Inbound marketing is a strategy that helps attract customers to your business. It’s about delivering valuable content to people interested in what you offer rather than expecting them to look for you.
Inbound marketing is also about creating a good experience for your audience, providing them with valuable information, and offering solutions to their problems. This can be done through blogging, webinars, videos, or even social media posts.
This approach has been proven time and time again by businesses of all sizes around the world because it works – especially in today’s digital age, where consumers have more choices than ever before.
In this article, we’ll look at some of the key strategies used in inbound marketing so that you can start implementing them into your efforts immediately!
What is Inbound Marketing?
Inbound marketing is a method that relies on attracting customers to your site. It is the opposite of outbound marketing, which tries to push information about your business to potential customers.
Inbound marketing is based on the idea that people are more likely to buy from you if they know, like, and trust you. It aims to attract customers who are already interested in your product or service and turn them into buyers.
You can create valuable content that attracts people who may not yet know about your business but might be interested in what you offer.
Inbound marketing strategies include:
- Creating and publishing relevant content (blog posts, whitepapers, infographics, videos, etc.)
- Promoting that content using social media channels like Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter
- Setting up your website so that it’s easy for people to find your content and share it with other people via social media or email.
According to HubSpot, Inbound marketing involves following the Attract, Engage, and Delight model:
- Attract: Attracting visitors to your website through content marketing (blog posts), social media (Facebook, Twitter), and search engine optimization (SEO).
- Engage: Turning visitors into leads by giving them something they want (content), helping them solve a problem they have (content), or making them feel good about themselves (video).
- Delight: Turning leads into customers by offering value in exchange for their contact information (free report, ebook, or discount coupon code).
Why Does Inbound Marketing Matter: Benefits Of Inbound Marketing?
Inbound marketing is a way to help businesses get found online. It’s about creating content that attracts people to your website and then converting them into customers.
The benefits of Inbound Marketing are many, including
- Increased traffic – The more content you create, the more likely people will find it on Google, social media, and other search engines. If you don’t have anything on your website or blog, your business won’t appear in search results! You can also get more traffic from other blogs linking to your site or article.
- Boosts organic search engine rankings: When you’re creating great content, Google will notice it and give you a boost in organic search rankings. That means more people can find you on Google without paying for ads! This saves money and increases profits and brand awareness over time.
Your business can also rank higher for longtail keywords that people may be using when searching for information about a specific topic or product/service offering.
- It’s affordable – When you pay for advertising, you’re not only paying for the ad itself but also paying for another company to host and deliver it on their platform. With inbound marketing, all of this is done by yourself! You don’t need to spend money on an agency or other people’s services; you just need basic inbound marketing tools like WordPress and a website hosting service like Hostinger.
- It helps build trust between you and your target audience – When someone finds an article or video that speaks to them emotionally, it builds trust in the brand behind it. It also helps show potential clients that their needs matter more than just making a sale.
- It helps you attract the right customers – You’re not spending money on ads that only reach people who aren’t interested in what you have to offer. The right people will see your content and come to you because they’re already looking for what you have to offer.
- Better customer service – Providing valuable information to visitors through blog posts and other forms of content, such as white papers or eBooks, makes them feel like they’re getting something in return for their time spent reading your stuff! This helps build trust between you and users, which leads to increased sales down the line!
- Better brand awareness – Inbound marketing creates a strong connection between your brand and potential customers because they interact with you directly through the words you write and publish on your website. This helps create awareness about who you are and what you have to offer as a company or organization.
Inbound Marketing Strategies You Can Start Using Today
Inbound marketing is about building trust with customers and creating relationships with them on social media. It’s about providing value so people want to do business with you.
Here are some ways you can start using inbound marketing today:
1. Create killer content and optimize for search engines.
According to SEMrush, 55% of marketers said that improving content quality helped them make their 2021 content strategy successful, while 46% credited their success to SEO.
