Blogs > What is Inbound Marketing ?
Inbound marketing is a powerful marketing strategy that uses digital channels to attract and engage customers. It's based on the principle that customers are seeking out information, so your company must provide it in a way that's relevant and useful to them. By using the right digital channels, inbound marketing can help your business reach new potential customers, increase leads and sales, and create a more engaged customer base.
This step of Inbound Marketing is mainly focused on content. You have to produce and share blog articles, videos, tutorials, infographics or anything that is valuable and makes sense for your future clients.
The “Engage” part of the Inbound strategy is focused on generating leads, potential customers who have already interacted with some of the brand’s content. Here is where social media really shines, along with email automation and more direct communication with the audience. The main goal is to provide great customer service, show your best selling points and present real value for the consumer.
To delight a customer, you have to pay attention to one important keyword: experience. The act of buying, the delivery of the product/service and the support post-purchase are all crucial for an Inbound strategy. As we said before, part of your success will be measured by how many of your converted clients recommend and promote your brand. So the purchasing process itself should also be selling your brand. Delighted customers become loyal and influencers within their social circles.
The name holds the key to understanding the distinctions between inbound and outgoing marketing. Inbound marketing is about attracting prospective clients in, whereas outbound marketing is about outwardly pushing a company's product. Inbound marketing refers to gaining attention, whereas outbound refers to purchasing it.
Inbound marketing uses owned and earned media to engage potential customers in creative ways.
- Owned media are those channels that a business has control over. For example, your website, blog, brand social media profiles, product landing pages and YouTube channel. You choose what to publish, how to publish it, and when.
- Earned media is the coverage you earn as a result your hard work. Offline, this includes traditional coverage in newspapers and magazines. Online, it includes coverage on news sites often gained through digital PR, but also mentions on social media, use of a campaign hashtag, conversations in online forums, and online reviews. You have less control over earned media, but it should be a reward for the work you’ve put into your inbound marketing campaign.
Outbound marketing: paid media
- Outbound marketing, on the other hand, is more commonly associated with paid media. Traditional offline advertising, pay per click (PPC), and display advertising are all examples of paid email.
- Social media advertising, such as Facebook advertising or boosted Twitter posts, is also included in paid media. While social media advertising is often effective for improving the performance of inbound marketing campaigns, it should be noted that it isn't always associated with outbound marketing.
- For example, you may promote your material and campaign to your specific audience on Facebook without restriction.
Lead-to-lead inbound marketing costs 62 percent less than outbound marketing and, at the same time, is more effective. This is because instead of blindly distributing what you have to offer in places where your target audience might be, you’re strategically creating extraordinary content that brings the audience to you.
Another reason inbound is a much more cost-effective approach is because it delivers the data you need to learn from your efforts and continuously optimize. This allows you to know more about your potential customers and thus serve them better.
Inbound marketing practices produce 54% more leads than traditional outbound practices. (Invespcro)
Inbound marketing is about focusing efforts on attracting people who are looking for something that you offer, because spending marketing resources on people who don't want or don't need your products is useless and absurd.
If you’re a business owner, on a marketing team, or just curious about how to grow your business—inbound marketing is the best ROI when it comes to spending your marketing budget.
Inbound marketing is essentially about providing useful, valuable content to your target audience. At the core of every inbound strategy is the art of seeking to truly know your customers better in order to provide them with even more value. This is best accomplished through careful monitoring that helps you solve their problems and answer their questions. The more value you bring to your customers, the closer your relationship grows.
Ninety percent of consumers believe that personalized content is useful, and 78 percent believe that a company that cares about providing such content is interested in building a good relationship with them.
Most of the time, being the first brand to pop up on someone’s mind is enough to win the competition. Even when they are not yet ready to become a lead, being present means being remembered.
Creating effective content isn’t all that hard (if you know what you’re doing) and it is so incredibly valuable to your positioning as a company. Having the proper content in place is not only the easiest and most popular way for people to learn about your business, but it establishes your brand as a thought leader.
Having the right inbound marketing strategy for your company regardless of industry, from Legal, B2B, SaaS, Entertainment, to E-Commerce, is necessary. It is also imperative that it includes a solid content marketing agenda to set your brand up as a thought leader in your industry.
Your brand reputation on the internet is timeless. It never disappears and it isn’t baseless. The better your strategies are today, the better positioned you are now and will be in the future. As we continue into a new decade in this digital age, it’s important to consider who your customers will be moving forward. Millennials and Gen Z will soon make up the majority of your target audience. These generations are deeply involved in technology.
You are clearly falling behind if you have not yet optimized your marketing programs to attract these consumers. It's time to modernize your inbound marketing efforts. To assist you start with a plan that will work best for your business, we suggest partnering with an knowledgeable and experienced inbound marketing agency!
