Seven pieces of inbound marketing wisdom for 2016

To stay ahead of the pack this year, you need an inbound marketing strategy that will bring you more leads and lots of new business. There are a lot of experts offering their pearls of wisdom in the digital marketing world, so here are some of the best.

1. Keep current – traditional channels no longer work

Most people have unsubscribed from email lists, around 68% of people who record TV content do it to skip the adverts and the average click-through rate on display ads is a mere 0.2%. The usual channels for selling are not what they used to be, so it’s important to adapt at the same pace. Interrupting your potential customers’ lives no longer works – you have to engage with them.

2. Remarkable content

Your content needs to be good enough to stand out from the clutter. It must educate, inspire or entertain your audience. There’s so much competition for attention, it’s vital you grab it early on. Try to start a conversation with your content, rather than trying to sell a product or service. The key with inbound marketing is to draw people in and convert them into leads – a process which takes time and effort. The best content is shared, which is the best way to get more people to your site.

3. Use your website to have conversations, rather than announcements/broadcasts

Many websites are used as broadcast channels to address large groups of people and this lack of human touch will not succeed anymore. Your website needs to reach individuals and create an experience. Inbound marketing is so effective because it’s about community – it’s important to infuse your personality into your site.

4. Master the Call to Action

Getting people to your site is hard work, so you need to make sure you give them a next step. A call to action tells your visitor what to do next, whether that be reading another or related interesting blog article, or creating a content database. It’s not enough to optimize your site for search – it has to be optimized for action as well.

5. Use more visual

With the average attention span being 8 seconds, it is becoming more and more challenging to grab the attention of new visitors to your site. Adding visual elements to your content really makes a difference. As Walt Disney said, “Of all of our inventions for mass communication, pictures still speak the most universally understood language.” There are free tools online for great images, so it’s not going to add expense to your campaign, or use photos you take yourself.            

6. Inbound delivers higher ROI

In a survey as far back as 2013, inbound marketers were spending an average of 13% less than outbound. It’s much more expensive to use paid channels that don’t necessarily deliver returns, than it is to invest in blogging and social media.

7. Use data

With so much data available, it’s foolish not to use it to your advantage. Find out which blogs attract the most visitors, which pages are visited most on your website, what topics resonate and which wording converts to a call to action button. Use a URL builder to capture information related to links to find more opportunities to get data.

If your site is easy to use and your traffic generating efforts are strong, the traffic will turn to leads which will turn into sales. Inbound marketing strategies are all about being found naturally, so using this knowledge should help you create a sharp and productive strategy for your business in 2016.

For more advice on inbound marketing, WSI can help you get on the right track (H2)         

If you are seeking knowledge and expert advice for your business, WSI is the digital marketing company to contact. They have even designed an Inbound Marketing Checklist for you to download, which will assist in creating a new framework for campaigns that solve common marketing problems. Be sure to check it out.