In addition to classic marketing techniques, such as email marketing, search engine advertising and social media, inbound marketing is also one of the most sought after and effective ways to increase the success of your company. In this article, you will learn what is behind this marketing concept and what disciplines you need to master to implement a successful campaign.
What is inbound marketing?
Thanks to the interconnectedness of the modern globalized world, it has never been so easy to find new customers. The network has become the main communication and information platform. Therefore, for a long time it is an excellent basis for informing users about its offer. Over time, search engine results have ceased to be the only place where you can advertise, in fact, now you can do it directly on social networks depending on your target audience.
Even if the costs are much lower than on television and in print advertising, strong competition in the market makes classic online marketing strategies often not interesting for young companies. Over a long period of time, only developed companies can bear the economic costs expected in campaigns in search engines, social networks, and email. However, for beginners and small businesses, there is a cost-effective and innovative alternative: inbound marketing.
Unlike traditional approaches, this marketing concept is not based on direct contact with the client, new clients do not appear if they fall into the hands of a flyer, or from listening to ads on the radio, or even from advertising your company in any magazine. Inbound marketing follows a user who searches for a specific product and finds a way that leads to your offer.
The main inbound marketing is to offer users additional value in the form of engaging content or possible solutions to their problems. Of course, Inbound Marketing is also involved in the real transformation of potential customers into real customers, for a long time connecting them with your brand and making them representatives who disseminate information.
How does inbound marketing work?
Inbound marketing is by no means short-term planning, whose sole purpose is to attract users to their proposal. The keyword in this sense is “relevance.” By creating content that will be received and rated by users, you will be able to reach your target audience and at the same time work to create a positive reputation for the company.
If your product portfolio is related to the topic discussed in the content you published, it is likely that the user will switch from the content presented on your page to the offered products and services, completely voluntarily. The more useful the content for visitors, the more relevant it is to the advertised offer, the more chances to convince users, potential customers, and customers of a certain level.
The following paragraph illustrates the most crucial steps that must be taken to make your site using a client and supporter of your company.
First step: Traffic Generation
The challenge underlying inbound marketing is to create traffic for your site. Therefore, thinking directly about optimizing the site for search engines: is one of the decisive factors for the success of your inbound campaigns. However, the content strategy comes first in order of importance; because with the help of high-quality informational content, your proposal should be brought to the attention of target groups of people, i.e. those with the greatest potential. One of the most effective inbound marketing tools is blogging, because the blog is easily integrated into an existing web project, and because of this, the path to your products is not so complicated.
It is equally advisable to use appropriate platforms for your target group, such as Facebook, YouTube, Instagram or Snapchat. With these platforms, you can get good results by offering good content. In particular, video and infographics are of great interest to users of social networks. Among other things, through these channels you can directly communicate with your potential customers and distribute the latest news. Take advantage of the website’s potential by offering additional content such as podcasts, webinars, e-books, and white papers.
Make sure that the above search engine optimization can be influenced by measures taken, such as keywords in the appropriate context and the addition of targeted links.
If you want more information about setting up targeted content, read the inbound marketing book in our guide.
Second step: turn visitors into potential customers
If you are passionate about your web offer, and then transferred it to your website, you should collect the fruits of your work. A lot of traffic in itself, although this is an indicator of the quality of your project, is not a guarantee for the sale of goods and subscriptions.
The next step is the reason that visitors will leave their contact details, especially email. If you refuse this option, you risk that visitors will leave without conversion and without the opportunity to contact the swami. The trick is to offer your content in such a way that the user leaves their data.
The easiest way to get user mail is to provide access to exclusive content. For example, if a person wants to download an e-book, you offer to attend a webinar for providing your email address. Or another opportunity to connect the activation of additional functions of your web project with user contact information.
Decisive in this case is the call for action proposal, such as “I would like to attend the webinar.” Unique buttons or links should lead users to specially prepared landing pages that contain the necessary information and a contact form. It is important to increase interest and customize the form as simple as possible.
Third step: turning users into customers
The contact details of visitors to your site are an important asset that you need to know how to use. You need to group the converted leads into a central database. Thus, you will always control individual users or certain user groups. It is also recommended to use the assessment of potential customers, which is a qualitative classification of your customers. It is especially important to check user profiles and their relevance. Equally important: the calculation of purchasing potential, which is worth considering.
Assessment of potential new customers serves as the basis for subsequent contacts. The more you work individually, the higher your chances of success: personalized emails are a proven tool. Stay as relevant as possible to your stakeholders and show how these efforts will affect trust and sales. Analyze in which cases the conversion of leads to customers is especially good, and in which it does not, in order to be able to optimize the process.
The fourth step: customer care
The content is high-quality and optimized for search engines, traffic is constantly increasing, and the generation of leads and customers works as expected; at this stage, the Inbound Marketing campaign can be considered successful. Nevertheless, the acquisition of new customers is the cornerstone for the growth of your company, but the most important is the loyalty of these customers.
In fact, it’s easier to attract those who are already a customer to a re-purchase, on the other hand, it is important to convince them to share your content or recommend your products.
Newsletters are just as useful as posting new articles on your blog or social networks. After the initial stage, pay attention to the fact that the content is always of the highest quality and intended for your users, since this quality is crucial for the long-term success of the incoming campaign.
Various communication channels are also the core of your business when it comes to solving problems: therefore, the use of employees who monitor user profiles and process requests makes it clear that you care about your customers.
