Why not bring the customer to you? Inbound Marketing

Going and finding leads, is not what marketers are doing anymore, they are instead helping leads find them. The traditional form of outbound marketing is becoming less and less effective and more annoying. On the other hand, inbound marketing is interesting, informative, and entertaining content. First off, what is Inbound Marketing? According to Marketo it is “the process of helping potential customers find your company – often before they are even looking to make a purchase – and then turning that early awareness into brand preferences and ultimately, into leads and revenue.” One of the most important things to remember is that inbound marketing can not do everything. In order to get the most traffic to your site requires incorporating inbound marketing into your Marketing Mix.

So really, what are the best inbound marketing techniques?

  • blogs
  • white papers
  • articles
  • SEO (search engine optimization)
  • social networking
  • LPO (landing page optimization)

Turning Strangers Into Promoters

According to HubSpot turning those strangers into promoters takes 4 steps.

Turning Strangers to Visitors – Attraction

Have traffic and having the right traffic are two very different things. First off, knowing the persona of the customers is very important. These persona’s are the the ideal customer that we want to attract to our brand. There are several different ways to attract the right customer. The best tools are blogging, social media, keywords, and pages.

Turning Visitors to Leads – Converting

So now you have visitors to your site. What’s the next step? How is the visitor turned into a lead? You’ve got to reward those visitors for coming to your site. This can be in the form of content, ebooks, white sheets, and tip sheets. What will be the strongest in converting into leads? Well, you can use call-to-actions, landing pages, information forms, and contact.

Turning Leads to Customers – Closing

Having the right people interested is only half of the battle. The other half is actually making them customers. Several tools will help you do just this. These tools include lead scoring, email, marketing automation, and closed loop reporting.

Turning Customers to Promoters – Delighting

One of the best marketing strategies can be your promoters. This only happens when your customers are extremely happy and want to tell others about the product or company. In order to keep a promoter happy there are several ways to keep engaged: smart-call-to-actions, social media, and email and marketing automation.

Inbound Marketing Best Used Together

Inbound Marketing is best when you you combine 3 different techniques with it. The first being an outbound marketing strategy. The second is to have a corporate communication strategy. The thirds being a nurturing and marketing automation strategy.

Why isn’t inbound marketing a stand alone strategy?

  • Aim is too wide
  • Some prospects may find you, but not know you exist
  • Others may know you exist, but don’t understand what you do
  • You aren’t reaching the decision makers
  • Sometimes there isn’t any noise
  • Inbound marketing has a diminishing return

Inbound Marketing All Wrong

We also some bad practices:

  • Ineffective Social Sharing
  • Poor Segmentation
  • Flat Lead Nurturing
  • Generic SEO
  • Lack of Sales Visibility
  • Measuring on ‘First Touch’ Alone

Sources:

Inbound: Amplify Your Impact: How to Multiply the Effects of Your Inbound Marketing Program

HubSpot: Inbound Methodology

YouTube: Inbound 2013 Keynote – Brian Halligan & Dharmesh Shah

HubSpot: Inbound Infographic

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