In the business world of today, customers have to deal with many different types of intrusive marketing. Both online and off, they see ads that they don’t want to see.
Since most customers are already used to this kind of marketing, more companies are looking for a different way to reach them. For their business to grow, they need something new.
Inbound marketing is a type of marketing that can help with all of these needs. The strategies here don’t force the brand to be in front of the customer’s face. But instead, these are ways to get customers interested in the business and interested in learning more about the brand.
If you’ve been looking for a new way to market your business, you might want to learn more about inbound marketing. Here are some different things you can do to market your business in this way.
What’s inbound marketing?
Some people say that inbound marketing is a sure way to make your business better than it is now. It goes well with other software like growth hacking tools. Your business can grow quickly if you use both of these things.
But what does “inbound marketing” mean?
Inbound marketing is a way to get customers to find your business. It’s the opposite of outbound marketing, where you put your brand out there through billboard ads, event sponsorships, print marketing, TV ads, etc.
The whole point of inbound marketing is to show your customers and prospects how valuable you are. By giving people something of value, you get them interested in your business. You make them want to know more about your brand.
Businesses also make sure that their campaigns and strategies are tailored to the people they want to reach. They don’t use a “one size fits all” approach.
Personalization increases the number of people who buy and click through. It is known that this kind of content has better metrics and can hit marketing KPIs.
Now that you know what “inbound marketing” is, you can learn more about it. Let’s talk about the different ways you can use inbound marketing right now.
Strategies for bringing customers in
Tell us your story.
People are most interested in a good story. As was already said, inbound marketing is all about getting people to come to you. And one way to do this is to tell the story of your brand.
There’s a reason why companies tell the public their “why.” It’s so they can find customers who believe in and support their cause.
Nike’s goal is to give every athlete in the world ideas to think about and new ways to do things. Tesla wants to speed up the transition to clean energy around the world.
When people know what your business or brand stands for, they will be more likely to buy from you if they agree with what you stand for.
Be friendly in the online world.
When you meet someone at a conference who is friendly, kind, and smart, you can’t help but want to get to know them better. You don’t see any downside to being friends with him.
This is exactly how you want people to see your business on the Internet. So, how do you show that you are kind, smart, and friendly? On social media sites, you can do this. Be nice to your audience, meet their needs, and give them something of value.
When they see these things, they’ll be interested in your profile and go to your website to learn more about you.
Some big companies care so much about this that they buy a tool to help them keep track of every response or comment they get on social media.
Look at how hard Key West Aloe works to answer every comment left on their posts:
Notice that it’s not a canned answer. It’s specific to their audience and fits in with what they’re saying.
Make blog posts that have a lot of value.
Sharing information through written content is one way to add value to your audience. This is something that businesses of all sizes do because it’s a way to teach their audience, show off their products, and show how knowledgeable they are.
Big companies like Amazon, Tesla, and Microsoft wouldn’t have spent time and money on this if blogs weren’t useful. But that’s not the case at all. Blogs are good for online stores of any size.
Blogs are a way for brands to teach their audience about what they do. It’s also a way to let people know about news and updates.
Showmojo is a platform for self-showing rental properties. On its blog page, it talks about its products and sales. It also has blog posts that teach and inform people who read them.
Adding pictures is another way to make a blog full of useful information. This makes the content interesting and easy to read as a whole. Tables, diagrams, and even infographics can be put in.
Examine how e-commerce
CEO’s blog about how to sell on Amazon. Not only does it show people how to do something in detail, but the content as a whole is also interesting. It had quotes, screenshots, graphs, and diagrams.
Remember that one of the best things about blogging is that it lets you make content that can help people. The most interesting blogs are ones that talk about things that can help people improve themselves and their businesses.
Guest Blogging
We think that guest blogging is one of the best ways to bring people to your website.
Guest blogging is a way for bloggers to show off their skills and knowledge to a new group of people. It’s a way to show different groups of people how valuable you are.
When you write a great post and people find it useful, it can bring a lot of new people to your website.
When done right, a guest blog can bring in motivated leads, qualified traffic, raise brand awareness, and give your business more authority.
Use graphics.
Even though blogs can be very useful, some people don’t have time to read a whole article. You can use infographics if you think your audience is all the same.
Infographics combine both the written and visual parts of the information. It lets companies show big ideas in small spaces. Infographics put a lot of information into one image that is easy on the eyes.
Infographics are helpful because they are one of the best ways to help people learn and remember information. Forbes says that among powerpoints, articles with pictures, and blog posts, it’s the best.
So, using infographics is one of the best ways to show value or share a unique idea with your customers and prospects. Don’t settle if you don’t know how to make these kinds of pictures. Instead, think about hiring independent graphic designers to make your idea come to life.
Take a look at how Spores used an infographic to explain tokenomics, which is a new topic for many people:
MannequinMall also used an infographic to make the subject of dressing mannequins more interesting:
Instead of talking about each point in a blog format, they used colorful pictures to keep people interested while they read the whole thing. Plus, they only gave a short explanation for each point; they didn’t use long paragraphs. This made it easy to read the whole infographic and all of its text.
