Inbound marketing is a term coined by Hubspot and now used by millions of marketers across the globe. Wikipedia defines it as “a technique for drawing customers to products and services via content marketing, social media marketing, search engine optimization and branding”. In this blog, we will take you through how to do inbound marketing and which inbound marketing strategy is best suited to help grow your small business.
Traditional marketing makes use of outbound marketing which focuses on product/service push. Inbound marketing on the other hand is more of a magnetic pull and uses tools like blogs, social media, email campaigns and SEO to build trust and credibility for your brand. It is centred around the creation of high-quality content as a way to build permanent and long-term relationships with your customers. When you create content that is designed to address problems and provide solutions, it allows your audience to find you. It’s the type of content that they are looking for.
Content marketing
With content marketing, the goal is to provide valuable content that makes your customer’s world a better place and remedies all their pain points. The aim of the game is to be helpful. Your content (often in the form of a blog) should be free and useful information. The thinking is that this level of thoughtfulness will build trust and make your audience become more loyal to your brand.
The better your use of keywords for SEO, the easier it will be for your audience to find you, so do your keyword research! Using tools like Google Keyword Planner will help you identify what people are searching for and you can craft content around those keywords and search terms.
But what if your content is bland or boring? Your audience isn’t bound to stay around for very long – and the last thing you want is a high bounce rate. So, having engaging, high-quality content is essential. You’ve got to give your audience what they’re looking for. Match your topics to their needs.
Lastly, make sure your content is always unique – ask yourself what you have to offer that someone else hasn’t already done? This doesn’t mean that your content needs to be lengthy, it’s just got to be punchy, purposeful and most importantly, useful!
SEO
Your content marketing strategy and SEO are slightly different things, but they should work together to create a successful inbound marketing strategy. SEO is the tool that brings your audience to your content.
The more quality content you have, the more other people will link back to your site as an authority in your field, and the easier it will be for Google’s algorithms to find you (that’s SEO).
The more traffic to your site, the better you will rank with Google. Being on the first page of Google’s search results page will give you more reach and the better your reach, the better opportunity you‘ll have to convert new customers.
Social media marketing
Social media is your gateway to authentically engaging with your audience. Social media is a quicker and more personal way of responding to your customers, and it’s a fantastic way to learn about their preferences.
Social media management is a cost–effective way to increase visibility, brand awareness and drive traffic to your website. Having a social media content plan is a great way to make sure that you don’t forget to post. Consistently posting content that your audience will find helpful and interesting is sure to keep them coming back!
When used together, these strategies become the cornerstone of your digital marketing, and when used with paid digital media, then it can be even more successful.
Developing an inbound marketing strategy is an investment in the growth and sustainability of your business. Chat to our team if you’d like to learn more about our inbound marketing services.
