Marketers constantly strive to upgrade their existing marketing efforts while simultaneously searching for new avenues to make it big with the right digital marketing strategy in place.
Delighting customers may not be such an easy task, but there’s a surefire way to achieve qualified leads and retain existing customers in the journey to realizing sales.
Enter, Inbound Marketing.
More Than Just Customer Marketing
Traditional marketing methods focus on offering numerous promotional deals and bombarding site visitors, not even the target audience, with paid ads, cold calls, cold emails, spam messages, and whatnot.
Inbound marketing, on the other hand, is about offering valuable content marketing and earning customers’ trust and alliance organically. However, offering value that suits and satisfies the various consumer brackets is exhausting. And this is where the inbound marketing methodology comes to the rescue.
An effective inbound marketing strategy doesn’t just generate traffic to your business but helps regulate operations and keep the customers engaged, willingly encouraging repeat business.
Inbound Marketing Explained
Inbound marketing is a methodology that helps you attract strangers, convert prospects into leads, and close customers. This process involves reaching out to the target audience through relevant content marketing that ensures seamless customer relationship management.
From queries that dive deep into a prospect’s pain points, clearly answering FAQs, understanding their purchase challenges, mapping out the buyer personas, to ensuring a seamless problem-solving attitude at every touchpoint, an inbound marketing methodology incorporates all.
Another marketing aspect that marketers constantly keep up with is the shift in buyer behavior. Consumers find it convenient to conduct their own research for the product they need through the ever-available Google’s high-ranking search engine results page.
These evolving needs require immediate catering if businesses want to keep more customers coming through their trade portal.
In today’s world, inbound marketing is the chief marketing technique for driving organic growth. And because inbound marketing opens up a sales pipeline that didn’t previously exist, it can help you close more sales, too.
Let’s dive further in and explore the inbound marketing process, why it matters, how it works, and why you should invest in inbound efforts. Today, you’re going to learn what occurs during the attract stage of the inbound methodology, when does the engage stage of the inbound methodology begin and much more. Enjoy!
Taking the Leap into Inbound Marketing
Let’s have a look at how you can begin incorporating the use of content marketing to tackle the shift from your usual marketing strategy to an inbound marketing methodology.
Pull, don’t push
Unlike outbound marketing, inbound marketing doesn’t rely on interruption to get your message in front of your audience. Instead, inbound marketing uses great content to lure people in, then builds relationships with those people so they’ll eventually buy from you
The inbound approach is often more successful since it doesn’t force the message on people and instead provides them with the information they can use to make purchase decisions. As a result, customers are more likely to feel positive about the company and are more likely to make a purchase.
Additionally, inbound marketing is becoming increasingly important in the digital age as people have more access to information and can easily research companies before making a purchase. Inbound marketing allows companies to effectively reach their target audience and build lasting relationships with customers.
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Take advantage of the rising buyer behavior shift
Continuing from the above, customers when engaging through Google or Firefox or any other search engine tend to give up the ownership of their buying decision. Even a small confirmation sees potential customers engaged on the web, researching similar products, reading numerous product reviews, and even considering alternatives.
So, when a customer is spending such precious time conducting thorough research, you as a company can take hold of the opportunity to present yourself and help the people. The ideal SEO strategy will help you rise to the top, be it promoting your website, creating impactful blog articles, video content, and such, and eventually place you in front of the ideal customer niche.
Social media and its rise
Social media isn’t just an entertainment or communications platform. It’s a place where you connect with various people from different backgrounds and quite recently, one of the most powerful marketing materials to generate leads for your business.
It would be no surprise then, that everything from social media posts to tweets to controversies forms a part and parcel of an inbound strategy.
People use social media for digital marketing to learn about the market trends, how the big name brands are reacting and growing online, how various brands are popping up given the immense competition, for availing of customer services, and more importantly to make purchases.
While business-centric apps like LinkedIn and Indeed make it convenient to connect potential employees with companies, multi-faceted platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter influence buyer decisions and lend a voice to prospects’ thoughts on brand service and its products.
