All you Need to Know About Inbound Marketing

20 years ago, if you’ve asked what marketing is? The answer would be totally different, it would be, as I quote, ‘The size of your wallet’. Today, the terms of marketing are different, creative, or to summon it is faster, beyond your thought, and effective!

And, here I introduce you to ‘Inbound Marketing’. 

It is easier to get lost in the world of digital marketing, and people face a lot of issues like - where to focus? What to learn? What can be skipped for a short time? What requires more energy and involvement? 

I know it is hard enough just figuring out where to start and where to pause! And, without definitive learning, you cannot attain success. The risk of wasting time and money is what scares most of the aspiring digital marketers and so I bring your dire attention to - Learning Inbound Marketing!

What is Inbound Marketing?

It is the process of creating and curating content that is desirable to the target buyer persona! It comes with multiple benefits like web traffic, brand engagement, and brand interest. 

Basically, it is a business methodology that lets your brand attract customers by creating valuable, understandable content, and also give them the best experience. 

Rather than shouting out loud to the audience with the content that they don’t want (which is an outbound marketing), this marketing allows you to subtly attract visitors to you! It is wholesome marketing that combines website search engine optimization, blogs, email marketing, social media marketing, and premium offers, in a single cohesive bond. 

Inbound leads on average cost 61% less as compared to outbound leads and 3 out of 4 inbound marketing channels cost less than any outbound channel!

The Inbound Marketing Mantra -Attract, Engage, Delight!

It forms connections they’re looking for and also solves problems they have. Inbound is a method of attracting, engaging, and delighting the audience to grow the business faster and effectively. Inbound is the best approach towards marketing, an effective way to sell, and the best way to serve your customers. Your business/brand can grow faster and effectively with ‘good and satisfied customers’. 

What is Inbound Marketing Strategies?

There are three strategies that make up Inbound Marketing, which is, attracting strategies, engaging strategies, and delighting strategies. These strategies provide help to effectively market your product or services to your target audience. 

Properly executed inbound marketing is 10x more effective for lead conversion than outbound marketing!

01. Attracting Strategies - Content Creation and SEO!

To reach your audience, your brand’s creativeness should be loud and clear! And, this means you have to attract them with content creation and development such as blog articles, social media content, and other information, that provides value to the customer and also attracts them. 

The example of attracting strategies includes blogs on how to use your service/product, information on how the solutions given by your brand can be helpful to solve customer’s challenges, details about discounts or offers, and customer testimonials. 

Also, attracting strategies includes SEO strategy! Optimize all of the content with an SEO strategy. It requires specific keywords to be targeted and phrases that relate to the product/service. This allows you to focus on the problems faced by the audience and provide them solutions with a more targeted approach. 

The Search Engine Optimization technique allows your content and information to organically appear on top of the search engine page for the people who are searching for the same keywords. 

02. Engaging Strategies - Inbound sales calls!

Engaging the audience is a tough task with so much going around in the digital marketing world. This strategy includes communicating and dealing with the leads and customers in a proper way that makes them want to trust your brand. Also, you have to give them some value!

• How to handle calls from interested people. 
• Solve the issues that they come up with. 
• A deal that is beneficial for your brand as well as for customers. 

Be the Right-Fit for your Audience/Prospects!

03. Delighting Strategies:

Happy customers = Happy Brand!

Delighting customers after they have bought a product/service from you is important for a long-lasting relation. This will include chatbots, requesting feedback, and assisting, and supporting customers through email marketing. 

The bots and surveys should be shared on a timely basis! It should make sense to the customer’s purchase and also offer the value. For example, chatbots are the best if you want to entertain your customers 24*7 and also solve the small issues or concerns faced by the audience. Just like, Myntra entertain the customers after they make a purchase by sending a survey form. 

Another important strategy is social media! Ask questions, drive polls, and ask the followers to share their experience with your products or services. This shows you hear and care about them. 

Why Inbound Marketing is Important?

