What is Inbound Marketing and how it can improve the business

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  • Inbound Marketing
  • blog , inbound marketing consultant , content marketing , content strategy , What is Inbound Marketing , funnel inbound marketing , inbound funnel , inbound marketing , Outbound Marketing , editorial plan , SEO

What is Inbound Marketing and how it can improve your company’s business

Once upon a time there was Outbound Marketing, or traditional marketing. Many will have heard of it, it is that marketing strategy made up of advertising on television, posters on the street or flyers distributed on Saturday afternoon in the center, which went to call customers, knocking them, in some cases literally, on the shoulder. Today, however, this kind of marketing is obsolete.
In fact, in recent years we often talk about Inbound Marketing, that is, all those actions implemented with the aim of being found by potential customers, providing useful information that can answer users’ real questions and needs. A bit like the classic “right place and right time”, but providing an answer to their needs.

The birth of Inbound Marketing as a concept was coined by the co-founder and CEO of HubSpot and therefore for a broad and profound discussion, I suggest this link https://www.hubspot.com/inbound-marketing . Today we will see together how Inbound Marketing can improve your company’s business. However, before getting started I would like to mention learning about business agility so that when your business will start growing, you can manage your agile system. Let’s dive into this article:

Topic index:

  1. What is Inbound Marketing
  2. What changes with respect to Outbound Marketing
  3. The tools of Inbound Marketing
  4. The importance of the Buyer Persona
  5. The initial analysis
  6. Conclusions

What is Inbound Marketing

You’ve probably heard of it, Inbound Marketing is that form of marketing that attracts potential customers thanks to interesting and useful content, which adds value to the buying process.
A user can be intercepted thanks to articles on blogs, search engines and content posted on social media. It is therefore wrong to think that these are only and exclusively texts. In fact, images and videos are also fundamental, especially on social channels.
When a company decides to adopt this kind of marketing strategy, it must enter into the perspective of producing content capable of satisfying the needs of potential customers. These contents of various kinds will first attract attention and then, at a later time, will help the user in the decision-making phase, providing him with all the useful information he is looking for. They will guide him towards buying and ultimately grow the company’s sales and reputation. In fact, the most interesting aspect of Inbound Marketing is not only the improvement in business that will be possible thanks to the acquisition of qualified customers, but it is also the consideration that people will have of your business.

The phases of inbound marketing (stage of the inbound funnel)

Inbound Marketing starts with the research of the product and ends with the purchase. This process is made up of several phases, also called “funnel phases”, which involve a progressive approach to the company.

The first phase, called the Attraction, is the one that allows the contents you have created to reach the right audience. In this step, a company chooses its audience and outlines what is called the Buyer Persona.

The second phase is called Conversion of the user into a potential customer. Usually this phase can take place thanks to a landing page , a contact form, or a well thought out call to action, located at the bottom of a blog article. In this way the user, interested in your services, will leave his contacts and you will be able to establish a relationship with him.

Then there is the phase of Closing a Lead. The company will contact the potential customer and answer their questions, providing them with useful information. If this phase is successful, the client will transform from potential to actual.

Finally, there is the last stage, where the prospect will be delighted with special content. He will have decided to buy a product or service and the company will be able to continue to cultivate a relationship thanks to surveys, reviews and by making special offers available. In this way the customer will be convinced to become a promoter of your company.

What changes with respect to Outbound Marketing

Outbound Marketing is traditional marketing, one that works through media such as television, radio or newspapers. This type of activity is invasive, because it disrupts the normal flow of a person’s life, and is aimed at an unqualified audience. Before the advent of the internet it was the most used form of marketing, but today it does not provide great results.
Inbound Marketing, on the other hand, only intercepts the public potentially interested in your services or products. We no longer speak generically with anyone, but only with people who meet certain characteristics and perform specific searches on Google. Inbound Marketing puts the consumer at the center of the process, not the sale. So first of all, a company will try to establish a relationship with the potential customer.

