The Lowdown on Inbound Marketing

Over the years society has evolved quite a bit. With that change, the way people structure their lives has changed as well. In today’s world people are constantly taking on many different responsibilities. From work, to dropping off the kids, to juggling a demanding boss while keeping a happy husband, the list goes on and on.

With this constant struggle there is one thing that people do not have-- extra time to waste. People no longer accept constant interruptions from advertisements thrown at them. Which means rather than sticking to traditional marketing techniques, which mostly involve interrupting people, you instead need to start thinking about using inbound marketing. 

This blog post is part of “Your Definitive Guide to Lead Generation” blog series.

the concept

What is inbound marketing, though? This refers to minimally invasive marketing strategies that draw visitors in, rather than instructing marketers to go out to get prospects' attention. Think of inbound marketing as a magnet. Inbound marketing earns the attention of customers through search engine optimization, social media, and sharing of interesting, informative content.

Providing relevant content allows you to empower potential customers by giving them the tools to make their own choice. By providing content they’re searching for, you are attracting your ideal potential customers to your site. This creates trust between your company and your potential customers.

The Process

This sounds great, but how do we “do” inbound marketing? Inbound marketing works with what is known as the inbound methodology. With this, we are attracting specific potential customers, called visitors. We then take these visitors and convert them into leads in a process called lead generation.

LEAD GENERATION IS A CRUCIAL COMPONENT OF INBOUND MARKETING - GET YOUR FREE INTRO TO LEAD GENERATION GUIDE

When we then close the deal, these leads become customers. What is important to note, is rather than just being satisfied with obtaining a customer, inbound marketing also emphasizes the idea that it is important to see to it that your existing customers are happy. One can maintain happy customers by making sure their needs are continuously met. These happy customers then become promoters of your site which will then generate new visitors your way.

how it's done

Know your target buyer

In order to successfully execute inbound marketing it is important to keep the following in mind: The first is knowing who you are trying to target to your site, which is easily done using a buyer persona. Buyer personas allow you to understand the demographics, motives, goals and behavioral patterns of your ideal customer.

The Buyer's Journey

Next, it is important to understand your buyer’s journey to your site. The buyer’s journey is the research process that someone goes through before making a purchase. The buyer’s journey is broken down into three different parts: the awareness stage, consideration stage and decision stage. By understanding which stage your potential customer is in, you can tailor the kind of content that they see.

Provide Valuable Content

Content can be anything, videos, blogs, infographics, however, it is important for your content to have context. Context means providing the right tailored information to get your potential customer’s attention. Lastly, you need to leverage your content, which means making your content available and accessible to your potential customers.

Just Do It

If you’re new to inbound marketing, we recommend you jump right into it. We’ve found it to be infinitely more successful than the traditional methods and we’ve definitely had some fun with it along the way. You may educate yourself further on the methods of inbound at the HubSpot Academy or on the Campaign Creators blog. You can also get started by downloading the Introduction to Lead Generation Guide that walk you thourgh creating your first inbound campaign.

Be sure to leave us a comment about how inbound marketing has affected your business!