Inbound Marketing is a method of guiding your customers to you, by simply giving them access to great online content.<\/p>\n
The Inbound Marketing methodology is designed to attract people to your company and centres around earning your audience\u2019s interest rather than focusing on their buying attention with sales and promotional material.<\/p>\n
With this in mind, to attract and earn your audience\u2019s interest you need to provide them with valuable content. Not only should this interest them but also offer a solution to a particular pain point they are experiencing. Using the Inbound Marketing methodology to communicate with your audience will help them build their trust in your brand. And they will also see you as a source of knowledge in your field.<\/p>\n
There are 4 stages of the Inbound Marketing methodology, Attract, Convert, Close and Delight. Each of these steps helps you guide your audience further along the marketing funnel and closer to becoming your customer. Therefore, the content for each section should be targeted to the audience within that area and should aim to help progress them onto the next stage.<\/p>\n
As the name may suggest, this stage is about attracting people to your company. This is achieved by creating high-quality content designed to create an interest in your company. The content you create in this stage should also aim to compel people to transition to the next step of the conversion process.<\/p>\n
To help you attract potential customers you could:<\/p>\n
\u25cf Write engaging and regular content for your company blog
\n\u25cf Use social media
\n\u25cf Create explainer videos
\n\u25cf Utilise keywords throughout your website and social content
\n\u25cf Optimise your web pages
\n\u25cf Run a Google AdWords campaign<\/p>\n
Once you have attracted people to your company and created an audience that are interested in your brand and your content, it is time to convert them into qualified leads. The convert stage is where you can begin to nurture your audience, and to do this effectively you will need to obtain their contact information.<\/p>\n
To help you obtain your audience’s contact information you must offer them something in return, namely something that is of value and helpful to them. It is in this stage that you may choose to use premium content that is gated – high-value content which can only be read once the user has given you their contact information such as their email address.<\/p>\n
The types of content that work well as gated content, include:<\/p>\n
\u25cf eBooks
\n\u25cf Webinars
\n\u25cf Whitepapers
\n\u25cf Guides
\n\u25cf Case studies<\/p>\n
This is the stage where your audiences are ready to become customers. As this goal is consumer-focused, the process will typically consist of a joint sales and marketing effort so that your audience becomes sales qualified and ready to make the decision to buy.<\/p>\n
It is then the content you create in this stage will help your audience become more aware of the products or services you offer and will provide the solution to the pain points they are experiencing.<\/p>\n
The techniques that can help you close your leads, include:<\/p>\n
\u25cf Lead scoring
\n\u25cf Email campaigns
\n\u25cf Marketing Automation
\n\u25cf Video marketing, such as testimonials or product demos<\/p>\n
It is in the delight stage that you retain the customers you have gained. You need to show your customers you still value them, by doing so you will drive brand loyalty and create greater sales opportunities not only with the customers you have recently acquired but also those who they could recommend you to.<\/p>\n
Effective strategies for delighting your customers, include:<\/p>\n
\u25cf Offering incentives, such as loyalty discounts.
\n\u25cf Interacting with customers on social media
\n\u25cf Marketing Automation to ensure your customers are receiving content that is of interest
\n\u25cf Video content such as thank you videos or product training<\/p>\n
Adopting the Inbound Marketing methodology as part of your Marketing Automation campaign will help give your company a lasting competitive advantage.<\/p>\n
Learn how SharpSpring works, what it can do, why businesses need it, how the different features and functions work, what it costs, and much more. This won\u2019t cost anything, just 20 minutes of your time, in return, you\u2019ll be truly amazed by what Marketing Automation will do for your business.<\/p>\n
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