An essential part of inbound marketing is building an online presence through great content and optimizing it — creating helpful information that customers want to share with their friends and colleagues.
Creating killer content starts by understanding your target audience — who they are, what they want from your business, and where they hang out online.
Once you know that, you can create blog posts, videos, ebooks, or other types of content that meet their needs.
Here are some content ideas you can implement to attract your target audience:
- Write blog posts that solve problems for your target market
- Create video tutorials that explain concepts in an easy-to-understand way
- Create eBooks with step-by-step instructions for specific tasks or processes that people need help with
The idea is to create something so valuable that people want to share it with friends and colleagues.
Once you’ve created your content, the next step is optimizing it for search engines so that when people search for relevant keywords, they’ll find your site among the first results returned by Google or another search engine. This means using keywords in titles, subtitles, descriptions (for web pages), and alt tags (for images).
However, you can’t just create a blog post and expect it to rank on Google’s first page. SEO takes time, effort, patience, and consistency.
Make sure to use tools like Google Trends or SEMrush to find out what topics people are searching for, then write blog posts around those topics. For example, if you sell organic dog food, you could create a blog post about choosing the right dog food for your pet’s needs or transitioning from regular dog food to organic food without making him sick.
Here’s a six-step process you can use to create killer content for your inbound marketing strategy:
- Write about what your audience cares about
- Create unique value with your writing
- Search engines optimize all your pages
- Make sure every piece of content has a clear call to action (CTA)
- Use images and videos in your blog posts and emails
- Always test and measure
2. Create a great user experience, starting with your website.
Your website is the foundation for all of your inbound marketing efforts. If your website doesn’t do an excellent job of supporting and encouraging your customers to take action, then none of your other efforts will matter.
In fact, statistics suggest that 88% of online shoppers reported they would not return to a site after a bad user experience – while 70% of online businesses fail due to bad usability.
That’s why creating a great user experience on your website is essential. The best way to do that is by creating a site that focuses on solving problems for your visitors, not just promoting products and services.
If you look at the case study of Mercedes-Benz Ukraine, the company wanted to build a new and more efficient site than the old website. The old website was created based on an official template and had issues like a complicated Customer Journey Map, low conversion rate, no personalized customer approach, poor site navigation, and lacking other necessary functions.
Here’s a screenshot of the old site:
After addressing all these issues and developing an attractive and functional website, it took less time to maintain, users found it easier to use, and their trust in the company increased.
This is their new website:
Here are some tips for creating an effective user experience on your site:
- Make it easy and intuitive to find what they’re looking for – Your site should be easy to navigate and understand so that visitors can easily find what they’re looking for and take the next step in the buying process. Make sure there’s plenty of content on each page, but don’t overdo it — too much text can confuse or intimidate some visitors.
- Help them through the buying process – Your site should also help guide visitors through the buying process by providing helpful information about how things work (e.g., shipping costs) and where to go next (e.g., contact us). This is especially important if you sell physical products — many customers won’t know what size shirt or color chair they want until they’ve seen it in person.
- A seamless flow of information and action between multiple pages and screens – This includes menus, buttons, and forms that seamlessly move users through different pages on your website or app without confusion or frustration. It also includes ensuring that what users do on one page automatically updates on other pages, so they don’t have to re-enter information again if they go back to make edits later on in their journey through your site.
Here are some more quick tips for creating a great user experience on your website:
- Avoid flash
- Use clear language and avoid jargon
- Optimize your site for mobile devices
- Provide a search function so users can find what they need quickly
- Use video and imagery to tell your story and demonstrate the features of your product or service
- Make sure your site loads quickly
- Make sure there aren’t any dead ends
3. Write blog posts with CTAs and SEO keywords
Write blog posts that educate your target market, answer their questions, or immediately give them the information they can use. Include clear calls-to-action (CTAs) at the end of each post so readers know what to do next.
