What Is Inbound Marketing and How Does It Work?
In a world dominated by pushy ads and irrelevant pop-ups, Inbound Marketing is one of the few ways to stand out from the crowd and offer something truly useful. Consumers worldwide are tuning out of interruption-based, invasive marketing methods. It’s time we keep up.
Inbound Marketing is a permission-driven strategy that aims to create an influx of leads — people who are actively looking for your products and services. It is based on the premise that consumers don’t like being interrupted by ads when they’re busy doing something else, even though they could use whatever you offer.
Interestingly, if the same consumers find your business through organic search, they’ll be far more likely to respond to a call to action or actually buy something.
So, instead of reaching out to an uninterested audience, it’s better to make it easier for the interested audience to find you. These are the people who are already researching your industry, evaluating your competitors, and are close to making a purchasing decision.
Social media, blogs, and search engines are powerful marketing tools. They extend your business’s reach and ensure potential customers find you. By publishing great content that is beneficial to your customer base, you are fulfilling an actual need that people have. This establishes trust and credibility for your business, and it’s the cornerstone of Inbound Marketing.
Outbound Marketing is considered the traditional marketing style as it involves pushing your product or service to potential customers. However, Inbound is a little more organic — it is more about your customer finding your business via their own research. Where outbound traditionally uses channels such as television, print, or even direct mail, Inbound primarily focuses on pushing quality content via digital channels.
There are Four Stages of the Methodology of Inbound Marketing:
Attract Your Prospects
Convert Them Into Leads
Close The Deal
Delight Your Audience
Content Marketing and Inbound Marketing Methodology — Difference Explained
Even though content and Inbound Marketing have a lot in common, they’re actually two different concepts. Content marketing falls under the wide umbrella of Inbound Marketing. It focuses on the creation and distribution of content across various channels.
Inbound Marketing, on the other hand, is a bigger-picture strategy that tackles a lot more than content generation. It’s more about reaching out to buyer personas.
We’ve spoken a lot about content marketing already; it is the attraction of potential customers through engaging and helpful content relevant to your business. However, it is merely a part of Inbound Marketing, which also includes the use of things like web design and mailing lists.
When buyers show interest in a product or service, they typically begin to gather information to assist them with their purchase decision. Next, they’ll assess and research their options and eventually decide on a product, service, or vendor. During the early stages of their decision journey, they will want to consume informative content such as eBooks, whitepapers, or instructional videos — anything that will assist them with their research.
Consumers benefit from case studies, data sheets, and FAQs during the decision process. Then, upon selection, free trials, discount codes or demo videos will help to complete the transaction. Keep in mind that Inbound Marketing relies on high traffic to determine its success, and content is the bait!
How Can Inbound Marketing Propel Your Company into Success?
With the exception of Super Bowl commercials, very few people actually enjoy advertisements. We can all agree that ads are annoying, especially when they pop up unannounced in places they aren’t welcome. Inbound Marketing removes this issue — people can’t get frustrated by ads if they are actively seeking them out.
Super Bowl commercials throw their products against a wall to see what sticks; Inbound Marketing filters your audience and reels in people who are specifically looking for your products. Instead, understanding the intent of the consumer by gathering information about them ensures that you are selling to an audience that’s more likely to purchase.
Some key points to remember:
- Putting your business in front of the right target audience helps them find you
- An essential element of the process is performance evaluation
- Analyse your blogs and posts to ensure that the content you are creating is useful for your customers
- Inbound Marketing is based on an understanding of who the customer is and what they are looking for
- Customer engagement is a crucial part of the process
- Creating a positive experience for your audience helps with word-of-mouth and builds trust
Customer base aside, Inbound Marketing will help you with time management and affordability. Rather than spending time on a cold call strategy or advertising to people who do not need your product, you can put your efforts into having leads come to you from a target audience who are already looking for your services. The inbound strategy can be a lower cost alternative which allows you to tailor your marketing team to more specific tasks.
Keep Up With Digital Marketing Trends
As technology changes, marketing strategies also must evolve. You may notice the advertisements in your Facebook feed are now eerily related to your current interests. A perfect example of how account-based marketing is developing.
Instagram is another example of how marketing has changed as technology evolves. Initially, Instagram ads were very subtle, with companies paying high-profile accounts to place their products within posts. Now you see the advertisements as blatant ads in your feed designed to look like something you are already following.
Predicting what marketing trends will be popular in the future can be as easy as aligning them to the latest technological advances (check the list of features on a new release phone, for example). Smart and unique marketing approaches to these new outlets will always work well. You never know what could be next to go viral!
There are many benefits to hiring a full-service digital marketing partner to help you develop a strong Inbound Marketing strategy that will propel your business to the next level. Book a free coffee chat with our team today!