Inbound marketing has been one of the best methods for doing business online, since 2006. The method of doing things the old way (considered outbound marketing) like buying ads, mass emailing with subscription lists, and hoping that people want your product enough that they’ll come to you is over. Inbound marketing focuses on creating quality online content to attract people to your company and product. By creating content that aligns with your customer’s interest, you’ve then naturally attracted inbound visitors that you can convert and close over time.
What is Inbound Marketing?
Inbound Marketing is creating content and sharing it with everyone. By creating content that’s designed to appeal to your ideal customers, inbound marketing then will attract solid leads to your business and will have them coming back for more.
Keywords – In today’s world, the customer starts their research online before purchasing the product they’re interested in. Your main goal is to appear in searches that are relevant to their interests as well as on the first page of those results. By carefully picking your keywords through research, you can then optimize your site, create content, and build links around best keywords to create success.
Pages – Optimizing your website and finding the best results that speak with your ideal customers is a must. Providing helpful content on your website can get the right viewers to interact with your pages.
Blogging – Blogging is a vital part of your Inbound Marketing Strategy. Having a blog on your website is one of the best ways to attract new visitors to your website. In order to be seen by visitors who share a common interest in what you offer, you must create insightful content that answers the questions they may have.
Social Media – The use of social media is also another strong inbound marketing strategy to gain new viewers/customers to your website. Using social media the correct way can open the doors for sharing valuable information across platforms, engage with potential and current customers, and give the human element to your brand. Research and interact on the social media platforms that best suite your customer/viewer base.
Converting Leads
The next step to Inbound Marketing is figuring out how to convert to viewers into customers. Once they’re at your site, the next obvious step is to convert them into leads by gathering the necessary contact information. Contact information is the most important information a content marketer can have. If customers are willing to offer the currency willingly, you will need to offer them something in return. The most common types of offerings for contact information are content, white papers, tip sheets, and any kind of information that could be considered interesting and valuable to the lead.
Here are a few important tools used to convert visitors into leads:
Calls-to-Action – CTA’s can be in the form of buttons or links that urge your visitor to take action, like “sign up for this newsletter” or “attend a free online class.” Call-to-actions that aren’t strong enough or are incorrectly placed, won’t attain you many leads.
Forms – For visitors to become future leads, they must fill out a form or send their information on your website. Having a specific landing page where the call-to-action is completed is a perfect starting place for a sales rep to begin the sales process with the potential customer.
Landing Pages – when a specific call-to-action is clicked by the customer, they should then be sent to a landing page. A landing page is where the call-to-action is fulfilled, and where the new lead would then send their information that your sales reps can then use to begin a conversation with them. If someone fills out a form on your website, they typically become solid leads.
Contacts – Learn to keep track of all of your leads in a program that can hold all the data. Having all the information in one area can help you understand your process and lead generation on the website a lot easier. This also helps in learning how to optimize your upcoming interactions.
The Inbound Marketing Strategy has encompassed everything from Search Engine Optimization to closing deals. This kind of thinking allows the marketers of the world to learn how to attract more visitors, convert more leads, and enable your sales team to close more sales. Inbound marketing doesn’t just happen on your website. The process involved is one that will consume time, energy, and effort into finding the sweet spot that will produce you quality leads in a larger quantity.
If you’re looking to get started with inbound marketing and search engine optimization, I’d love to discuss your small Pittsburgh business and how SEO can help! Feel free to contact me using the form below – I’d love to hear from you!