Inbound marketing can be defined as the type of marketing which pulls customers towards your business and services, by providing valuable experiences to them. It basically uses different types of pull marketing techniques to interest and engage prospective customers in your products and services. Inbound marketing automation is an effective strategy which combines two major trends in marketing, inbound marketing and marketing automation. Inbound marketing consists of several components which aim at pulling prospective customers towards your products and services. These components include:
1. SEO – SEO or Search Engine Optimization refers to the process of optimizing your webpages in order to increase the quantity and the quality of website traffic, in an organic manner. The objective of SEO is to make your website discoverable to search engines. This is done by adding and modifying content, modifying HTML and adding coding elements. SEO as a component of inbound marketing focuses on improving the ranking of your website in the unpaid search results, thereby getting more prospective customers to visit your website. This is an effective pull strategy as it can get several interested leads at zero costs.
2. Social Media – Social media marketing refers to the use of different social media platforms to promote your products and services amongst your target customers. With almost all your prospective customers present on social media, social media marketing is the best and most effective way to reach and engage with your customers, drive website traffic and boost sales. By advertising and promoting your products on social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest etc, you can not only boost brand awareness amongst your target audience but also understand your customers’ needs and pain points.
3. Content Marketing – According to the Content Marketing Institute, “content marketing is a strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly defined audience — and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action.” In other words, content marketing as an inbound marketing strategy helps in engaging prospective customers by communicating content which is relevant and interesting to them. A strong content marketing strategy involving various types of valuable content can be very helpful in pulling your customers towards your products and services.
4. Lead Generation – There is nothing more annoying than cold calls disturbing you, trying to push unnecessary products and services towards you! This is where inbound lead generation comes in. Lead generation refers to the marketing process by which interest for your products and services is created amongst prospective customers. In the case of lead generation as a part of inbound marketing, prospects are pulled towards your offerings with the help of quality content. The motive is to get your customers to come to you and initiate contact with you. Interested customers translate to shorter sales cycles and successful sales.
However, inbound marketing, in itself cannot guarantee success. Inbound marketing automation is a powerful combination of inbound marketing and marketing automation. Marketing automation tools, when used to boost the efforts of inbound marketers, can successfully help your business generate huge profits. Here are some ways in which marketing automation can be used for inbound marketing:
1. Developing relevant content – “Marketing is telling the world you’re a rockstar. Content marketing is showing the world that you are one” – Robert Rose, Content Marketing Institute. Interesting and valuable content is key to engaging your customers and generating greater sales. Today’s customers are hungry for content. Buyers are unwilling to purchase any product or service without first going through videos, reviews and blogs on the same. Additionally, your prospective customers may be occupying different stages in the buyer’s journey. As such, their content requirements will be different. The success of inbound marketing automation depends upon the creation and communication of relevant content. Marketing automation helps in creating buyer personas as well as understanding the various pain points of your prospective customers. This helps inbound marketers to come up with a content strategy and develop content which makes sense to targeted customers. The main advantage of providing relevant content is that customers are getting their questions answered without feeling that the products and services are being pushed towards them. Inbound marketing automation ensures that marketers can create content, which is valuable to customers, depending upon the position they are occupying in the customer journey, as well as guarantee that this content is communicated in a timely basis. Thus, prospective customers are pulled towards your products and services, earning their trust and boosting profits.
2. Engage with buyers – No matter the marketing strategy, at the heart lies the customer. Fulfilling the customer’s needs and desires is a sure-shot way to achieve high sales numbers and increase revenue for your organization. Hence, the primary task for any marketer would be to interact and engage with the target audience. This is easily done with the help of inbound marketing automation. One of the main tenets of marketing automation is that it assists in understanding the buyer. Once you have understood your buyer, you can not only understand the platforms he/she engages with but also his pain points that need to be fulfilled. Thus, inbound marketers can interact with prospective customers on their favoured platforms. Moreover, marketing automation also helps in tracking the different actions that customers take on your webpages. Depending on these actions, inbound marketing automation can be used to deliver tailored content which is relevant to the customers. For example, if a customer visits a particular product page on your website, content related to the advantages of that product along with offers can be sent to the customer. This will motivate the customer to purchase the product without making them feel that they are being pushed into buying the product.
3. Lead Nurturing – Lead nurturing refers to a marketing process by which marketers engage with and build relationships with prospective customers who are not yet willing to purchase but may do so in the future. Most prospects who visit your website are not yet ready to complete a sale. However, the fact that they visited the site indicates an interest in your products and services. Hence it is very important to nurture these leads so that they can complete sales in the future. Lead nurturing is one of the key aspects of marketing automation. Once leads have been segregated based on their position in the customer journey, inbound marketers should use lead nurturing techniques to build a positive relationship with them. This is mainly done with the help of drip email marketing. Emails containing relevant and valuable content is sent to the leads, to inform them about offers, educate them about the company and generate their interest in the products and services. Lead nurturing as a part of inbound marketing automation helps marketers to remain at the top of the minds of customers. These nurtured leads generate sales and profits in the future, making lead nurturing an essential component of long-term growth.
4. Converting potential customers – At the end of the day, the goal of every company, marketer and salesperson is to convert potential customers and generate sales. Marketers use marketing automation for inbound marketing in order to reach new customers, engage with them and ultimately generate profits from them. Inbound marketing automation is one of the most valuable tools available at the disposal of marketers to close leads and increase revenue. Marketers can generate leads using SEO and take the help of marketing automation to compartmentalize between hot and cold leads. Social media helps companies to engage with prospective customers while content marketing ensures that customers are receiving timely and relevant content which piques their interest. Inbound marketing automation helps marketers to effectively combine the various features of inbound marketing with marketing automation tools and use the same to convert potential customers. By segmenting leads and showing them the right content at the right time, companies can close sales faster and generate a higher ROI.
Inbound marketing automation is one of those techniques that every marketer must know and implement in their organization. An effective and systematic implementation of marketing automation and inbound marketing guarantees high-profit figures within no time! Know more about our inbound marketing automation services: https://telloquent.com