As per a survey, most experts say that the conversion rate of a blog post CTA on their sites is 4-5%.
CTAs help you get more traffic from search engines and give visitors a reason to return and keep reading.
For the uninitiated, a CTA stands for call-to-action and is a phrase or button at the end of an article that encourages readers to do something specific — like sign up for your newsletter or download a free ebook.
For example, if you’re writing an article about how to make money blogging, your CTA could be, “Click here now to learn more about how I make money blogging!”
Here’s an example of a social sharing CTA from Trello:
(Source)
Regarding inbound marketing, SEO keywords are another key part of the strategy.
In a survey of 1067 bloggers conducted in 2021, 71 percent reported that SEO was their main traffic source.
The first step is to determine which keywords will drive traffic to your website. The next step is to determine which ones you should use in your blog posts.
Here are some simple tips for writing blog posts with SEO keywords:
- Use long-tail keywords. Long-tail keywords are more specific than broad ones and have more search volume. They also tend to be easier for people to remember and easier for Google’s search algorithm to understand. So instead of using “sneakers” as a keyword, use “Nike shoe size 8 men.”
- Don’t stuff your content with keywords just to do so. You want your site’s content to be readable and engaging — not just stuffed with keywords that sound like they would fit in an algorithm (e.g., “best cheap watches under 50 dollars”).
- Use keywords that describe your business and its industry. The more specific you get, the better. For example, say “boutique hotel” in Paris. Use this list of keyword research tools to find out what people are searching for in your industry.
- Keep your content focused on one topic per post. If possible, write about topics other bloggers in your niche don’t cover. This will help you stand out from the crowd when people search for information related to your niche.
- Use keywords in your title. Your blog post titles should contain the main keyword that you’re targeting. It is also a good idea to include synonyms for that keyword in the title as well. For example, if I write a post about “Search engine optimization,” I will use that exact phrase as the title of my article. However, I may also include some related terms such as “SEO tips,” “SEO strategies,” and “Professional SEO services.“
- Use keywords in your introduction paragraph(s). The first paragraph of your blog post should include a sentence or two that has one or more of your target keywords. Ensure this information is relevant to your topic, not just filler text used to reach keyword density requirements.
4. Create a lead magnet
A lead magnet is a free resource or offer that encourages people to give their contact information in exchange for the free resource or offer. You can then use this contact information to follow up with them regarding your business and its products or services.
As per wpforms, 50% of marketers who use lead magnets report higher conversion rates.
A lead magnet can be anything from an ebook to a white paper or even a special report. However, it should be something that your target audience actually wants.
The best lead magnets give away information that’s hard to find elsewhere (but easy for your target market to consume). You want your target market to feel like they’re getting valuable information from you for free — not just a cheap sales pitch.
It doesn’t have to be complicated; some of the best lead magnets are simple yet effective.
There are several ways to create a lead magnet, including:
- Write an ebook or other type of long-form content that’s relevant to your target customer base.
- Create an audio file or video tutorial related to your business area of expertise.
- Create short-form content like blog posts, quizzes, and checklists for your website visitors who want quick tips on how to do something better.
Here’s an example of how data visualization software brand Tableau uses training videos as their lead magnet:
(Source)
It is an excellent option if you have a product with complex or many features and want to show off what your product can really do.
Looking at the Get Response 2020 Report for Best Lead magnets for lead Generation, 47% of marketers say that video and text-based lead magnets perform best when it comes to opt-in incentives.
Content Marketing Institute studies also state that B2B marketers’ three top-performing means of gaining leads are in-person events, webinar lead magnets, and ebook lead magnets.
5. Build a landing page
Landing pages are an essential part of any inbound marketing strategy. They’re one of the first ways a potential customer interacts with your brand, and what you do here can make or break the sale.
Here are a few tips:
- Know your audience – You need to know who you’re talking to and what they want so that you can tailor your message appropriately. To do this, research your target audience with surveys or interviews.
