More Than Just Content: What Is Inbound Marketing?

Who can blame if you’re still catching your breath? The most revolutionary concept since the emergence of websites is transforming the online business world and giving business owners the chance to fully capitalize on the original promise of having an online business presence.

What is inbound marketing! As its name suggests, drawing customers into a business with helpful, entertaining, educational and – above all – high quality content that appears on the business website.

It stands in contrast to traditional outbound marketing methods, including postcards, coupons, brochures and other direct marketing that goes out (and can cost business owners a small fortune). What is inbound marketing doing for you? Inbound marketing brings customers straight to you – and for a fraction of the cost.

Content is the cornerstone of an inbound marketing strategy and, if it’s created carefully, it vets potential customers right from the start. After all, you want to do more than just attract casual browsers to your website; you want to attract:

• People who are in a buying cycle or will be in the future.
• People who will also fit your business profile/target audience.
• People who are likely to become loyal customers who will boast about your business to their friends, family, and coworkers.

That’s recursive marketing, and no wonder it’s leaving you breathless with the possibilities. Inbound marketing involves four vital actions: attracting, converting, closing and delighting. Here’s how the process works.

ATTRACT The Ideal Prospect With:

• A High Quality Blog – One of the most effective ways to draw new customers to a website. A variety of methods are available for this content creation but you should always keep in mind, you’re trying to help potential clients.

• Search Engine Optimization Strategies – Choosing the right keywords, optimizing pages and building links, to further attract.

• Dynamic And Well Written Website Pages – Theses serve as a business’ digital storefront. Don’t skimp on your products/services. Show off what you do and be proud of it.

CONVERT Prospects Into Leads With:

• A Call To Action, highlighting something that may provide further assistance, help or otherwise. Make sure to make it pop out on the page. No one will click on a CTA that’s blends in as camouflage.

• A Landing Page, where the prospect “lands” after clicking the CTA button. It seeks contact information – primarily an email address – and should be as short and to the point as possible. Make this pop as well!

CLOSE Prospects Into Customers With Marketing Closing Tools:

• Emails – Especially creative email campaigns that are designed to either nurture a lead into a buying stage or entice a decision.

• Marketing Automation, which allows you to tailor future marketing outreach efforts based on a prospect’s previously expressed interests, conversion rates and so-on.

• Ongoing and thorough customer relationship management tracking.

DELIGHT Current/Future Customers With:

• Follow up materials, resources, suggestions, etc.

• Regular surveys – to elicit important information – and an accompanying reward for their time and cooperation

This is just a simple, “top down” view to answering what is inbound marketing and its content strategies. There is much more in depth discussions and resources available. Dive in!

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