Inbound Marketing
Inbound Marketing is a strategy that is developed to drive customers to your business. We have all been there – we have encountered the dreaded used-car salesperson (insert horror music here).
Inbound marketing is a break from the traditional form of selling as it is much friendlier and therefore, much more effective.
In the first part of this 4 part series, we are going to go through the basics of inbound marketing:
What is it?
Salesforce defines inbound marketing as “the process of generating interest and engagement in your company by providing value to your potential customers and then turning that interested and engagement into a mutually beneficial relationship”.
This process includes creating content that draws the buyer to you by providing relevant information to your buyer through specific channels that include: content marketing, social media, search engine optimization and paid search.
Content Marketing
Content marketing is at the core of any inbound strategy. By creating helpful and relevant content, you can not only engage your customers with your site and/or profiles, but you can leverage this to capture their information to include in your database.
This content isn’t limited to just blogging, it also includes original and 3rd party social media postings, white papers, eBooks, videos, infographics, etc.
Social Media
Social media is a great channel to post your content because it’s viewed as one of the best ways to increase brand awareness and adds a level of personalization to your brand.
These platforms are where your customers truly interact with your brand and provides opportunities for you to interact back.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
In order for inbound marketing to be effective, you have to be findable in search, and we all know the statistics, companies that are on Page 1 of the search engine, get more business.
By creating quality content that answers questions your customers are asking, there are some great tools out there, but our favorite, is Answerthepublic.com.
Paid Search
Paid search and SEO are not mutually exclusive. For any effective marketing plan, these two campaigns need to run coterminous. The major difference between the two is that paid search drives traffic immediately, while SEO takes more time.
