You have probably heard of inbound marketing given the transformation and evolution of digital in recent years. This business strategy involves attracting prospects to you and your business using different means.
Capturing the attention of your prospects and getting them to take action with your brand are the main goals of inbound marketing. In this article, we will talk to you about practical and effective ways to adopt to succeed in your inbound marketing strategy.
Inbound marketing: what is it more precisely?
Definition
Initially developed by Seth Godin (former marketing manager at Yahoo who became an author and speaker), inbound marketing was previously called “permission marketing”. The idea was to obtain permission from potential customers in order to send them informative content.
Then, the expression “inbound marketing” appeared, the term was spread by Brian Halligan, founder of Hubspot. For him, the concept is as follows: to attract the attention of search engines and Internet users without having to resort to traditional advertising, it was necessary to produce very good quality content.
Unlike the different techniques used in traditional marketing (cold calling, door to door, etc.), inbound marketing consists of bringing prospects to you rather than searching for them.
The consumer himself undertakes research into solutions or potential answers to his problems and questions. He must therefore contact your company in order to obtain them.
The objectives of the concept
Inbound marketing is used to generate traffic, acquire leads, convert them into customers and then retain them. All of this must be done by building a relationship between your brand and your audience. The more a company takes care of its audience, the more it will transform visitors into prospects and then into loyal customers.
Why did the concept become famous?
Many reasons favored the birth of inbound marketing. Outbound marketing (the most used previously) has experienced several shortcomings which have made this practice much less effective with consumers.
Indeed, on the one hand, the massive production of advertising from all companies causes a glut which only drowns out consumers. On the other hand, technological developments have meant that the techniques deployed in traditional marketing are gradually moving away from consumers, such as anti-spam devices which block certain content in users' email boxes.
Social networks and e-commerce have experienced unprecedented growth. Internet users can now buy online without leaving their home on Facebook for example, or in an online store. Companies are then forced to adapt their prospecting methods at each level of their customers' purchasing journey according to changes in their behavior.
The steps to follow for a successful inbound marketing strategy
Know your avatar well
In marketing, the term avatar refers to your ideal customer profile. Knowing your target audience allows you to direct your content according to their needs. With more information about them in your possession, it will be easier to reach them. Offer content adapted to the personality, habits, basic needs and behavior of your avatar. Offer your target audience a one-of-a-kind experience personalized to their needs.
Optimize your visibility to generate traffic
Whether your business is B2C or B2B, visibility is essential. To do this, everything depends on the content that you offer to your audience, as this is the key element of an inbound marketing strategy.
Quality content attracts more visitor attention. In addition to your company's website, sharing this content on social networks is also an effective way to gain visibility, because these social platforms bring together almost all Internet users so your potential customers are surely among them.
Convert acquired visitors into leads
Now that you have traffic, it's time to turn them into leads. A simple visit is not enough to qualify them as prospects. It is now necessary to collect information about them, such as an email address, in order to approach them and also to establish a relationship of trust.
free, downloadable white paper online, for example. Ask them to fill out a field for their email address so that they can receive the white paper in question. To make them want to download it, a white paper must cover a specific subject while being useful for your prospects. Calls to action are the tools to deploy to direct them towards this new content.
Convert your leads into customers
If you have managed to collect their email address, this means that they (become leads) are really interested in the content that you are sending them. Of course, the goal is to sell your products or services, but don't act by immediately tackling the sale of your products and that alone. Implement a strategy based on listening and resolving your prospects' problems so as not to be too intrusive with them.
In order to convert them into customers, you can use tools like marketing automation to deliver the right message at the right time to the target person .
Can we combine outbound marketing and inbound marketing?
Transmitting emotions from your content is essential for your inbound marketing strategy. But physical meetings between your sales team and your target are also ideal. Inbound marketing and outbound marketing can complement each other very well.
For example, inbound marketing makes it possible to identify the hottest prospects and their needs. Outbound marketing, for its part, will be responsible for making contact with these hot prospects in a more personalized way and thus increasing the probability of converting them into customers.
Deploying an inbound marketing strategy is an essential step for the development of your business in the digital age. However, you need to know the essential points to consider in order to benefit from all the benefits that this practice can bring.
