Inbound marketing is replacing the strategy of outbound marketing. It is a new way to market, where instead of pitching to customers, you are having them come to you. Most customers being bombarded with outbound marketing strategies aren’t paying much attention. When you think about how rarely you open your junk mail, or actually watch commercials on TV, or even read articles that have too many ads on them, its no wonder Inbound marketing is becoming the most effective marketing strategy.
These days most people are making purchases online. They often go online and do research on a product or service before purchasing. People’s buying processes are changing and with it so are effective marketing strategies. With these changes, the right strategies are crucial in attracting new customers.
The first strategy of inbound marketing is Attracting customers. But it’s not that simple. Sure, you want to attract customers but you want to make sure you’re attracting the right people, people that are interested in your product, otherwise you wont be converting many of those people into customers. We call the people we are attracting, buyer personas, or the people that will be interested in your content and your business offering. Finding the right readers for your website means doing research, which is crucial to this step.
We attract our buyer personas through a mix of content, SEO and social media strategies. In an increasingly technological world, the most effective way to reach potential customers is online to attract and educate them. This can mean many different things for different personas, because everyone learns differently, but here are six common ways to appeal to your personas and attract them to your website:
An important part of this step is creating content. You want to make sure the content of your blog is solid and is relevant to the people looking at it. You want to answer the questions of your target personas, who will be reading your blog.
Infographics makes things easier for readers to understand. If they can figure out the answers to their question in just a few seconds they are more likely to trust you, an important part of gaining thought leadership in your field.
Similar to infographics, powerpoint decks make it easier for the reader to find what they are looking for. If they can find it in a glance, you have successfully made their life easier.
Social Media is an important aspect for Inbound Marketing because it helps put a face to your brand. It allows you to interact with your customers on social media platforms that your buyer personas frequent.
Another tool is a Call-to-Action. This could be a link saying something like “Download the App” or “ Attend this webinar”. These CTA’s must be enticing enough to get readers to click on them. If they do click on the CTA’s they should be directed to a Landing Page. This a space where the visitor converts to a lead.
Most customers start online when they’re buying things. They google a question because they are searching for a solution. If your website is at the top of their search, they are more likely to click on it, already giving your website more reach. Keywords and links are the main key to this but you have to be careful in this aspect, because your website needs to be relevant to their search Otherwise, you risk losing customers.
After you have attracted your readers to the landing page on your website, it is time to get their contact information. Lead conversion can be done with a simple form. This can be a tricky process though, because you don’t want to make these forms too complicated and lose leads. It is best practice to make these forms as simple as possible, so as to lose as few customers as possible in this process.