01. Better alignment with buyers:

Going hand in hand with the buyers is what inbound marketing is all about! There are about 10 Billion monthly searches on Google! And, this is important that you target what they are searching for. The most important benefit of inbound marketing is that it aligns you with today’s buyers. Showing the audience, that you have something that will solve their issues and also points out their pain point. 

Moreover, inbound marketing allows you to present customer reviews and also provide the audience with the perspective of others who have experienced the service offered by your brand. 

Keep in mind - Forced marketing makes the audience to block your ads, swipe through your advertisements, or mark your email in spam!

Inbound marketing subtly markets your products/services!

02. Lower investment:

Outbound marketing is for those who have a big wallet, for instance buying TV commercials, print ads, and billboard ads get very expensive, and you aren’t even sure what is the success rate of it! Inbound marketing requires your creative side to come out with more colors! By launching ad campaigns, by putting up even a creative on social media you are sure to get someone’s attention, and most importantly it is traceable. 

Inbound marketing has a more target-audience approach! Any activity you do, like SEO or SMM, everything is measurable and beneficial. 

It requires only your smart approach and creative outlook, it educates and introduces the idea of marketing in a subtle way, unlike outbound marketing. 

Don’t impose, subtly introduce your brand! Imposed and forceful marketing ends up in the bin!

Also, inbound marketing can be taken up by small to big brands and businesses. So, even if you are short on money, you can still opt for inbound marketing. With so many free and low-cost options, starting it would be smooth like butter.

For instance, signing-up on any platform is free of charge, installing WordPress is also easy, and starting blogging is on your own end. There are multiple platforms that allow you to access many options free of cost. 

03. Higher ROI:

The lower investment of inbound marketing, resultantly means better opportunities for ROI! As explained above, you can collect data from the audience, and also measure success of any inbound strategy you apply, you can see and feel that inbound marketing promises higher ROI. 

And, why not, from people visiting your website to the moment you make a deal, the experience provided, and the outcome can be traced and analyzed. 

All you have to do is write evergreen content, creative, and visually attractive to execute an inbound marketing campaign. 

Some other benefits of inbound marketing include -

• Successfully getting qualified leads! Also, the campaign and everything that drives leads reaches out to your sales team. 
• Inbound marketing promises an enhanced and modern customer experience with your brand. 
• Customers gain trust through your online presence and also educates the audience about your brand.
• Also, this marketing technique provides a strategic approach to marketing, which makes it easier for marketers to employ and lead to success. 
• There are multiple tools available free of cost online that can be used to automate many inbound marketing parts like email marketing. 
• It streamlines lead generation. 

Some of the terms of inbound marketing you should know -

• Buyer’s persona - It refers to the personality and preferences of the type of buyer! It can vary depending upon product preference, how buyers buy when they buy, and what are the factors that engage and influence their buying decision. 
• Call to action - A call to action refers to the small text at the conclusion or amid the text that asks your customer to do something. 
• Keywords - It is a group of words that best describe your product or company. In simpler terms, it is what people search online, for instance, digital marketing online, or digital marketing courses online. 

Inbound marketing is an incredibly powerful way to get out there online and experience multiple benefits! As an inbound marketer, your goal is to attract, engage, and delight the audience!

Rather than shouting at your prospects to attract and engage them, you can subtly introduce your brand to them. From search engine optimization, blogging, email marketing, to social media marketing and campaigns, inbound marketing inculcate everything in a single system. When you use it properly, these strategies, that is - attract, engage, delight, you can get more revenue, more leads, and good business growth. 

To conclude - “Inbound marketing revolves around meaningful content, and this content generates attention, leads, and ample benefits that helps brands/businesses grow and achieve heights!

Also, if you are eager to learn any of these techniques or the entire marketing, then learn digital marketing course at the Orionators School of Learning – Asia’s fastest-growing digital marketing school. We dig deep into the different modules. Join us and know the basics, tips, and tricks to all the modules including social media marketing, content marketing, search engine optimization, affiliate marketing, and website design and development!