Are Entrepreneurs Stuck in a ‘Fake It...
18/11/2024
What is Inbound Marketing?
Introduction
According to reports from The Bridge Group and HubSpot:
– only 6% of salespeople are “elites” who are great at selling.
– 20% are doing well but could do better.
– Then there are 74% who are failing.
The primary reason is that the nature of sales has changed, yet too many businesses are still using old and outdated methods to market and sell their products and services.
These changes are primarily driven by fast-paced advances in technology, the internet, as well as constantly evolving customer preferences, purchasing and consumption behaviours. To market and sell successfully in this digital age, you must learn, understand and apply the methods that take these changes into consideration.
One of those methods is Inbound Marketing.
What is Inbound Marketing?
Inbound marketing is a type of marketing strategy that uses online channels to attract and convert in-store and website visitors into leads and recurring paying customers using relevant and educational content.
It is an approach adopted by your entire company, including marketing, sales and service, to work together to attract, engage and delight the customer as a way to grow a business that provides value and builds trust.
The campaigns used are aimed at:
– educating your prospective and existing customers about how they can go about solving their problems,
– helping them become successful at overcoming their challenges and
– exploiting opportunities related to the value proposition you offer to them.
It’s all about customer success. And we can all agree that the more customers you help succeed, the more successful you too will become.
Inbound marketers aim to provide valuable information that leads users directly to the sale or service they are looking for. It’s an effective way to:
– reach more people with your message,
– build relationships with potential customers, and
– create long-term customer value.
The approach focuses heavily on creating quality content designed to address the problems and needs of your ideal customers, to attract qualified prospects, as well as to build trust and credibility for your business.
This is one of the most effective ways for companies, marketers, entrepreneurs and influencers to address the challenges of earning their customers’ trust, as well as to improve their sales and revenue success.
The Benefits of Inbound Marketing
Inbound marketing can help you:
1) Reach more people with your message: Online platforms provide greater access to a wider audience than ever before. By using inbound marketing techniques, you can reach new prospects and shoppers who would not have been reached otherwise.
2) Build relationships with potential customers: When done correctly, inbound marketing allows you to form deep connections with your target market. This builds trust and credibility – essential elements of successful lead conversion campaigns.
3) Create long-term customer value: The key to sustained success with inbound marketing is creating valuable content that resonates with your target audience. By providing valuable information and unique insights, you can turn casual browsers into dedicated fans eager for more information about what you offer.
How to make it work
Inbound marketing focuses on attracting customers to a company store, website, or landing page through content that is relevant and useful to the customer. The primary aim here is for the leads to get to ‘know, like and trust’ your company, as well as to build relationships using quality content.
Content must be written in an easy-to-read style with plenty of images and videos to keep readers engaged. It’s important to provide valuable information along with attractive design so consumers of this content feel like they are getting the most out of it.
The inbound marketing process uses various marketing tools and supporting aspects to reach their target audience.
Tools that can be used here include:
– blogging,
– social media,
– email campaigns,
– video,
– webinars, and
– search engine optimization (SEO).
The three main supporting aspects of inbound marketing that must exist for the strategy to work include content, automation, and collaboration.
1. Content Marketing is the practice of creating valuable informational pieces for your website or blog that help you attract leads and convert them into customers.
2. Automation Marketing (also known as marketing automation) refers to software and processes that allows you to automatically send out follow up emails, respond to queries, provide access to additional content, etc. without manual intervention from marketers.
3. Collaborative Marketing involves working with other businesses and partners in order to develop even more content and provide even more value to prospective and customers as a way to increase sales and conversions.
Each type of tool and aspect has its own advantages and disadvantages depending on the situation. For example, email automation may have an advantage over traditional methods such as cold calling because it allows marketers to focus on more important tasks such as lead nurturing instead of contacting every potential customer manually. However, email automation also has limitations since it does not work well with non-responsive contacts or those who do not have online accounts.
How We Reverse Engineered Inbound Marketing
The team at A-Game Business reverse engineered the tradional 3-steps of Inbound Marketing to the ‘A-Game 8-Step Inbound Marketing Method’. It’s designed to improve upon the existing inbound marketing framework by adding non-obvious steps to help you optimize your lead generation, relationship nurturing and supporting processes that result in repeat business and referrals.
Complement it with automation and personalized attention, and you’ll be able to streamline your marketing processes, operations and focus on what truly matters – delivering delightful experiences and superior value to your customers.
Conclusion
A well-executed inbound marketing strategy will help your company attract, engage and delight new customers and to build trust-based long-term relationships with customers.
In order for your campaign to be successful, it’s essential to measure the results regularly and adjust course accordingly. By tracking key performance indicators (KPIs), you’ll be able to learn whether you’re reaching your goals for subscriber acquisition, website traffic rank changes, etcetera. With continued monitoring and adjustments based on data analysis, you’ll be able to build an ongoing strategy that drives success for your business!
To implement inbound marketing effectively you need to learn the fundamentals in more details. Well, you’re in luck.
We’ve just published edition 2024 of ‘The A-Game Inbound Marketing’ . Click the button below to get your copy.
Click the button below for a copy of 'The A-Game Inbound Marketing Blueprint', 2024 edition.
Please share this article with your social media followers. Click the appropriate button to share
LinkedIn
Facebook
Twitter