Inbound Marketing
The digital era has changed the way people consume content. The conceptualization of digital marketing has evolved over time due to changes in consumer behavior and an increase in media usage. This has led to the rise of digital marketing strategies that can be classified into four distinct channels.
One of these channels is Inbound Marketing. Inbound marketing is one of the most popular digital marketing strategies. It is proven to increase the success rate of a marketing campaign, reduce the costs of digital marketing, and improve the overall return on investment (ROI) of an online marketing campaign.
The inbound marketing framework is a marketing philosophy that relies on attracting and acquiring customers and pulling them IN through content marketing, which consists of websites, blogs, social media, and more. It’s sometimes referred to as the “first impression” marketing strategy. First impressions always matter, which is why when you understand how to implement inbound marketing, you can guarantee that your conversion rate increases.
The reason inbound marketing is super important is because customers already researched your competitors and are making the final decision between you and everyone else. Inbound Marketing is to capture their attention and interest and convert them into closing.
Since the main goal of inbound marketing is to attract customers through valuable, high-quality content, focus on solving their problems or providing them with a solution to a challenge they face.
The inbound marketing framework has five core principles: S.C.O.P.E.
- Standardize
- Contextualize
- Optimize
- Personalize
- Empathize
Standardize: Story
Your company needs to have a compelling story. A mission statement about your brand values and solutions while also keeping it on ‘brand’ consistently. You can change the way you tell your story, but it should always be the same outcome. Provide value to your customers with your organized business structure. A valuable story brings attention to people who view your content.
Contextualize: Relevance
Once your story is consistent, you need to contextualize it with your audience. Make it relevant to them. When your target audience starts resonating with your story, your content should start being tailored to the buying journey. Instead of changing your story to meet their needs, you mold it to a structure that fits their needs. Like coca cola changing their bottle design over the years to fit the needs of their customers taste buds.
Optimize: Make it Better
Inbound marketing involves optimizing your campaign last. Enhancing your story to cover information you learn from the campaign can control your future. Tracking and analyzing data can help tailor your marketing even more which makes your story even more relevant to your audience. Tracking your content is just as important as creating it. It helps you shape your content and tailor it to your audience for a more productive campaign.
Personalize: Connection
Everyday consumers and buyers are bombarded with marketing messages, emails, and promotions flooding their inboxes. The emails that get the most attention are those that make the prospective clients feel a connection to you. Personalizing your emails or marketing materials makes users feel closer to you because they think you understand them. Try inserting their name, business, or area of expertise in the headline. If you find any information on them, try using it to your advantage in your subject line.
Empathize: Engagement
Pouring out data can make some users lose interest over time. You have to understand their challenges and characteristics and make an emotional connection. Connecting with the right prospects can lead to exponential growth and can be ideal for both parties involved. Creating long term relationships and engagements requires empathy and understanding. Basically, don’t just offer what you have, understand your customers’ needs!
Your ultimate success rate directly correlates to your approach and understanding of the 5 core principles of inbound marketing.
According to a study from Content Marketing Institute, marketers who use inbound marketing strategies see an average increase in leads by 31%. These marketers also see an average increase in conversions of 21%.
To effectively implement the inbound marketing framework, marketers need to create high-quality, valuable content on a regular basis, keeping SCOPE in mind.
An inbound marketing campaign also requires you to create amazing content, actively engage with your audience, and establish yourself as a thought leader in your industry. To attract and target the right audience, you’ll need to do keyword research, use the right social media channels, and actively promote your content.
Inbound marketing is all about attracting the right people to your website. You don’t want to waste your time or money attracting people who won’t buy your product or service. It’s important to make it as easy as possible for people to take the next step with you. Quality traffic matters when converting visitors.
Creating valuable content can take many forms, including blog posts, infographics, videos, ebooks, and more. You can also use content to help drive social media engagement and gain links back to your website.
You’ll want to make sure you have a content calendar in place with a list of topics you’ll cover on each social media channel. For example, you may want to include topics like:
Company Overview
Product or Services
Benefits
Special Features
Customer Testimonials
Industry News
Industry Trends
Any Special Deals
Industry Comparisons
Using inbound marketing is to bring potential customers in. With media, you can engage clients and customers in more creative ways. Social media can play a huge role in inbound marketing because it gives you a platform to publish when and what you want. Making twitter threads and fleets, Instagram stories and promoted posts, tik tok videos, and youtube playlists are just a few examples of what you can do.
Some key Inbound Marketing benefits:
You can reach your target audience building useful traffic to your site.
You don’t have to spend a lot of money on targeted ads to convert users.
Inbound marketing builds trust with your audience.
Potential customers find information they’re looking for in a more engaging way.
You get more channels to market your service.
Inbound Marketing offers long-term solutions for your business.
Examples of Inbound Marketing:
How to videos
Blogging
Case studies
Competitions
Social media posts
User generated content (comments)
eBooks
Viral Videos
SEO
Infographics
Webinar
Whitepaper
Podcast
Video Series (Tik tok makes this easy!)
Opt-in Email Lists
Print Media
Supporting/Sponsoring Events
PR & Press
Community Outreach
Referrals
Influencers
There is so much potential for your company or service when it comes to Inbound Marketing, all you have to do is start planning! Take time every week to plan for inbound marketing, and soon enough your content and customer conversion rate will skyrocket naturally.