200 million Americans have registered on FTC's "Do Not Call" list.
44% of direct mail is never opened.
86% of people now skip through TV commercials.(Source: Mashable)
People are now tuning out and immune to traditional marketing tactics. Consumers nowadays know exactly what they want and are more in control of what information they want to receive. This massive shift in consumer behavior explains the decline of traditional outbound marketing and the rise of inbound marketing.
Marketers used outbound marketing to seek customers via print ads, TV and radio commercials, and cold calls. Whereas with inbound marketing, you let customers come to you. This is where having the right content in the right place at the right time could do wonders for your marketing campaigns. Inbound marketing is organic, honest, and more personal. When done properly, your inbound marketing strategies can turn site visitors to customers and customers to brand ambassadors.
1. Get Found/Attract
In order to attract genuine traffic to your site from search engines, blogs, social media, and other published articles, you need to have the most relevant, personalized content that make people keep coming back for more. The right content speaks to prospective customers, address their concerns and issues, and answers their questions. Optimize your search engine keywords, produce quality blog content, leverage social media sites to increase your chance to get found by your potential customers.
2. Convert
Collect site visitors' information and convert them into qualified leads. You can use lead nurturing tactics such as calls-to-action buttons or links that connect visitors to your landing pages. Once visitors fill out information forms on landing pages, they become leads that allow you to advance with more interactions.
3. Close
Now all you have to do is to convert leads into customers. Here, you can optimize CRM (Customer Relationship Management) practices to deliver quality customer service whether providing the right information for queries or dealing with issues and complaints. You may use email marketing to respond to any customer's specific interests with related email newsletters. Keep track of your social media followers' activities and conversations and follow up with useful information and tips. Build customer loyalty and trust to help make the conversion process smoother.
4. Delight
In this stage, you are looking to convert customers into brand ambassadors/advocates. Provide smart, valuable contents that can hold the interest of customers. Always find out customers' feedback and suggestions through surveys or social media conversations. Pay close attention to their likes and dislikes and reach out with the most relevant information. Make them fall in love with your brand and services. Then, you can count on them to share their positive experiences and spread the good word, all on your behalf.
So, do not get stuck behind with outbound marketing.
Move forward with inbound marketing and get a second chance to make the first impression.
May Mandy Han
Many marketers are looking for strategies on how people will look for our business and become successful. Your blog is very nice to read because of the important information you have shared. You have discussed very well the importance of inbound marketing in a business and this is a nice read. Inbound marketing is a combination of tools, tactics and channels but it revolves primarily around content. Content is king in inbound marketing. Content is the key to getting people talking about your main marketing messages and attracting them into our business site, where we can tell them more about our brilliant business. If great content is essential to effective inbound marketing, then creating a blog for our business is a perfect way to begin building a social hub or platform for our company. Inbound marketing is a very effective form of marketing because it’s about adding the human touch to business interactions. It’s about encouraging companies to broadcast and, furthermore, involves prospects and customers in the brand’s activities. That’s why I like your blog. I’ve learned a lot. Thank you for your ideas.
ReplyDeleteClwyd Probert @ Whitehat SEO
Hi Clwyd, thank you for your comment! I've found that it's become increasingly difficult to create appealing content to attract your audience since there's so much competition now. Ultimately, it'll come down to really getting to know your audience, their likes and dislikes, and then tailoring your content to attract them. I'm glad you find our blog interesting!
DeleteThis is a nice post. I like the concept of inbound marketing. I think inbound marketing is the best way to convert leads as paying customer and promote the business. Thanks for sharing this post. Inbound marketing tips
ReplyDelete