- Understand the page’s purpose – Will you use this page as a lead magnet or an opt-in page? Is it for branding? Do you want people to like your Facebook page or share your blog post? Once you have figured out the purpose of the page, then you can build on that foundation.
- Use a template as a framework for your design – Many templates can help guide your design processes, such as Unbounce, LeadPages, and Instapage. Each has its own advantages and disadvantages, but they all have one thing in common: They save time by giving you pre-built elements that can be easily customized with your own content. All of them also have analytics built-in so that you can track who is coming through your landing page and which links they click on after visiting your website.
- Use strong images and headlines to capture attention – The first thing someone sees when they come across your landing page is usually an image or headline that grabs their attention.
- Create a sense of urgency or scarcity (if appropriate) – If there’s a limited-time offer or something else that makes visitors want to act now instead of later, then include that information on your landing page. This will encourage them to take action immediately rather than procrastinating and possibly forgetting about it entirely.
- Create a CTA that stands out – Make it easy for viewers to take action by making the CTA prominent on the page and using different colors to indicate it’s clickable.
Using videos on landing pages and building interactive landing pages can also benefit you. A study points out that videos on landing pages can increase conversions by 86%.
Here’s a good example of Wistia, a SaaS company that uses video for its landing page:
(Source)
Another study points out that having an interactive landing page can improve your messages’ efficiency by 79%.
6. Use personalized Calls-to-Action to Convert Visitors into Leads
The first step in building a strong inbound strategy is to create a comprehensive list of content that will attract visitors and keep them coming back for more. But even if you’re offering great content and getting traffic, you still need to convert those visitors into leads, which can then be nurtured into paying customers.
Calls-to-action is crucial to this process because they tell people what they should do next. They can take the form of buttons, pop-ups, and other forms of on-page messaging that guide people through your site and encourage them to take action — whether that’s signing up for your newsletter or purchasing something from your product page.
To further enhance user engagement, you can also integrate a QR code generator, allowing users to conveniently access relevant information or offers with a simple scan.
Calls-to-action can be especially effective when tailored to the visitor’s interest. In fact, a study that analyzed more than 330,000 CTAs found that personalized CTAs convert 202% better.
When it comes to inbound marketing, there are several ways to use personalized Calls-to-Actions:
- Use them on landing pages: as a bonus, this increases the likelihood that visitors will stay on the page long enough to read all of your content!
- Personalize CTAs based on visitor behavior: this ensures that visitors see CTAs that will appeal specifically to them, whether they’re new or returning visitors, whether they’re on a desktop or mobile device, whether they’ve visited before or not, and more!
- Make it actionable and specific: Instead of just saying “Learn More,” make it something like “Get My Free Report.” The more specific you can be, the better.
- Use personal pronouns: Using personal pronouns like “you” and “your” will make your call-to-action more relatable than something generic like “Download Now.” This also helps ensure that you’re using relevant language for your audience.
- Make sure each CTA works with all of your different types of traffic (email, social media, PPC ads, etc.): If you want more people to download a free ebook, for example, don’t send them directly to an opt-in page, but instead link them through a blog post about the ebook topic related to their interests. The same goes for other CTAs, like contact forms or product pages – ensure they work with every traffic source!
Here’s an example of a personalized yes/no form from SnackNation that lets visitors click something and experience a personalized sales journey.
(Source)
They ask personalized questions to determine the type of lead they need and send them to a form based on their requirements.
7. Build an email list, and connect with potential customers
Inbound marketing is all about building a relationship with your customers. The best way to do that is by building an email list and connecting with potential customers personally.
Email is one of the most effective ways to reach your target audience and is also cost-effective.
A recent study from Content Marketing Institute found that 87% of marketers use email marketing to distribute their content.
Another survey points out that 61% of customers prefer to be contacted via email by brands.
When Optimonster conducted a study to find out the engagement rate of the three giant social media platforms – Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter – it was less than 0.6%.
