How inbound marketing works
For the last ten years now, inbound marketing has become the most efficient online marketing method for doing business. By publishing content with your customer's interests in mind, you can convert these potential customers into leads that you can then nurture to new clients over time. Inbound marketing involves creating and sharing your content with the world - by designing content specifically tailored to meet the interests of your dream customers, you draw qualified prospects to your business and keep them coming for more.
Initially it is important that you do inbound marketing consulting with an agency who not only understands inbound marketing - but can also get "in deep" with your business goals. It's important to use a consulting agency when first beginning this process as these companies are trained to not only execute and implement, but to also develop long-term strategy and teach your team. Through inbound marketing consulting, you are able to hire people who are experts, who can teach you new things, and can even shed perspective about your own industry and how it translates into the digital world. Inbound marketing is the most cost-beneficial way forward because you're not only building credibility, you're also gaining insight into your customer's buyer's journey and can frame yourself to be an industry leader.
An effective inbound marketing works in four main steps:
- Attracting the right traffic. It's not about bringing in any kind of traffic - it's about bringing in qualified traffic. Some of the tools you can use to attract right users to your site are such as blogging, SEO and social publishing.
- Covert your site visitors. After attracting the right visitors to your website, the next step is to convert them into leads by gathering their contact information - or having them "convert" on a form. This can be achieved by enticing your visitors to gain some piece of information or access by giving away their information.
- Close. This step involves transforming the leads into customers. This can be achieved through lead nurturing - which can be sending a series of emails focused on useful and relevant content to prospects. This piece also includes dealing with the contact directly, so it's important to know as much as possible about them before beginning this process.
- Delight. Inbound process is all about providing remarkable content to users, whether they are visitors, leads or existing customers. Inbound companies continue to engage with delight and optimistic to convert their customer base into happy promoters of the organization and the product they love.
