Inbound Marketing: The Building Blocks
Inbound marketing techniques include content such as
blogs, white papers, and articles; search engine optimization (SEO); social
networking; and landing page optimization.
People go straight to the internet to avoid those hard
sales pitches. You know the ones I am talking about, Mr. Sham-wow. In the new
world where buyers are in control of self-educating, your job as a marketer is
not to find leads; it is to help leads find you. Outbound marketing has gotten
too forceful, annoying and thus less effective for customers.
INBOUND MARKETING DEFINED: The process of helping
prospective clients find you - sometime before they are even looking to
purchase – turning that preference into brand loyalty and revenue.
It’s about engaging your customer with informative,
interesting and even better entertaining content. It is important to optimize
content and distribute across the various channels of communication.
Luckily when you have customers actively searching for
you on the web their anti-sales shields are down making them far more receptive
and trusting of you and your brand. Out with sham-wow and in with the passive
peace offering marketer. This creates relationships and engagement that
traditional marketing did not allow.
Content: The Keystone to Inbound
Marketing
Content engages with prospects, customers and possible
gate-keepers which is why it needs to be relative and of the highest quality.
Content must inspire, educate, wow and stand out against the bombardment of
information. Facebook and other such social media sites have become strict
against promotional sales pitchy content as a reflection of how people want to
make buying decisions. Prospects “find” you.
Different
Types of Content:
Articles
Blog
Posts
Books/eBooks
Brochures
Case
Studies
Demos
Email
Free
Trials
Images
Information
Guides
Live
Streamed Events
Manuals
Microsites/Web
Pages
Online
Courses
Podcasts/Videocasts
Presentations
Press
Releases
Product
Data Sheets
Reference
Guides
Resource
Libraries
RSS/XML
Feeds
Surveys
Radio/TV/Web
TV
Videos
Webinars/Webcasts
White
Papers
Widgets
Workbook
Increasing Your Presence on SEO and
Social
SEO is about optimizing your online visibility so
prospective customers can find you easily before your competitors. It’s about
increasing the chances of landing on your site and online content by including
keywords that help you rank high in organic search results. The higher
the content and site ranks in search engine’s the more likely people will click
on the link to your content and start engaging. Continuing with adding new and
fresh content will help keep you on first page rankings. With new sites going
live every minute each day having fresh relevant content becomes necessary.
Making content worthy of sharing is the gold ticket.
Once people share your content via social media connect you exponentially and
instantly expand your web reach.
Where People Go Wrong with Inbound
Marketing
Even with inbound marketing there needs to be focus. Too
often people bombard the internet with tonnes of content to everyone. Even
online marketing needs focus and should be specifically targeted to the right
people, your ideal customers. Delivering quality content to the correct people
in the most engaging way through multiple channels including email, direct mail
and phone is integral to creating the right marketing mixed approach. Those in
the early stages of buying are looking for content that addresses their
problems and educates, rather than promotes. Content needs to be a mix of
problems and solutions. Sharing your content where your prospects spend time is
crucial. You aren’t reaching the decision makers, the influencers or
gate-keepers. There is too much noise so you have to stand out, be creative
with your content and be different.
* And remember nurture your current clients because they
are all you have. Let them be the source of your new clients.
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