The marketing world has changed dramatically in the past 2 decades!
Various forms of traditional marketing are now considered outdated. They are no longer effective, and most of them are replaced by modern, digital-based approaches.
Today, when the internet gives you access to information regarding products, services, brands, competitors, price comparisons, customer reviews, etc., the buying behavior of the customers has shifted to a different set of parameters.
Customers research the products/services they want to buy and then make their final decision. So, it’s not easy to influence buyers with just a few ads or direct promotional calls.
They want more than just products and services!
They want satisfaction!
Therefore, “buying experience” is now one of the top parameters in purchasing any products or services.
As a result, business owners started prioritizing buying experience; shifting the push method into the pull; forcing promotion into magnetic promotion.
It has become crucial for every business or individual marketer to have a clear understanding of inbound methodologies and to implement them effectively.
This article will help you with it. Keep reading.
What is Inbound Marketing?
Inbound marketing is a customer-centric approach in which the main objective of the brand is to help customers with enough information that they can attract the attention of the customers organically.
This process can increase your brand preference, leads, and overall revenue.
It follows the concept of “pull marketing” to attract new businesses, clients, or prospects. Pull marketing includes ways such as:
- Content marketing – Content can be in any form such as blogs, e-books, videos, infographics, landing pages, white papers, etc.
“Content within context is Inbound Marketing”
- Social Media Marketing
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
- Interactive emails (subscribed newsletters)
In outbound marketing, companies search out their customers, but inbound marketing develops methods and increases its product’s or service’s visibility so that customers can discover it.
Purpose and Importance of Inbound Marketing
One of the major advantages of an inbound marketing strategy is that you can gain more customers organically. Customers don’t feel like being forced, and this develops a strong customer-brand relationship.
Another aspect is that it generates better results than traditional marketing if done correctly. It gives an open invitation to the audience and “freedom of choice.”
According to Campaign Monitor, small businesses reported getting the best ROI from email marketing, a type of inbound marketing.
Content marketing institute (CMI) has mentioned in their research that inbound marketing generates 3X more leads per dollar than traditional marketing.
Some of the key importance of inbound marketing are:
- It increases your brand awareness and improves your brand preference
- It is a long-term investment whose results constantly multiply in the future
- Involves less budget
- Customers can engage with your products at any time
- Gives positive results of social media marketing and SEO efforts
In a nutshell, inbound marketing focuses on providing value first to the customers and converting them into leads later.
Now as we have discovered the benefits of implementing inbound marketing strategies in your marketing process. Let’s move toward the methodology involved in this concept.
Inbound Marketing Methodology
Just like any other discipline or theory, inbound marketing has some concepts that help in understanding its process and purpose.
It involves three approaches:
1. Attract- “Content”
Attract your targeted audience by publishing high-quality and relevant content to solve their problems.
This approach is all about creating user-centered content along and making it more visible with the help of on-page and off-page SEO, keyword research, and optimization.
Publish personalized content regularly on social media platforms and use e-mail marketing too.
2. Engage- “Solutions”
Build a platform to establish relationships with potential customers by directly conversing about their challenges and offering solutions through your products/services.
This can be done through inbound sales executives or customer service agents who can highlight the customers’ needs and suggest potential solutions.
“Hard-selling” is avoided in this approach.
3. Delight- “Satisfaction”
It involves satisfying your existing customers with your services and retaining them for a more extended period. In this approach, companies ask for feedback and offer discounts/coupons to maintain consistent purchase rates.
It mainly focuses on “post-sales communication” and develops brand loyalty and trust among customers.
Adopting an effective inbound marketing strategy will make a considerable impact on brand awareness, lead generation, and cost reduction. It will also educate the prospects on your product/service and speed up the sales process.
Inbound Marketing Strategies
An inbound marketing strategy focuses on attracting, educating, and empowering consumers through relevant content that helps and guide them in their purchasing decision. It involves certain steps that one should follow to build a powerful marketing strategy.
Before moving to inbound marketing strategy, first, let’s understand the “buyer’s journey.”
The buyer’s journey is an active exploration or research process that a buyer goes through before leading toward the actual purchase. It is made of three stages:
1. Awareness
It happens when one feels the first symptoms of a problem also called ‘pain points.’ It is the moment when you realize the need for any product which can solve your problem.