An inbound marketer thinks of social media as the place to be since it’s where the potential customers are drifting around, just like with any search engine. To get your customers talking about your brand and services in a positive light, you can draft a digital strategy that goes something like this:
- Sharing glimpses of your recent blog post content and linking it to your website to create a curious intent and direct traffic organically. Choose content points that offer value at a glance to the viewer and show your expertise in the field to compel them to take a step forward.
- Ramp up your conversion levels and turn visitors into leads by engaging with your loyal customer base and sharing relevant content to pull in new customers. Start a conversation with like-minded business individuals or comment on others’ comments and posts to create a human touch with your audience.
- Go beyond the usual customer support services and readily answer your customer’s queries with patience. Give them passive information about new deals and offers and stay up to date on the challenges they’re facing to solve matters faster.
What happens in a sales process conducted through social media, is that you get the opportunity to listen, interact, and cater to the ideal customer by meeting them where they are and solving their queries at whichever touchpoint in their buyer persona they’re at.
Engaging Strangers into Turning Brand Promoters – The Stages of the Inbound Marketing Methodology
Inbound marketers realize the importance of better understanding their prospects and their needs as they move through the sales pipeline so they can clear out probable kinks in the buyer’s journey and make a seamless customer experience.
The inbound methodology consists of four stages and aligns with this principle when detailing the necessary aspects of each stage to steer prospective customers into promoters of your brand. The four stages are: Attract, Convert, Close, and Delight.
Each stage has its characteristics that help close the step-by-step lead generation process. Inbound marketing efforts should be carried out timely and with a laser-focus target for your inbound approach to work effectively, which is where the methodology does its magic.
A Calculated Marketing Evolution
And yet, in recent years, the inbound marketing methodology has evolved to effectively market and better address buyer personas in a customer’s experience.
The flywheel concept of inbound marketing terms sales cycle as never-ending, thus categorizing the stages of the inbound strategy as:
Attract, Engage, and Delight, keeping customers at the center of the wheel.
This insightful inbound methodology helps filter the large consumer base and connects you with the right customers, creating strategies to effectively address their pain points, giving them the support they need to succeed in their purchase and keep the sales cycle going by routing more traffic and repeat traffic to your website.
Here is a detailed look at what you should be doing right at each stage of the buyer’s journey.
Attract Stage
What occurs during the attract stage of the inbound methodology? The type of customers you meet in the Attract stage of the inbound marketing methodology are those who are potentially interested in your product or service, but are not yet aware of your brand. To reach these customers, you’ll need to create content that is both informative and relevant to their needs.
Since they’re complete strangers, you can’t just pull in all of them now knowing who really wants to invest in your service and who doesn’t. So, you begin your filtration process by generating helpful content to draw the right people into your sales funnel at the right time.
Who are the right people?
Here is where you start considering the ideal customer for your business growth. And this begins with creating a buyer persona that defines your perfect buyer.
In order to create buyer personas, you need to first understand who your ideal customer is. This might seem like a daunting task, but there are a few key pieces of information that can help you to get started.
First, consider what your prospects’ needs are. What are they looking for in a product or service? What are their pain points? Once you have a good understanding of their needs, you can begin to develop buyer personas.
These are fictional characters who represent your ideal customer, and they can be based on real data such as demographic information, psychographic information, and even personal interests.
By developing buyer personas, you can ensure that your marketing efforts are focused on reaching the right people with the right message.
What is the right message?
The right message here refers to offering marketing tools that your buyer persona will seek willingly to solve their problems. This message or content differs from persona to persona since every customer’s needs differ based on what they’re experiencing.
A few crucial and common queries that every persona has in common are the price tag, the problem, the reviews, alternatives & comparisons, and best-in-class similar products. Moreover, the content you curate for your audience should be accurate, relevant, and helpful.
This means that you need to do your research and make sure that your information is up-to-date and reliable. You also need to ensure that your content is relevant to your target audience and provides value.
You need to be sure that your content is presented in a way that is easy for your audience to understand and use. Working closely with your sales team will help in crafting valuable content that shows your audience that you’re genuinely vested in their best interests.
