Are you looking to convert your visitors into customers ? Then inbound marketing is for you. It is a content creation strategy which helps to attract visitors to your website and blog. Today, Optimum Circle’s article deals with inbound marketing and its relevance for your business.
Its definition
In English, « inbound » is literally linked to « marketing ». Both these words refer to a digital marketing strategy that allows businesses to be their own medium by attracting prospects with relevant content. A prospect is a potential customer for a company. He is one if he matches with the business criterias according to what kind of buyers it’s looking for. Thanks to this strategy, it’s possible to attract visitors and convert them into leads, then into customers through various digital marketing techniques.
The differences between inbound and outbound marketing
Inbound and outbound marketing must be differentiated. Indeed, outbound marketing targets everyone equally, with no personalized offer for any customer. On the other hand, inbound marketing aims to meet prospects by offering them interesting content. This one is adapted to their behaviour in the buying cycle. In short, this kind of marketing strategy is used to personalize the customer experience.
What are the 4 essential steps for good inbound marketing?
Before embarking on inbound marketing, it is essential to understand its methodology, which consists of 4 distinct steps:
Attract the right people to you
You need to create content based on the typical portrait of the ideal customer you want to have in your business. Moreover, you need to optimize your presence in search engines and social media. Your goal is to engage users in a relationship with your business. To do that, you should provide them with the information they are looking for. Here are some tools:
- Content marketing : A creation of content dedicated to a targeted audience. You must distribute this content at the right time and in the right place. Take an interest in people, their daily lives, jobs, their areas of interest …
- Blogging : If your business has a blog with relevant content, this is a good way to get listed on search engines, to communicate your know-how.
- Social Media : THE connection point for billions of people around the world.
- SEO (Search Engine Optimization): Finally, 72% of Internet users start with a Google search for their business buying decisions. It is therefore important that your business is in the top 3 of Google searches. You have to select the right keywords, optimize the pages of your site, include internal links … You have to make the site pleasant to navigate from a smartphone as from a PC.
Convert
After attracting potential customers, you must regularly feed your website with informative newsletters, recurring call-to-action, invitations to share on social networks … Your objective is to lead your prospects with a project to the end of the conversion cycle by always staying by their side.
- Call-to-action (CTA) : A button which encourages the user to take an action, for example “download the ebook”. The goal is to attract your customers and get them to click. Use action verbs and keep it short, your offers should be varied.
- Landing page : The page to which a CTA redirects. Its content must be clear and the offer relevant. You can offer several formats : quiz, a checklist, a model of specifications, a presentation of the company … You have to put yourself in the shoes of your prospect to determine which of these contents will be most useful.
- Emailing marketing automation: You can automate tasks and even trigger actions, such as sending an email automatically. This technique allows your company to stay in touch intelligently with its prospect by sending him the right information at the best time.
The sale
You should focus your sales on your customer’s needs and not on your prices. This is a qualitative sale that aims to help the prospect understand your offer based on the advantages and benefits. You must therefore take into account the “signals” of marketing to identify the needs of your customer and purpose him the right proposition. This exercise allows the prospect who really wants to buy to join your offer.
Loyalty
You need to nurture your relationship with your customers to make them loyals and become brand ambassadors. Emailing can also be used for loyalty purposes, as well as social networks.
Why choose inbound marketing for your business?
Companies need more efficient, less expensive and adapted ways to win customers over. With the evolution of the internet, the relationship between a business and its prospects has changed. Your business can become its own medium with time and the right resources.
Content at the heart of your strategy
- Blog posts: A source of information for your prospects that improves your SEO.
- Videos: They allow you to enrich your content with different forms of production
- Other formats: Podcast, e-book, quotes, animated gifs …
Share other content on your social networks, to your partners, other Internet users or even your competitors. Also sharing a competitor’s content in addition to your own articles will place you as a leader on a topic.
The advantages of inbound marketing
Inbound marketing is a very profitable strategy. Certainly, it amplifies the sales and marketing process – thanks to your marketing teams joining their forces to create the most useful content to attract your prospects. You need to increase your visibility and notoriety by leaving likes, comments or even sharing your content.
You need to build trust and credibility with your prospects. Indeed, targeting your prospects in a less direct, but more effective way, allows you to gain their trust. Finally, when you produce content for your target audience, inbound marketing will drive the quality of work and leads on your website.
The risks of inbound marketing
Despite all its advantages, inbound marketing does have risks that you need to know. If you know them, you can manage these risks and make your campaign successful. To do that, your strategy must be integrated across the company and planned for the long term. When you approach your prospects, do not adopt a commercial / saler attitude. You have to act as someone who approaches them to offer your help.
Keep in mind that you should avoid a lack of cooperation between sales and marketing. This is your biggest challenge ! You need to make sure that your resources are enough. If it’s not the case and you don’t have enough time or money for your strategy, your inbound marketing won’t be successful.
Inbound marketing is a content strategy to convert your visitors into customers. Plus, it’s inexpensive. We should not therefore miss it. But keep in mind to act for the needs of the customer. So no more time to waste and get into inbound marketing, a real alternative for your business.
Three ideas to remember
What is inbound marketing?
Inbound marketing is a content creation strategy which helps to attract customers with the profile your business is looking for. It’s different from outbound marketing which targets everyone without any distinction. Then, inbound marketing, unlike outbound, enables personalization for your customers.
What are the 4 essential steps?
There are 4 important steps to follow for a successful implementation of inbound marketing. First, get the right people to your site. Then, you have to convert them into customers. For that, you should help your prospects to understand your offer. This offer has to be focused on the benefits for your customers. Finally, the last step is to win your customers’ loyalty.
Why implement an inbound marketing strategy for your business?
This method is very beneficial for your business, allowing it to use modern ways to grow. Beware of the risks of inbound marketing if you do not follow the 4 stages of implementation.