Paid advertising isn't getting any less expensive in today's online marketplace. If paid ads are your only lead-generation strategy, you're not getting in front of the prospects you want to. Traditional paid advertising isn't going anywhere, but to really kill it in the digital economy, you have to embrace inbound marketing.
Inbound Marketing isn't some super-fancy new invention; it's just about bringing customers to you (instead of the other way around). Inbound Marketing is like getting people to see your movie by creating a great trailer. Paid Marketing is like running up to a stranger, shoving a smartphone at them, and hoping they want to keep watching.
So with that in mind, let's look at what we're going to cover in this crash course on inbound marketing:
This approach involves strategies such as content creation, social media marketing, SEO, and email marketing. "Cold outreach" isn't part of any inbound marketing strategy; your email marketing lists only have people who have expressed interest!
When you're putting together your Inbound Marketing strategy, you have to keep your ideal customer profile in mind. These are the people you will be writing and creating for, so knowing who they are is critical. Creating the right content for the right people gets them to engage with you, which is just the start. An engaged prospect is much more likely to become a customer, who is then more likely to become an advocate.
This is where you really start to see some serious ROI; current customers who advocate for you and refer new business. By providing value to your customers throughout their journey with you, they'll generate more quality leads than paid advertising ever could.
It's easy to recognize when you're the target of Outbound Marketing. It's high-volume, very direct, and comes with the "hard close" mentality. Some of the most common examples include cold calls, cold emails, and broadcast advertising. Let's be clear: these approaches do work, but can be at the expense of a good customer experience.
For example, if a salesperson is tasked with making 50+ cold calls per day, those calls probably won't be very personalized. If you know it takes - on average - 8 attempts to reach a single prospect, it's easy to value quantity over quality.
Inbound Marketing examples can be a little harder to spot because the primary goal isn't getting you to buy today. Inbound Marketers let you take the first step, through something like an e-book download or social media interaction. After you express interest, they work to establish themselves as the authority you'll look to when it's time to buy.
It's a bit of an over-simplification, but the difference between Inbound and Outbound marketing is basically:
This is probably the easiest part to answer: low-quality content doesn't engage people or show up in search results.
A poorly-written article isn't going to build trust with your target audience, which means wasted time on your part. Additionally, Google's ranking systems prioritize "helpful, reliable information that's primarily created to benefit people." Because of this, if you aren't creating original, helpful, consistent content that's easy to access, Google won't show people your content.
Like it or not, you need a well-structured social media strategy to be successful with Inbound Marketing. Here's what you should prioritize to make sure your social media supports your Inbound Marketing strategy:
It probably goes without saying at this point, but businesses today need a balance of inbound and outbound marketing to grow. If you aren't creating interesting content and using social media in smart ways, you're losing out on customers.
Hopefully, this article's examples of inbound marketing have done a good enough job of showing why your business needs it. It's not just about introducing people to your business; a solid inbound marketing methodology keeps customers coming back.
Making this work for your business will take some time and money, but chances are you can't afford to ignore it.