Inbound marketing has become a buzzword in the modern world, mostly due to a lot of advancements in technology. For one, social media and other online social platforms are now the order of the day. These are the areas where you can easily get your customers regardless of the industry within which you operate. For instance, if you want to market your restaurant, you can take photos of your unique delicacies and post them on Instagram.
However, inbound marketing isn’t only about social platforms found on the web. Search engine optimization (SEO) and blogging also make this section of marketing. Inasmuch as this strategy is ranked among the top in digital advertisement, it can only work if you know how to use it. Many people have the necessary resources at their disposal, but are unable to get the best out of them.
Therefore, it’s important that you learn all applicable skills to make your social media channels and website productive. Once you’ve got everything spot on, how will inbound marketing strategies make it easier to sell your business?
Generate Traffic To Your Site
Inbound marketing involves SEO, social media engagement, and content marketing. Through these strategies, you get to attract potential customers to your website. Whether you’re starting a new e-commerce business or running an already established company, you should already be aware that site traffic is one crucial ingredient of online business success.
For one, traffic is one way of ensuring that more customers come across your products and services. Obviously, people can only buy what they interact with. Therefore, once you’ve directed them to your website page, they’ll make their decision based on what they see.
However, you need to remember that traffic doesn’t directly influence your revenue. Its job is to expose customers to whatever you’re selling and attract new potential clients. What happens next is highly dependent on how you market the products you’re selling. One mistake that many people make is that they plan their inbound marketing well and, then, leave it at that. Doing so won’t be effective and you might find customers ignoring your website based on their previous experiences.
Again, creating two blogs or one social media post every five months might not work for you. You’ll need to create as much content as possible, especially if your company is still young. Also, whatever you post on your chosen platforms matter, and it could spell the difference between success and failure. For instance, you need to share information related to your products and in a way that the target audience can relate.
Strengthen Your Company’s Image
At the beginning of any business, there are very few customers who are aware of the new products and services. One big drawback of such a company is the fact that not many people are ready to take the risk of replacing their current brands with a newcomer. As such, it helps to build the company’s name, and one of the best ways to do so is through inbound marketing.
Of course, outbound marketing can achieve the same objective, but at a very low success rate. Take for example trying to explain your new products to potential customers through text messages. It’s one of the quickest methods, but it doesn’t feel right, not to mention the fact that you’ll be delivering these messages to a bunch of uninterested recipients.
Technology has had huge impact on how businesses are run in this day and age. Perhaps, the greatest innovations in the world of digital marketing are social media, content creation, and SEO. With the first two, you have the opportunity to discuss your products casually with the target audience. However, you have to be very careful with your communication because that defines the image of your business in such platforms.
The good thing is that provided you create great blog content or videos, that quality will be associated with your brand. In addition, if you’re always ready to answer questions as quickly as possible, then, you’ll attract more audience. It's a perfect way of building your brand and strengthening customer loyalty.
Keep The Campaigns Going
One of the best features of inbound marketing is the fact that it doesn’t have a time limit. The moment you kickstart your campaign, it continues generating traffic for as long as your website or social media account is operational. It’s quite a helpful factor to have in your business because it cuts down on the advertisement costs. The initial startup expenses are the only significant costs you’ll incur since the rest only comprise mostly of employee salaries and a few additions to the main strategy.
This feature might not seem like a great deal when you think about it for the first time, but you’ll see the importance once you compare it to other campaigns. For instance, TV commercials and billboards are very expensive, yet they run for a finite period of time. To put it into context, a one-month's budget for such advertisements can already finance a lifetime of one of the popular inbound marketing techniques. You could create a very attractive website and fill it with great blog posts and videos.
However, that’s not to say you shouldn’t opt for outbound marketing methods. All strategies are important, and when used together, you can build a very strong brand. TV commercials, for instance, are very expensive, but they reach many potential consumers within a short period. On the flipside, however, you can’t rely on them for a long time because they’ll eat up a huge percentage of your revenue. That said, make sure to create a balance among all the available techniques accordingly.
Prioritize Consumer’s Privacy
Although it’s rarely talked about, outbound marketing techniques can be very frustrating to the consumers because they ‘re forced to them. For instance, while watching your favorite TV show, you’re bombarded with advertisements of some products that might not interest you. As such, most people use these commercial breaks to refill their snacks or have a little conversation. Keep in mind that a company has paid lots of money to have you check out their ads.
Consumer discretion is very crucial when selling your business, and inbound marketing strategies prioritize this feature. You, as the audience, can visit whichever page you want in your own terms, without being forced to do so. Since the business isn’t crossing your privacy boundaries, there’s a huge chance of you buying their products, or at least checking out even more services.
Generate Successful Leads
Whichever marketing strategy you choose to use, there’s always the issue of lead conversion. How many new consumers does your campaign bring in within a given span of time? Is the success rate proportional to the resources invested in the process? These are some of the questions that you ought to ask yourself as a business or a marketing manager. If you were to compare between outbound and inbound marketing using this particular criterion, then, the latter would the clear winner.
As earlier stated, the users are welcomed to check out your products at their own discretion. If they’re scrolling through a social media platform and come across your advertisement, they’re more likely to respond than when they see an ad on the TV. Inasmuch as TV commercials get to more people, only a small percentage qualifies as successful leads. Inbound marketing, on the other hand, targets only those interested in your products and services. As such, about 90% of the recipients are likely to visit your website, and a good percentage of those will buy your product or avail of your service.
Build Business Relationships
Inasmuch as your marketing strategies should focus on increasing sales, it would also be an added advantage if you can use the same mechanism to build a relationship with your customers. Many companies design their campaigns with the immediate revenue in mind, forgetting that retaining the clients is very crucial. So, how does inbound marketing help in this area?
Well, first, it’s important to note that most inbound marketing techniques are geared towards customer engagement. For instance, social media or your blog content is designed in such a way that the customers can give their feedback whenever necessary. As a company, it’s upon you to take this factor into consideration and try to respond to as many questions as possible.
As you communicate with your clients, either through private messages or by responding to their questions on a public forum, your relationship with is slowly strengthened. Within a few months or years, you’ll have loyal customer base that’s willing to support you even when you go through a rough patch (this happens even to the most established businesses).
Conclusion
Inbound marketing has gained so much popularity in recent years because of its success rate. When you employ this strategy, you stand a chance of increasing your profits. For one, it helps you strengthen your relationship with current customers. It’s also a great way of attracting new customers, either through SEO, links to your website, or social media engagement. The best thing about this technique is that it considers customer discretion, which is a very crucial part of marketing.
Author Bio: Marc Morgan is a professional blogger who writes articles about marketing, web design and development. Marc has gained thousands of readers across the globe because of his informative yet fun content online.