The tools of Inbound Marketing

The concept of omnichannel strategy also works with regard to inbound marketing. All the tools used work in concert, one influencing the other and vice versa, to offer a 360 ° decision-making and buying experience. All actions performed within an Inbound Marketing strategy influence others. It is difficult to think of creating a website and not doing SEO , or creating content for the blog and not optimizing it or, again, not sharing it on social channels. Here are the most useful tools at your disposal to do Inbound Marketing.

SEO

One of the most important points is undoubtedly the SEO, which serves both to make you find by those who do not yet know you but already know they have a problem to solve and therefore look for information on search engines, and to grow your reputation. But let’s stop for a moment on the first point: being found is not easy . Online, on search engines, we need to compete with a lot of content, similar in content and form, and the only way we can excel is to work well thanks to SEO. An SEO consultant is therefore essential to optimize your website and will ensure that your visibility increases. SEO will allow your content to be found more easily than those produced by competitors.

Blog

The blog is the main channel for doing content marketing. It will be very useful if you want to create your own content and position your site on search engines. In the articles you create for your blog, it is important to answer the questions and needs of your audience.
Furthermore, an accurate work on your blog will improve the so-called ” brand awareness ” and will allow you to be perceived in a positive way by your potential customers. And, greater trust in a company, product or service inevitably translates into growth in your business.

Social Media

They are a very useful sounding board to give visibility to your articles or your video and photo content. Furthermore, they can also be used for the early stages of the relationship with your potential customers. Based on how they interact on your page, you can create ad hoc content for them.

Call to action

Whether at the end of an article published on your blog or on a website page, calls to action are very useful for transforming a user into a potential customer. If you manage to get him to leave his contacts, it will be easier to establish direct contact with him.

Newsletter and Email Marketing

The newsletters will serve to keep your relationship with potential customers alive, and subsequently also with existing customers. You will be able to offer them offers, provide them with useful and exclusive content and ensure that they become loyal to your company. One of the key points of Inbound Marketing is being able to establish a relationship with users that can last over time and not simply run out after the sale.

The importance of the Buyer Personas

A good Inbound Marketing strategy starts with the definition of Buyer Personas. That is, from the identikit, as precise as possible, of your customer prototype.
You will need to identify his characteristics, such as: work, hobbies, age, geographic origin, but also his needs, the way he searches the web and much more. Each company can have one Buyer Personas or more than one. Outlining it as precisely as possible will help you create paid campaigns and increasingly precise and targeted strategies.

Inbound Marketing: the initial analysis

As in all strategies, Inbound Marketing also requires an in-depth preliminary analysis of the competitor, audience and reference market. Your goals must be clear if you don’t want to risk failure. A web marketing consultant will be able to follow you step by step and study the best strategy for you. Doing a preliminary research will allow you to create an editorial plan , which is essential when carrying out Inbound Marketing activities, because it will help you organize the contents in the best way.

The best texts will be informative and built around the needs of your audience. This way you can attract new customers. In fact, the key to Inbound Marketing is its content. Only if they help users solve their problems can they turn into customers.

Conclusions

The actions that make up an Inbound Marketing strategy are many and it is not easy to manage everything in the best way. To be sure of getting results and not wasting time and money, I recommend that you get the assistance of a Web Marketing consultant who will follow you step by step in all the steps of your strategy. By choosing SEO Leader you have a marketing expert who can create valuable content (content strategy guided by an editorial plan) by publishing it in the most appropriate channels ( Digital PR ), improving the positioning of your site and your brand awareness. By intercepting the research intent of your potential customers, we will provide them with useful and original information, and we will make sure that they can turn into customers.
With Pay Per Click campaigns, for example, once I have identified the keywords, you will be able to intercept your typical customer thanks to targeted content, created taking into account their interests and the actions they are used to taking to meet their needs.