When we speak of inbound marketing, it refers to marketing activities that bring visitors in, rather than marketers having to go out to get prospects’ attention. Inbound marketing earns the attention of customers, makes the company easy to find and draws the customer to the website by producing interesting content. Since 2006, inbound marketing has been the most successful marketing tool for doing business online. By aligning your content with your customer’s interests, you naturally attract inbound traffic that you can then convert and close.
An inbound strategy is the best way to turn strangers into customers and promoters of your business. Learning how to do this is not as hard as it may sound and by teaching yourself this tool, you can increase your leads and customer base quickly and significantly. The strategy for inbound marketing can be broken up into four steps: Attract, Convert, Close and Delight. Let’s look at each step in a bit more detail:
- Attract: Your ultimate goal is not to bring traffic to your site, but to bring the right type of traffic – the kind which turns into leads and happy customers. Bringing relevant content into your potential customers’ space is the objective and this can be achieved by writing blogs, using the right keywords and publishing content on social media A blog should contain educational content that answers questions. Since your customers normally use a search engine to find something they are interested in, you need to make sure you appear on their search, by using the optimal keywords. Once they have found your site, you must remember it needs to then be interesting enough to keep them reading – ensure your pages are appealing and contain helpful content. Sharing content on social media platforms allows you to engage with prospective customers and helps to put a face to your brand. A lot of customers spend a considerable amount of time on social platforms, so that’s where you need to be.
- Convert: Once you have a customer visiting your site, convert them to leads by gathering their information. In order for your customers to give you their contact information, you’ll need to supply them with something in return, which could be eBooks, white papers or tip sheets. Use forms that are easy and simple to complete. Call-to-Action buttons or links are a good idea to keep your visitor engaged, like “Download an eBook” or “Attend a webinar”. Keep track of these leads in a marketing database as it will help you to make sense of the interactions, whether it be via email, landing pages or social media.
- Close: Once you have the contacts and leads, you need to convert these into customers. Using Customer Relationship Management systems will help to keep the information where you need it. The use of a series of emails focused on relevant and useful content can build trust with a potential client.
- Delight: Once you have a lead and have converted them into a customer, it’s important to remember it doesn’t stop there. It’s vital to continue to engage with them and hopefully upsell the current customer base into happy promoters of your organization or product. Tools to do this include surveys, smart content tailored to your customers’ interests and social monitoring, listening out for questions, comments, likes and dislikes.
Inbound marketing doesn’t just happen – you make it happen
Hopefully, what you’ve read so far has inspired you to get going on your inbound marketing campaign. If you’re not sure where to start, the downloadable checklist from WSI is worth a look. Developed by WSI, it can get your inbound marketing strategy off to a great start. For more information, contact them today.
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WSI was founded in 1995 and is an innovative digital marketing agency with offices in over 80 countries. We’ve spent over 20 years helping more than 100,000 companies and large global brands unlock the full potential of their business by leveraging the Internet and its many unrecognized opportunities. We’d be happy to help do the same for you and consult on your digital marketing strategy. Simply give us a call or get in touch with us at rknutsen@wsiebizsolutions.net to learn more.