Use the ability of videos to spread.
If there’s one type of content that’s most likely to spread like wildfire, it’s video content. Because of this, many businesses hire videographers just to put out video content. Some people do it on their own since there is free online software to make videos.
A picture and a few paragraphs are much less interesting than a video. Video is the best way for a business to say what it wants to say. They also make videos about their products to show off the best parts.
But not all videos are made the same. How long it needs to be for people to be interested and like it will depend on the market. Some businesses find that their customers like videos that are one minute or less. The audience for others likes a longer format.
So, if you don’t know what your customers want, it’s time for you to do some testing. Find out what kinds of videos they watch most. If you’ve seen the metrics, stick with what’s working and getting the most engagements.
Once you know how long a video should be for your audience, it’s time to find out what kind of video content they like best. Do they like tutorials, how-to guides, or explanations that take only one minute?
Video content isn’t just ads, though. Webinars and online meetings with customers also count as video content.
Marketing with influencers
Most brands don’t know how powerful these influencers really are. Some of these influencers have been able to build a strong group of fans who really love them. Because of this, some businesses always set aside money for marketing through influencers.
Research shows that 86% of marketers use this strategy. This is because inbound marketing and influencer marketing work so well together.
This combination works because when audiences hear it from their favorite influencer, they don’t feel like they’re being sold to.
It’s normal for a business to try to sell their products, but most customers think they’re doing it for their own financial benefit. But if it comes from someone they respect, it feels less like a sales pitch and more like a recommendation.
The way each business is paid could be different. A brand can talk to an influencer about working together as an affiliate. In which they’ll set up a referral program or an affiliate structure that works for both sides.
Give Freebies
In addition to giving away useful content like blogs and videos, you could also give away free digital resources.
People are naturally drawn to things that are free. This is why grocery stores offer free samples and shopping malls offer free deals.
You can get people’s attention and show them what your business is about by giving away free digital products.
You can give away a free PDF of your books if you are a personal brand that teaches SEO marketing. If they like the product, they will look for more things from you. You can talk about your other books or services there.
But freebies don’t have to be digital products. You can also give your clients a free consultation or an hour of your time.
By giving away free stuff, you’re not forcing people to buy from you. The customers are the ones who come to you on their own. And if they like what they get, they’ll come back for more for sure.
Everything should be search engine optimized
What better way to end a section on an inbound marketing strategy than to make sure that everything is search engine-friendly?
Many people try to avoid being annoying by showing up on search engines. You want your website or page to be on the first page of Google when people who are interested in your business look for keywords that are related to your business.
Everyone knows that getting to the top of Google is hard, but it’s not impossible. Optimizing everything you post online can help you get higher in search results.
You need to make sure that all of your content, from blog posts to videos, is optimized. Here are some suggestions:
- Make original content
- Choosing the right words or phrases
- Add meta descriptions
- Insert meta tags Add relevant links
- Make titles that get people’s attention
- Use the right headings and include calls to action.
- Make it engaging
- Put the content out there
Problems that are solved by inbound marketing
Now that you know the best inbound marketing strategies, it’s time to show you what this marketing can do to help your business.
Most people think that outbound strategies are the only way to get real conversions, but let me tell you about 5 problems that inbound marketing solves:
Getting people to visit your business
Everyone wants people to visit their business. Traffic means that more people see our products, which makes it more likely that we’ll make a sale.
When you optimize every piece of content you put out there, you make it more likely that people will find it without you having to pay for promotion or ads.
One of the things that inbound marketing helps with is getting more traffic. When you don’t try to force people to notice your brand, people will check it out on their own.
Knowing about a brand
When you give your audience something of value, they are more likely to share your content, especially if they think it will help other people.
That’s one reason why it pays to spend time on your content. The more people like something and share it with others, the better it is.
Plus, if you take the time to optimize your content, you make it more likely that Google or other search engines will list it. Just being on the first page makes your brand known all over the world.
How to keep customers
When you care for your audience, they will be more loyal to you. If you give them useful information that will make their lives and businesses better, they won’t look for another business.
If you give them free digital resources that they need, they will be very grateful and will keep doing business with your company.
If you care about your audience through the content you make, you’ll get great results both now and in the future.
Rates of change
Do you know why people buy things? It’s getting them to believe that your product is the solution to their problem. But the part about “convincing” shouldn’t involve sales pitches or using predictive dialers. Instead, talk to them like you would a friend. Talk to them the same way you did with me.
This strategy is the basis for many inbound strategies, such as conversational commerce and personalized marketing.
In the end, your marketing campaigns will do better and convert more people if you think of them as friends instead of customers.
Sales went up
All of the things we’ve talked about so far can only lead to one thing: more sales. Customers are more likely to stick with a business that gets more traffic, and a high conversion rate leads to more sales.
Conclusion
Customers are drawn to the inbound marketing strategies here because they don’t feel like they’re being sold to. Here, the strategies are informative, interesting, and sought out by consumers.
When inbound marketing is done right and the right amount of time and effort is put into it, the strategies can bring you more sales and help your business grow by leaps and bounds.
