Why Inbound Marketing Is An Essential Marketing Strategy
If your ads barely convert, it’s time to reassess how your marketing strategy. Here’s why inbound marketing is essential to your business.
Quick Links:
- TIP: How to find out if inbound marketing is better for your business [Infographic Download]
- Episode Overview – Inbound Marketing vs Outbound Marketing | 3 Ways Inbound Marketing Is Saving Time & Money
- Personal Note from Jenn Neal on Why Inbound Marketing Is Best
- Episode audio [Podcast on Spotify]
- Blog Post – Why Inbound Marketing Is An Essential Marketing Strategy
- Related Posts
TIP: How to find out if inbound marketing is better for your business
Time needed: 7 minutes
TIP: 3 Ways to Implement Inbound Marketing Immediately
- Talk about the problem/pain better than anyone else in your industry
This is WHAT You Talk About to Attract People!
- Where is your warm traffic hanging out
JV partners and similar programs/products = This is WHERE You Start to Share Your Message- Target There!
- Where is your prospect at in the customer journey
Understand their next step, are they cold warm or hot and what do they need to hear to take the next step = Tweak your message to match the needs of customer stages!
What’s In This Episode
What is inbound marketing and how does it fit into your marketing strategy? We review inbound vs outbound marketing examples and the advantages of inbound marketing. In my opinion, traditional methods that digital marketers use are doing it the hard way. I talk about cold, warm and hot traffic and how you can use inbound marketing tactics to save time and money – working smarter and not harder in this online marketing game.
Jenn Neal on why inbound marketing is best!
Inbound marketing: There’s somebody with a problem and searches the answer. Typically a Google search. If you come up in that Google search, they click through there like this, and that’s it, they are inbound to you.
-Jenn Neal
Why Inbound Marketing Is An Essential Marketing Strategy
There isn’t just one right way to market to potential customers or clients. There are many ways to spread the word about your company, products, and services. In fact, some of those methods are harder than others. The one thing you need to know about is inbound vs outbound marketing online.
Inbound Marketing Vs Outbound Marketing
You can think of traditional digital marketing as outbound marketing. You’re reaching out to buyers. It’s where many companies and marketers focus their efforts. It and can and has been successful, and there’s certainly a place for it. Yet, many people don’t realize that traditional outbound marketing is more difficult.
With outbound digital marketing, you buy ads on places like Google or Facebook. Now, to be clear, marketing tools let you target people who might fit best with your brand. But, you’re still taking a broad approach. Many people who see your ad won’t be interested in you at all. In these situations, you’re converting 1-2% of clicks into sales. However, this is even when you direct them to your sales funnel.
If you can target enough people, that 1% may be worth the effort and cost you put into outbound marketing. But it’s not the only way to do things. So what’s the easier way? Enter into the world of inbound marketing.
Why Inbound Marketing Works
With inbound marketing, potential customers come to you. They know that you provide information or even solutions to their problems. One of the easiest ways to use this strategy is through blog posts. Youtube channels and podcasts also work well for it. These work well because they’re ways to create a sense of authority by using SEO to your advantage!
Instead of placing ads, create helpful content. Search engines like google rank web pages according to how informational they are. Each page is ranked for certain keywords. If your page is optimized well, it appears in more searches. Proper optimization is a must if you want to be visible in the search engines. It is much more likely that you will attract more people to your sales page through something like a blog post. This is because your content provides useful information, where your sales page does not.
How do you know that inbound marketing is the way to go?
It’s simple. Research shows that 93% of every buying cycle starts with a problem. Someone realizes that they have a problem that needs to fixing. They then start searching for more information on how to solve that problem. If your page or video is properly optimized for that problem, it’s more likely to show up on the results page. The higher ranking your page is, the more authority it shows you have. The person with the problem is going to then see your content and see that you have a solution to their problem.
That’s what this is all about. SEO (search engine optimization) has always been about good and relevant content! When you can draw people to you like a magnet, you’ve mastered inbound marketing. And you’ve done it all without the costs that come along with outbound marketing,
How to Make Inbound Marketing Work for You
You’re convinced that inbound marketing is the way to go, but how do you leverage it? An important concept in inbound marketing is the client avatar or persona. You need to understand where your ideal client is in their customer journey. What is the problem they’re having? What information are they looking for? How will they use the information? Then, you can consider how to advance them toward the next step on their journey. A step that includes your products or services!
A basic piece of this strategy is the three types of traffic: cold, warm, and hot.
Cold Traffic
Cold traffic knows nothing about you or your products. They’ve only just becoming aware of a problem, and they’re searching for answers. But, they are probably not be ready for a solution. In order to warm this group up, provide information that’s efficient and fun.
Warm Traffic
Warm traffic knows they have a problem and have spent more time thinking about it. They may have already purchased an alternative solution. You want to “borrow” traffic that is already warmed up to what you offer from your competitors. This is why you see guests on competitor’s podcasts and blogs. By putting info into similar channels, they hope to attract warm traffic.
Hot Traffic
Hot traffic has already used your products. They know your company. The trick is to keep them coming back. How? Identify their next problem and offer them the solution for it before they ask. Because this group is much smaller, you need to offer customized solutions. However, you can branch out from search engines and social media ads. Instead, use texting, phone calls, and emails. Many companies lose hot traffic because they can’t figure out how to help people through their customer journey. But if you do it right, it can pay off in a big way. Because hot traffic retargets consumers, automation is an invaluable tool.
With this in mind, you can start taking advantage of inbound marketing.
If you’re ready to focus on this form of marketing, our checklist will get you started. You can find this inbound marketing tool at thecontenttoolbox.com.
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