Complete Guide to Inbound Marketing
I would like to presume that since you are reading our article on Guide to inbound marketing, you new to this concept. That is why in the course of this article, we would be providing you with the most definitive guide to inbound marketing that a self-motivated person like you needs to get started. Without further mouthing, let us delve in.
What is Inbound Marketing?
Inbound marketing is a business strategy that allows customers to find your company easily. This marketing scenario happens before the customer is even ready to make a purchase. This would lead to the brand making contact with the lead early so that revenue can be accrued later.
Inbound marketing usually uses the strategy of pull marketing-blogs, events, content marketing, search engine optimization, social media, and lots more- all in a bid to create brand awareness and attract new customers.
As for outbound marketing, businesses seek out their customers while inbound marketing makes potential customers go to a business. This is way better than outbound marketing that rents attention. Brands that employ the use of inbound marketing focus on generating leads, developing relationships, and building brand awareness.
What are the potentials of inbound marketing?
Inbound marketing strategies employ methods that make customers attractive to brands because they do not make people feel like they are being sold to. The content marketing strategy of inbound marketing employs the use of educational content. When deployed the right way, inbound marketing can yield better results than conventional marketing strategies.
When potential customers find your online or offline brand this way, there is a stronger influence on the future marketing decisions that they would make. The best part is that inbound marketing brings home pure organic traffic for an online brand. However, it would not be incorrect to state that “ inbound marketing relies on intelligent minds rather than a budget”.
With the aid of inbound marketing, a company can put a customer in a driver’s seat. Outside bringing home lead conversions, and customer retention, inbound marketing is best in doing wonders with social media shares, search engine optimization efforts, brand awareness, and customer retention.
What are the common Challenges that Inbound Marketing strategies can resolve?
The best long-term investment strategy for any business is inbound marketing. In the course of subsequent paragraphs, we would be looking into some of the common challenges that inbound marketing can solve in a business.
Challenge #1. When you want to increase your brand awareness and preference
It would be important to note that buying cycles start with an online search. You have more chances of landing more conversions if you brand appear high in search results. If you brand is also active on a searcher’s social media network, you can get more leads and get more conversions. All you need to do, as a brand is to have good content for the inbound marketing channel.
As for increasing brand preference, this entails educating, interacting, and entertaining a potential customer before they make up their mind to make a purchase. It is eminent that you should make customers trust your brand so that they can choose you when they are ready to patronize your product. With inbound marketing, you can get enough sales impact by becoming a familiar face.
Challenge #2. When you want to get more leads with low investment funds
Inbound marketing is a long-term investment plan that builds a business over time. The financial yield of your company can increase if you play by one major principle in inbound marketing. This principle is to keep creating and curating content that naturally attracts organic leads.
Taking a Dip at the ROI of a successful Inbound Marketing strategy
Inbound marketing incurs a smaller up-front cost than other marketing strategies. Inbound marketing can bring home some serious ROI when deployed the right way.
- Inbound Marketing can Garner lots of leads to your brand
With the aid of inbound marketing, you can get up to three times more leads per dollar than conventional marketing strategies.
- Inbound Marketing is light on your budget
There are some businesses that do rely on inbound marketing to save more than $20 for every newly acquired customer
- Inbound Marketing has a proven ROI
There are lots of brands that make use of market automation software and see good ROI with a duration of six months. While most other brands see theirs after 10 months to one year.
How to Plan, Implement, Optimize your Inbound Marketing Strategy
Whenever a marketer deploys inbound marketing strategies, they get more returns as they invest. So, it is good that you get content creators that would create killer content as content is very effective in inbound marketing. Here is an overview of how to plan, optimize and implement inbound marketing;
- Step #1. Define your company’s goals and buyer’s personas.
Identify with the target audience and learn all you need to learn about them. You have to streamline your content so that you can be able to generate leads to a niche-specific audience.
- Step #2. Provide Your Audience With content at every stage
it would be wise for the content creator to preemptively answer questions that the customers might ask at each stage of the sales funnel. Get a unique a compelling copy or story that would encourage your leads to keep going down the sales funnel.
In inbound marketing, there are transformational inbound marketing strategies and traditional inbound techniques. Both marketing approaches leverages the use of valuable content to attract and retain leads throughout the sales cycle.
- Step #3. Choose the best delivery platforms for your content
In a bid to land more leads from potential customers, it is important that you choose the best platforms to feature the content. You can win over customers with content that adds value to them. Some of the best platforms for delivering this content include; Pinterest, Facebook. Twitter or your blog.
- Step #4. Get a content creation plan
It would be important to put together a team of content creators that can constantly bring out fresh and relevant content. This would create a connection with the customers that would keep them engaged as they go down the sales funnel.
Keep a content schedule that delivers content that your users would use to answer questions, pain points, and issues.