Inbound Marketing: What is it and how can it help?

Choosing an online marketing strategy that will help you stand out among the clutter is hard. Thankfully, one strategy has proven to be especially effective for today’s consumers: inbound marketing. Essentially inbound marketing focuses on attracting people to your website and converting them into customers through targeted content marketing.

This article will take a closer look at what inbound marketing entails and how it can help your business succeed online.

Inbound marketing differs from more traditional marketing methods in that it centers around bringing potential customers to you instead of the other way around. One of the basic concepts behind inbound marketing is to target people who are already interested in what you’re offering and letting them engage with your business on their own terms. It focuses on using content marketing to generate information that is engaging and relevant to your target audience in order to attract them to your website and convert them to customers.

Benefits of inbound marketing

Here are some of the biggest benefits of adopting an inbound marketing strategy:

• Inbound marketing is very cost effective, since it relies heavily on self-generated content and targets a more narrow audience.
• It helps build trust and brand credibility because you are focusing on providing relevant, useful information to your audience instead of just trying to get their attention.
• Inbound marketing centers on engaging and making a connection with your customers, which increases the chance of repeat business.
• It’s easier to measure and analyze the effectiveness of inbound marketing than other strategies.

Inbound marketing tools & strategies

Inbound marketing comes in many forms, and it’s important to know what tools are available and how they can work into your strategy. Some of the most popular methods for attracting users to your website and converting them to leads are:

• Blogging
• Social media
• Email marketing
• Search engine marketing
• Landing pages
• Whitepapers/case studies
• Calls to action
• Lead generation forms

The inbound marketing process

Inbound marketing is an ongoing process that follows a general path aimed at converting your target audience to customers. Following this path will help your business widen it’s reach and achieve increase online success.

1. Develop a strategy. Define your target audience and determine what tools or platforms will work best to promote your business.
2. Attract website visitors. Create and promote content that will bring your targeted audience to your website.
3. Transform visitors to leads. Once a visitor is on your website and interested in what you’re offering, you can convert them into leads by gathering contact information.
4. Convert to customers. Track your leads and stay in touch in order to continue to build trust and eventually convert those leads into customers.
5. Analyze and improve your strategy. Evaluate your inbound marketing strategy on a regular basis to determine what’s working for your business and where you can make improvements. 

Learn more:

If you would like to find out more abound inbound marketing, check out these helpful resources:

• Inbound Methodology (Hubspot)
• What is Inbound Marketing? (Weidert Group)
• Inbound Marketing (Marketo)
• The Interactive Guide to Inbound Marketing (Hubspot)