Imagine:
You're preparing a presentation for an important meeting. Suddenly your phone rings.
You answer the call.
Oh no, it's a sales call!
A salesperson on the other end is pitching a product or service you have the slightest interest in or have never heard of.
Are you irritated, frustrated, angry, or annoyed?
This is an example of unsolicited cold calling, a classic outbound marketing technique that used to work. In today’s era of digitalization, when everyone has easy accessibility, such practices spoil the relationship between the people and the company even before it takes off.
In the modern-day landscape, where people appreciate personalized and relevant interactions, unsolicited cold calling often fails to meet these expectations. Today, the traditional approach of bombarding consumers with advertisements and unsolicited sales calls is replaced by a more consumer-centric strategy - Inbound Marketing. This methodology is focused on building your business by establishing significant and lasting connections with potential clients and existing customers.
In this blog, we will dive into the details of mastering the art of inbound marketing – a journey that transforms strangers into brand ambassadors.
The Concept of Inbound Marketing
Disclosing the Inbound Marketing Methodology
Differences in Inbound and Outbound Marketing
Similarities between Inbound and Outbound Marketing
The Concept of Inbound Marketing
The terminology ‘Inbound Marketing’ is not any marketing gimmick. Instead, it's a philosophy that establishes genuine connections with your target audience. Rather than forcing your message on potential customers, inbound marketing aims to naturally attract them by providing solutions to their challenges, answering their queries or concerns, and aligning with their interests. That's why it is also known as “pull marketing.” This concept stands on three pillars - Attract, Engage, and Delight customers throughout their buyer’s journey.
The similarity between Inbound and HubSpot is based on the fact that the term "Inbound Marketing" was coined by Brian Halligan, the CEO and co-founder of HubSpot.
As per HubSpot -
“The inbound methodology is the method of growing your organization by building meaningful, lasting relationships with consumers, prospects, and customers. It’s about valuing and empowering these people to reach their goals at any stage in their journey with you.”
Disclosing the Inbound Marketing Methodology
The inbound methodology is structured in three phases, all interlinked to move ahead in transforming from unknown individuals into brand advocates.
Attract
The first phase is about getting your target audience's attention to your brand. How do you reach your audience?
By creating and promoting value-added relevant content that resonates with people who are seeking solutions to the problems that your brand can solve. One of the prerequisites of developing quality content is to have clearly defined buyer personas. A buyer's persona is a semi-fictional depiction of the ideal customer for a company that is based on actual data gathered from both current and potential customers. Once the buyer’s personas are created, the next step is identifying the correct strategies to attract them.
Multiple tools can help attract your audience -
- Regular blog posting
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
- Leveraging Social Media
- Paid Ads
- Video uploads
Implementing the above tools with regular dedicated efforts will pave the way to the next phase of inbound marketing - keeping your visitors engaged.
Engage
Once you have attracted the visitors to your platforms, the next step would be to keep their interest and encourage them to explore more and take the desired action, like filling up the form in exchange for valuable resources like e-books, newsletters, guides, etc.
Tools to keep nurturing your visitors and converting them to leads -
- Simple & eye-catching Landing Pages
- Adding CTA’s
- Marketing Automation
- Forms
- Conversational Marketing (Live chat/Chatbots)
- Email Marketing
Using the right engagement strategies, you will convert your visitors into leads and eventually close them as loyal customers by continuously nurturing them with the right content.
Delight
The ultimate goal of Inbound marketing is to provide an excellent experience to your users, retain them and eventually make them promoters or evangelists of your brand. After all, those who have experienced your product or service can only be the best people to recommend it to others and become brand advocates.
Multiple tools you can leverage to keep your customers delighted -
- Surveys
- Social Monitoring & Feedback
- Email Marketing
- Marketing Automation
- Reporting insights
Continuous personalized interactions and extraordinary customer service will keep your customers loyal and increase referrals. Nothing works better than word-of-mouth publicity; your delighted customers can be a great source.
If you are ready to build or grow your business with this concept of the inbound methodology, then there is no better platform than HubSpot. To read more about how HubSpot can help you, please read the blog -
Differences in Inbound and Outbound Marketing
The inbound marketing methodology diverges from conventional advertising and marketing, commonly known as outbound marketing, in its approach. Inbound and Outbound are two distinct marketing strategies with divergent methodologies and approaches. The key differences are -
Similarities between Inbound and Outbound Marketing
1. Common Goal
Both aim to generate leads and increase sales revenue.
2. Brand visibility
Both strategies aim to increase brand visibility and awareness.
3. Require Effective Planning
Both marketing methodologies require adequate planning and strategy to achieve the desired results.
4. Technology Dependent
Both utilize technology to reach their intended audiences and measure the efficiency of their marketing plans.
5. Continuous Monitoring
Must be continuously monitored and optimized to improve marketing effectiveness and generate more significant ROI.
Benefits of Inbound Marketing
In modern marketing, inbound marketing has gained significant importance and value because of its customer-centric nature and ability to establish long-lasting relationships with customers. Some of the noteworthy benefits of Inbound Marketing are -
1. Cost-effective
Both must be continuously monitored and optimized to improve marketing effectiveness and generate more significant ROI.
2. Build Trust & Credibility
It provides information and resources that address the targeted audience's pain points and challenges when actively seeking such knowledge, thus building trust and authenticity.
3. Long-term Value
The content created is indefinitely available online and can continue to attract and engage audiences for extended periods, thus, creating long-term value.
4. Customer-centric Approach
It involves connecting with customers at various stages of their buyer's journey and providing them with the correct information to make informed decisions. This approach creates a positive experience and fosters brand loyalty.
5. More Engagement
Aims at targeting audiences actively seeking your product or service and showing them content that resonates with their requirements—as a result, building stronger relationships and more engagement.
6. Evolving nature
It is flexible and can evolve as per the trends in customer behavior and technology. As consumer choices change and new platforms and technologies emerge, inbound marketing strategies can be modified and updated to match the developments.
7. Customer relationship management
The primary focus is building relationships through personalized content, not just selling. This paves the way for higher customer retention.
Final Word
From Strangers to Promoters - the buyer’s journey through inbound marketing prioritizes building authentic, long-lasting relationships. Sale isn’t the end goal of inbound marketing, but building a trustworthy and inspiring brand is. By attracting, engaging, and delighting your customers, you champion them in becoming your brand ambassadors.
If you are thinking about embarking on this transformative journey of inbound marketing, reach out to us, and we can support you with various inbound marketing strategies that will help you connect with the right audience at the right time. We carefully study your business’s goals, target audience, and available resources and chalk out the best inbound strategies to meet your goals. Inboundsys specializes in -
- Website Design & Development
- Search Engine Optimization
- Email Marketing
- Performance Marketing
- Social Media Marketing
Start unlocking the power of Inbound Marketing with Inboundsys today!
Inboundsys is one of the leading award-winning MarTech Companies with over ten years of experience in web development and marketing services. We take time to understand our client’s goals and challenges and take them through the most fruitful solutions coherent with their business needs. We can curate a customized solution tailored to your specific business needs and provide ongoing support and training to maximize the value of your investment.