But when it comes to email’s average open rate, it reaches 22.86%. Even the click-through rate of email is 3.71%.
(Source)
The best part? You don’t need to spend money on printing or postage, and you can reach people anywhere worldwide — as long as they have an internet connection.
The first step in building an email list is to create an opt-in form on your website. An opt-in form is where visitors can enter their email addresses and subscribe to receive updates from your company. This could be as simple as a text box or as complex as a full-blown signup form with social media logins, multiple checkboxes, and dropdown menus. The more information you require from someone before they subscribe to your list, the fewer people will sign up for it.
Once visitors submit their details (by clicking “submit” or “sign up”), you’ll send them an email asking them to confirm their subscription by clicking another link in their inbox. If they don’t confirm, they won’t be added to your list, and will never hear from you again!
Here are some more quick strategies to help you build an email list:
- Create a lead magnet that people want.
- Create an opt-in form on your site or blog.
- Send them emails that educate them about what they need to know before they buy from you.
- Run contests or giveaways that require your target audience to opt-in before entering their information.
- Send them offers based on their interests and previous purchases (or lack thereof).
- Deliver value through content that builds trust and increases engagement.
- Ensure that your emails can be opened on smartphones. A study shows 81% of subscribers prefer to open emails on their smartphones.
In addition, your emails should feel like they’re coming from someone who knows you personally (even if it’s just pretending). This means using personalization techniques in your subject lines, writing emails in the second person, etc.
8. Use Social media marketing
Social media marketing is an essential part of any inbound marketing campaign. It can be used to improve search engine rankings, drive traffic to your website, and increase engagement with your customers.
In November 2021, when the HubSpot Blog surveyed more than 300 social media marketers, 77% reported that social media marketing had been somewhat too very effective for their company that year.
In another 2021 HubSpot Blog survey, Facebook topped in social media investment, ROI for paid ads, and highest quality leads.
However, different social platforms are used for various marketing strategies. For instance, Instagram is best for implementing influencer marketing, with 73% of marketers prefer Instagram over other platforms.
But how exactly do you use social media for inbound marketing?
Here are some quick tips for using social media marketing for inbound marketing:
- Create content that’s relevant and useful for your target audience. Think about their problems and how you can help solve them with your products or services.
- Build relationships with influencers in your industry. Influencers can help spread the word about your business and products to their large audiences at no cost — if you give them something in return (such as free products or services).
- Write content that gets people talking about your brand on social media sites like Facebook or Twitter. This could be a video promoting an upcoming event, a new product launch, or even a simple status update connecting with people’s interests or needs.
- Respond quickly to comments, questions, and customer feedback. Customers expect that their questions will be answered promptly on social media. If they don’t get an answer immediately, they may lose interest and stop following your brand’s profile or interacting with it altogether.
- Use social media to promote your content and encourage sharing among your followers or fans. You can create shareable content (such as infographics), offer discounts or coupons for people who share your content, or run contests where the prize includes sharing the winner’s post on one’s Facebook profile or Twitter feed.
- Make sure your profile photos reflect your brand. This is especially important if you have multiple accounts for different products or locations — each one should look like it belongs to the same company.
Don’t forget to create an editorial calendar to keep track of posting content and keep things consistent across all your social channels. It’s also important to monitor what works best to repeat it in the future.
Put these inbound marketing strategies to work today!
Integrating these strategies into your marketing plan can help you grow as a business and give you an edge over your competition. But don’t just take our word for it – test it out.
Remember, inbound marketing is all about giving, not selling. It’s about giving prospective customers a reason to take action by providing them with relevant content that communicates the value you provide to your target market.
In this scenario, it’s also important to remember that people are different – there’s no one-size-fits-all when it comes to the inbound marketing methodology.
So treat each potential client as an individual and customize your approach for each one, using the methodologies above as a guide for how best to approach them.