For instance, you notice that there are bugs in your garden which are harmful to your plants. You want to get rid of it at the earliest to save the plants from getting infected.
2. Consideration
In this stage, a person starts doing some high-level research to understand or identify whatever it is they need to eliminate their issue. Then, the research process will begin by exploring options, discovering various solutions, and analyzing all these simultaneously.
For instance, you will search for various insect repellents or any liquid solution with the help of the internet that can keep those bugs away from your garden.
3. Decision
After researching when one has decided on a solution and comparing vendors to make their final choice comes under this stage. This is the last stage where a customer has measured all their options and now going to buy their chosen product or service.
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Once you have fully understood the buyer’s journey, it will be easy to plan and implement the inbound marketing strategies efficiently. It has been categorized into five major steps.
5 Steps to Implement an Inbound Marketing Strategy
Marketers who can develop a constructive strategy have noticed growth in website visitors and their engagement. Therefore, follow the below steps to create your marketing strategy.
1. Business goals and buyer’s persona
Determine your business’s short-term and long-term goals by formulating objectives and plans. Learn about your target audience by conducting research on demographics, age, interests, etc. before developing content.
2. Provide relevant content
Create content that is user-centered and directly appeals to them with the help of storytelling, polls, and other engaging activities. You need to provide content throughout your customer’s lifecycle.
3. Select delivery platforms
4. Develop a solid marketing strategy
Maintain a calendar to keep track of the publishing frequency on your website or social media. Fresh and relevant content should be published regularly to attract readers.
5. Analyze your result and regularly optimize it
In the last, always analyze your methods such as SEO factors, inbound links, and traffic quantity to measure your progress. It will also guide you in optimizing your strategy.
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These were the methods that will help you in developing a solid inbound marketing strategy and achieve your marketing goals.
Inbound vs Outbound Marketing
Here, we will discuss the differences between inbound and outbound marketing so you can decide which one should be your priority in your marketing strategy.
Inbound marketing is a set of techniques and tools that are based on attracting potential customers non-intrusively. It takes the audiences from brand discovery to brand loyalty.
Whereas outbound marketing is channeling a message outwards to capture uses through cold calling, broadcasting, or with the help of banners.
1. Quantity versus Quality
Outbound marketing methods focus on quantity since the main intention is to reach as many users as possible. Its success rate is low as these users are not necessarily interested in the products or services offered.
On the contrary, inbound marketing focuses on quality as it seeks to attract targeted users. It is the user, not the company who has to take the first step.
2. User-Experience
Outbound marketing is based on interrupting the users to distribute their messages. For instance, TV commercials, banners, bulk emails, calls, etc. This interaction can be effective at the time of drawing attention but it can also disturb the user.
In fact, in recent years, there has been a boom in “ad blockers” to avoid such intrusive outbound interruption.
On the other hand, inbound marketing seeks to ask the users for permission to communicate with them. It is the user who voluntarily approaches the content of the brand or leaves data to be contacted later. Inbound marketing resources are ensured to be dedicated to those who are interested.
3. Cost or Budgeting
Inbound marketing is cost-effective as it creates a compounding effect. Content that is produced today is read year after year.
However, outbound marketing takes a large portion of the investment. Displaying ads, outbound call executive payments, and paying to acquire large customers’ data are all expensive to get through.
Is Inbound Marketing Better Than Outbound?
The statistic shows that inbound strategies offer a high return on investment. Inbound marketing is cost-effective and uses a targeted approach to reach the audience. Its performances can also be tracked, unlike outbound marketing.
One can start inbound marketing by hiring professionals related to copywriting, content writing, or social media marketing and develop strategies to build content.
Inbound marketing gives a kickstart to your marketing efforts and gradually increases the visibility of your brand.
Bottom- Line
Search, a marketing method that didn’t exist a decade ago, provides the most efficient and inexpensive way for businesses to find leads.
by John Battelle
Inbound marketing is all about creating relevant and remarkable content tailored to the audience at each stage of the buyer’s journey.
This means helping the buyers to understand their concerns and how your brand can truly fit their needs. This is the inbound way of building trust and brand love.
