Inbound Marketing for Businesses

The digital age and massive use of technology has provided numerous options for people to access information through the internet at the click of a button. This has revolutionized how things have been taking place in the contemporary age and this includes corporations.

Inbound marketing has emerged to be the main strategy companies are using to market their brands, products and services. It involves drawing customers to your company instead of pushing the brand outwardly with the hopes of having them as customers after interacting with your products and services. It is attracting customers with valuable content and converting them into leads.

The idea of inbound marketing was first described by Hub Spot in 2006 which projected that unlike reaching out to customers, they come looking for you to know what you are doing. Based on the compelling content and useful information you give them, a connection is created between you two.

Inbound marketing embraces the different digital marketing strategies such as blog posts, case studies, infographics, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), video content, podcasts etc.  It has turned out to be a powerful tool for marketing and the following give details why every business should embrace it.

Why Inbound Marketing?

Cost-effective

The goal of many businesses is to generate big results with low cost input. Inbound marketing strategies are way less costly compared to traditional marketing strategies. It is cheaper to use digital marketing strategies to promote your business compared to doing television advertisements and billboards.

Inbound marketing strategies increase leads three times more than traditional advertising. Most of the tools used in inbound marketing are inexpensive which allows saving. It also allows starting small but having a wider audience reach for instance social media.

Trust and Credibility

Gaining the trust of customers is an uphill task for many businesses especially in this digital age. Customers research what they want, evaluate and choose who they want to go with. Inbound marketing allows them to review your content and they find you trustworthy compared to when the company steps out and gives them something which raises suspicion.

Creating helpful content gives your brand social proof and allows them to evaluate their purchase decisions. Good content will help create a relationship and will also address their queries and possibly foster engagement. Higher engagement will lead to higher leads.

{RELATED: The guide to creating a digital marketing strategy}

Quality Traffic Leads

Inbound marketing attracts the right traffic to your site in an organic manner. Only interested customers will be attracted to your brand and they will be responsive too. Further, it is easier to track and gain insight of the progress of the marketing strategies and determine what is working or not and how to work it out. 

Brand Awareness

Great and quality content is priceless and educates customers on your brand’s identity. Having quality content implies that it will be among the top searches on the internet when people are doing research before purchase. As such, higher appearance on the searches will lead to higher engagement which turns into leads.

Relevant content shared will increase the interest of the audience which establishes firm and trustworthy ideas in the user’s minds. Prior research conducted and shared with others increases your brand awareness.

Long-term and Permanent Content

High quality content is foundational for any marketing strategy especially in engaging and building strong relationships. Since the focus is on the audience’s interests, content is customer related and therefore, consistency means updated content. Unless removed on the various sites, this content will remain there for as long as possible.

Allows Customer Interaction

Unlike traditional marketing where the audience is relatively passive, inbound marketing allows direct communication and response with the customer. In the current age of social distancing and Covid-19 restrictions, traditional marketing is depreciating and people are relying on social media and online for information. Direct messages and emails allow one on one engagement which implies the brand is caring.

Cycle of Inbound Marketing

Understanding the customers and aligning yourself to meet their expectations is key for a successful inbound marketing strategy. Inbound marketing involves 4 stages:

Attract

This involves being available to your customers and answering questions raised. Strategies such as blogging, social media content and SEO to maximize web traffic. Researching relevant words and information before publishing to optimize your position on the search engine options. Having a content strategy is crucial at this stage.

Convert

This is the stage of turning the traffic obtained into leads. Constant engagement with the customers and giving solutions to their problems is key at this stage. The aim is to give offers and Calls to Actions (CTAs) to the customers which are appealing. 

Specific targeting strategies are important such as offering landing pages, opt-in forms for them to give their details. You want to continue strengthening the relationship until they are ready to buy.

{RELATED: What you need to know about digital marketing}

Here, the goal is nurturing their interest in the brand and the services offered. Interactions at this stage become more intimate and special such as emails and personalized messages. Solidifying the already built relationship and building trust is important in leading them into becoming customers. Strategies such as the use of customer relationship managers and marketing automation are important at this time to make work easier.

Delight

The goal of any business is to have customers root for the company’s brand and become brand ambassadors. This stage of the cycle demands continuous engagement with customers after they become customers and create trust and brand loyalty.

Help and empower the customers after the purchase through events and webinars, customer support, social listening surveys among other strategies. The goal is to continue giving them a better experience so that they can spread the message about your brand to other people which will generate new leads and growth of your sales and business overall. 

Conclusion

A successful business is tested by how many converted people become converted and recommend and promote your brand/business to others. Inbound marketing is the best strategy to do this.