Earn attention with inbound marketing

For many years, marketers have focused on outbound marketing. Your message is pushed out, attempting to buy people’s attention (think radio, television, magazines).

With inbound marketing, the focus switches to earned attention. By providing your prospects with something of value, they give you permission to keep marketing to them. An example of this would be creating a whitepaper with valuable information that people can download for free. In this way, you’re showing your expertise and helping them with a challenge they face. Similarly, blog posts and articles with tips and advice are a great way to let a potential prospect find you on Google. If you’re lucky, they will subscribe to your blog feed or e-mail newsletters and in turn give you permission to market to them in the future.

True inbound companies work on converting these prospects into customers, taking them on a journey down a purchasing funnel (this is also known as lead nurturing). This type of nurturing consists of email autoresponders, automated emails which give your prospect useful information, help and advice through the buyer funnel, conversion optimization, offering different formats of the same page on your website to find out which convert more regularly. A good inbound marketing campaign may also include dynamic content – for example, if I know you’ve downloaded a document on my site before, I might put a personal message for you the next time you return.

These are all ways you prove your value to a customer and continue to lead them down your sales funnel. If you’re interested in starting your inbound marketing campaign, download WSI eBiz Solution’s Free Checklist on how to run an inbound marketing campaign today.