their advantage. With a little effort, small businesses can make a big impact with inbound marketing content that answers questions and solves problems for your key customer groups.
Why use inbound marketing?
The people you want as your customers are out there right now with questions. They are wondering how they can improve their businesses. They’re thinking of buying new things. Sooner or later, they are going to start looking for answers and your inbound marketing content could be just the resource they need.
It’s empowering for your customers.
That’s why you should use inbound marketing. Whether you’re a small business or a large enterprise, you can be a thought leader in your field. Inbound marketing helps build that perception among your target audience, day by day and click by click. It’s the most natural and customer-centric way for people to find and learn about your brand. It can perfectly complement your existing outbound marketing strategy (allowing you to segment your audiences), and it integrates seamlessly with marketing automation.