When you’re creating a marketing strategy, it’s important to consider the role that visual content will play. In the “Attract” stage of inbound marketing, your goal is to draw people in with compelling content that speaks to their needs and interests.
Visual content can be a powerful tool in achieving this goal. People are hardwired to respond to visuals, and adding compelling images, videos, and infographics to your content can help capture attention and convey your message more effectively.
When used in conjunction with well-written copy, visual content can be a powerful way to attract attention and drive traffic to your website.
By following these guidelines, you can develop a relationship of trust with your audience and position yourself as a credible source of information.
What is the right place?
In this stage of inbound marketing, your goal is to reach strangers who might be interested in your products or services. To do this, you need to use the right marketing tools. However, it isn’t enough to make a great strategy that works. If you don’t manage to reach your intended audience, what use is that great strategy?
The key, here, is to know where your audience resides the most so you can reach them and present your services with the right amount of impact with the ideal marketing tool.
- Content creation is one of the most important tools in this stage, as it allows you to share your story and connect with potential customers.
- Social media is also a great way to reach out to new people, and paid ads can help you extend your reach even further.
- SEO is another important tool in this stage, as it helps you ensure that your content is seen by the people who are most likely to be interested in it.
By using the right marketing tools, you can reach your audience in the right way and attract new customers.
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Engage Stage
When does the engage stage of the inbound methodology begin? The engage stage of inbound marketing is all about turning visitors into leads. And the best way to do that is through lead generation.
Lead generation is the process of capturing and converting interested prospects into leads, and it can be done in a number of ways. One common method is to offer content offers, like ebooks or webinars, in exchange for contact information.
This can be done through a CTA, or multiple calls to action, on your website or blog, which directs visitors to landing pages where they can enter their information in exchange for the offer.
By providing valuable content that speaks to your target audience’s specific needs and pain points, you can turn casual visitors into leads that are interested in your product or service.
With all the information in one place, all you have to do next is a store and organize it in a CRM system. Take ample advantage of the best CRMs available for your business since they offer more than tracking the prospect’s information and customer interaction history.
Now that you have all that you need, further, engage your customers with engagement tools like lead nurturing, email marketing, lead scoring, marketing automation, promos, discounts, and more.
Delight Stage
The delight stage of the inbound marketing methodology is all about working actively to retain your existing customers. It’s about going above and beyond their expectations to keep them coming back for more.
When working to delight your customers, it’s important to be proactive and anticipate their needs and wants. This begins with understanding what they are thinking and feeling at each stage of their customer journey.
In this stage, customers have already made a purchase and are using your product or service. They may have questions or need help getting the most out of what they’ve bought. Asking the right questions during this stage can help you not only resolve any issues they’re having but also identify ways to deliver content that further improves their experience.
Some examples of customer queries you might want to ask in the Delight stage include:
- How are you finding our product/service so far? Is there anything we can do to improve your experience?
- Have you had any challenges using our product/service? How did you overcome them?
- What other features would you like to see added to our product/service?
- How likely are you to recommend our product/service to a friend or colleague? Why or why not?
Asking these types of questions will not only help you deliver an outstanding customer experience but also give you valuable insights into how you can further improve your product or service.
Final Thoughts on the Stages of the Inbound Methodology
Personalizing your inbound marketing strategy gives the prospective customer something to bank on, a feeling that they can trust you since you know what you’re doing. It’s also equally important that you listen to their woes, be they digital or physical.
Implementing a strategy doesn’t happen overnight and considering your business growth, you need to constantly evaluate your efforts as well as all marketing strategies, beyond just the inbound methodology.
Always place the customer at the center of your business model and asking the right questions becomes that much easier.
If you’re stuck at some point in the inbound marketing strategy or can’t seem to figure out a few aspects of your digital business, let Growth Hackers is an award-winning inbound marketing agency which can lend you a supporting hand. As a successful digital marketing brand, we have helped shape sustainable and scalable growth journeys of numerous companies.
We offer performance-driven and data-driven results that you can leverage to ensure that your brand succeeds and prospers through organic efforts. Reach out to Growth Hackers today for more details and let us know how we can customize our efforts to suit your business goals.
