The concept of “Inbound Marketing” is one that you might have heard of before, but do you know what it is? There is no doubt that today, technology and the digital space have positively changed marketing as we know it. With the advent of the internet and digital marketing, it is now easy to get across to a larger variety of customers in a more personalized manner.
Nowadays, a business website has evolved into a place to collect and develop a better understanding of customer tastes, dislikes, likes, and pain points. Though traditional marketing may have served its purpose efficiently, the introduction of inbound marketing has not only transformed the concept of traditional marketing. Still, it has also brought about the urgency for high-quality content. Before taking a deep dive into the features of inbound marketing, it is essential to understand the meaning of Inbound Marketing.
What Is Inbound Marketing?
Inbound marketing generally refers to a methodology that utilizes various marketing elements like social media marketing, SEO, and content marketing to attract new leads and enable them to transition through the different stages of their buyer journey. Now the thought that might be going through your mind is “this doesn’t sound new at all,” and you are very much correct. In 2016, when founder and CEO of HubSpot, Brian Halligan, first postulated the concept of “Inbound Marketing,” he wasn’t exactly reinventing the wheel as similar tactics such as “pull marketing, social media marketing, and content marketing were already in existence.
However, by integrating and aligning these elements, inbound marketing created a holistic and data-driven approach for online marketing gurus that aided businesses in measuring, optimizing, and refining their efforts from attracting leads to further building and nurturing existing relationships. In retrospect, Brian Halligan may not have been responsible for reinventing the wheel, but he was, however, able to develop “the flywheel model,” Which is a system for repeatable as well as scalable revenue generation, which brought an end to marketing funnel and put the customers in the center.
Inbound Marketing Strategies
These strategies aim to aid you in efficiently and effectively marketing to your target audience directly. Below are the various strategies that will help your business grow better and keep your flywheel spinning.
● Attracting Strategies
Inbound strategies that help you attract your buyer personas and target audience usually revolve around content creation and development. First of all, to get across to your audience and publish content like social media, content offers, and blog articles that provide value. To better attract your audience members on a more concentrated level through inbound marketing, you can optimize all your content with an SEO strategy which will require that you target certain phrases and keywords related to your services or products.
● Engaging Strategies
When employing the use of inbound strategies to get across to your leads, it is pertinent to ensure you are communicating with customers to encourage them to build a long term relationship with you and your brand; when applying these engagement strategies, including details about what value they are going to benefit from your business.
● Delighting Strategies
These inbound strategies aim to ensure the customers are satisfied, happy, and supported long after they have made a purchase. These strategies revolve around your team members becoming experts and advisors who are always ready to assist customers at any point in time.
Incorporating social media listening, well-timed and thoughtful surveys to support, assist, and request customers’ feedback is an effective means of delighting these people. Surveys and bots should be dispersed at certain times throughout the customer’s journey, and they must be of value. It is important to remember that a happy customer is likely to become a business promoter and advocate, which is why it is essential to engage in all dealings with care.
Benefits Of Inbound Marketing
Though the fruits of inbound marketing might appear less than other advertising techniques from your perspective, it is however of a much greater value to businesses in the long run. Some of the inbound marketing’s key benefits include;
● Reduced expense
In this digital age, mass marketing is not only highly ineffective but is also risky and costly. It can be likened to shooting an arrow in the dark and hoping it will hit the target. However, with the aid of a leaner and more focused advertising spend on inbound marketing, your business will not only experience an increased ROI over time but will also reduce expenditures and save money.
● Quality traffic and leads
Inbound marketing doesn’t just revolve around creating brand awareness; it is about attracting the right audience and traffic. With a more informed and targeted approach, you will easily attract leads who are more likely to be interested in your service.
● Opportunity to learn and evolve
Interacting and engaging with customers on social media to get their feedback and questions will better help you understand how to improve your products and services.
Now is the time to avoid blindly throwing promotional messages at people hoping to find a lead, as you can now let customers find you with inbound marketing. Rather than temporarily shooting up your sales, inbound marketing focuses on positive brand reputation as well as building long-term relationships.