Marketing that Works in 2021

Inbound marketing helps attract potential customers to your business through directing content that addresses their problems known as “pain points”.

An inbound marketing campaign focuses on selling solutions rather than a product.

3 Stages of Inbound Marketing

Inbound marketing uses “pull marketing” to attract new customers to your business.

Inbound marketing consists of three key elements:

Attract

Inbound marketing attracts your ideal buyers based on buyer personas. Instead of advertising to everyone and anyone who drives past your billboard, inbound marketing focuses on a relevant target audience: people who are already looking for solutions, which you may be able to provide.

You can attract an audience through social media platforms, intent-based search engine optimization (SEO), video marketing, and blogging.

Engage

When you’ve attracted your potential consumers, you engage them with valuable content that helps them understand your service’s value.

This content should be educational or entertaining and set up to make it simple for your potential prospects to find answers.

The content should be focused on building long-term relationships with qualified leads by establishing trust and reliability between them and your business.

Delight

The delighting stage is how you support your customers and ensure their needs are met.

Checking in on your customers’ satisfaction while continuously looking for ways to improve their experience can signal your investment in their long-term happiness with your services beyond the point of sale.

Inbound marketing techniques can be an effective way to attract and convert prospects to your services.

Examples of inbound marketing include

Social media marketing:

You can boost your company’s visibility and engagement by providing quality content to your potential customers across various social media channels.

Intent-Based Search engine optimization

Your prospects use search engines to find information, and good use of keywords can help direct traffic to your landing page or relevant site.

Utilizing search engine optimization (SEO) can expand brand awareness by having your website rank higher on the search engine results page, improving your visibility, and making it more likely people will come to you.

Call to action (CTA)

A call to action is a method of inbound marketing that compels people to take action.

Some examples of CTAs are signing up for an email list or clicking a button to learn more about the business.

How to Improve Inbound Marketing

Identify the problem your business can solve.

When it comes to inbound marketing, you’re trying to help the customer solve their problems through your business.

For instance, if you’re a skincare company, the focus could be on alleviating chronic dry skin issues rather than trying to sell moisturizer.

Attract your target audience.

Use SEO or social media to promote brand awareness and make it more likely that potential leads will find your business through their own search, rather than disrupting their attention trying to sell a product they may not have any interest in purchasing yet.

Most people don’t like to be “sold to,” so attracting their interest will make their engagement feel more organic.

Provide valuable information.

All the information the customer needs to make an informed decision on whether your company can help them should be on the page they visit.

This page should include information about your business, why people should buy from you, and what you have to offer.

Include case studies to bolster the success of your products or services, and include contact information where users can ask questions or receive more specific information.

Engage with the users.

Not every lead will become a sale, but making meaningful connections with interested parties can increase the chances of a prospect becoming a customer. Ensure your content specifically addresses a problem and also explains why your company is the solution.

You can use quality inbound customer service calls or interactive surveys to keep potential consumers engaged in your business.

If your customers feel like your company truly cares about providing a resolution to their issues, they are more likely to continue giving you their business.

Build your relationship.

Maintain a relationship with your customers long after they’ve made their purchase.

Sending out emails asking for feedback and let buyers know that you care about their satisfaction even after they’ve spent their money.

Inbound marketing is solution-focused.

Inbound marketing focuses on providing solutions to interested prospects rather than trying to push a product onto a wide net of consumers who may not be interested.

Outbound marketing focuses purely on selling

Outbound marketing is disruptive and interrupts the prospect, like pop-up ads, television commercials, and telemarketing.

Inbound marketing is more magnetic as it organically attracts a base of interested prospects to a business by letting the prospect drive the search.