7 Mantras to Succeed in Inbound Marketing

Before you begin, recall all the issues and complications you’re undergoing in your business to get them answered right away! But before getting to the core of this problem, you must grasp all the basics.

What is Inbound Marketing?

The term ‘inbound’ relates to shifting towards the center or moving inwards, in order to concentrate all the clutter in one place. ‘Marketing’ refers to the act of promoting goods/services to increase awareness and hence, sales. Inbound marketing is thus the field of promotion which attracts customers to the organization instead of approaching them. It draws people in by getting found by them.

Instead of the traditional method of searching customers by utilizing the ‘sell anyhow’ concept and reaching out to an unknown public, inbound marketing is buyer-centric, cost-efficient and practical. It acts as a magnet to attract potential customers. Not only does it convert interested strangers into fully-fledged customers, but also utilizes their enthusiasm to create promoters. Interested already? What if you’re told that it’s economical with defined planning techniques, and ensures justice to every bit of your money and efforts?

Implementation is not as easy as it seems

The traffic driven on your websites is gathered organically. This clearly indicates that the use of sponsorship in advertisements through paid means is not the inbound way. One can only imagine the depth of research and technical management techniques it requires! SEO, content with context, buyer persona and journey or inbound methodology: these strategies give results not when they’re merely presented, but when they’re aligned and systematically approached.

If you wish to adopt it or couldn’t figure out the best way to go about it, here are seven detailed expert-initiated ways to attain Inbound Marketing success:

1. SMART approach sets realistic goals

Goal setting forms the foundation of a planned strategy. Goals give direction to the workflow, letting them evaluate where they stand and where they need to stand. And while a business can set huge targets to term itself as successful, it should only focus on the aims which can be reached, without shooting too high for more.

An ideal goal setting follows the SMART way:

S- Specific: The goals should be precise, clear and to the point. They must hold the capability to answer the questions of Who, What, Where, When, Why and How. Assuming accountability to all these questions makes your goal complete.

M- Measurable: Your goal should be numeric to give a clear vision. Benchmarks and trends need to be analysed properly for the same.

A- Attainable: Your workforce may not be capable to achieve unrealistically high goals. So, you should confirm whether your company has achieved similar goals in the past before setting such lofty goals. You should also have apt resources for the same.

R- Relevant: The aim should comply with organisational goals and meet the overall as well as primary focus.

T- Timely: Create deadlines to keep track of how much time you need to complete tasks.

2. Recognise the Buyer Personas

Marketing is an art and being successful in it is no rocket science. A successful approach for inbound marketing always considers the target audience it reaches. Buyer personas relate to the detailed information of any prospect, including their personal information, professional backgrounds, future interests, goals and challenges.

Aligning with content-with-context technique and maintaining buyer personas helps you in sending the right type of content to the right kind of people. According to recent surveys, it is noted that 90% of the companies using inbound marketing are well aware of their personas and trigger their interests according to their preferences. While 70% of the successful revenue generating companies have created buyer personas, 56% already have highly-qualified leads registered in their system.

3. Marketing Automation is the key

Since your goals have now escalated as inbound is a new way, digital assets will help you in reducing duplication of tasks, enhancing productivity and improving transparency. High-performing assets bring out the best of this potential. For instance, landing pages and Calls-To-Action act as the spirit of a sale and making them appealing enough is the main task. Specialised Marketing Automation Softwares like Hubspot contribute in designing these elements as well. These tools help in creating customized and personalised content, opportunities of easy conversion, blogging techniques, and mobile-first mechanisms.

4. Reach out to the world

To boost your online visibility – that too organically – there are some defined marketing tactics. Two of the most important tactics are Social Media Marketing and Search Engine Optimization (SEO).

• Social Media Marketing techniques uses social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn etc. to reach the eyes of the target audience. This helps in improving brand image, increases recognizability and – if done right – leads to a drastic boost in driving traffic.

• Search Engine Optimization helps you attain a better ranking that your competition in the results of various search engines. While searching online, a visitor enters keywords which shows a list of links that carry the typed information. SEO optimizes your website by using a set of techniques to make sure you enter the top results organically, i.e., without making additional payments.

5. Make customers reach you

In order to generate leads, you need to gather their information. Create attractive yet relevant content that drives them to you. Try to meet their interests in a way that they are able to find solutions to their doubts, confusions or problems from you. Content innovation is not restricted to simple textual information; it can be framed in different content forms like infographics, eBooks, newsletters, whitepapers, videos, podcasts, case studies and many more. You can build lead intelligence, formulate numerous social media strategies and also create compelling blog content.

6. Nurture your Leads

Inbound techniques always focus on educating and serving leads over having a seller-centric approach. While you try to help them grow, you grow with them and from them. You can act as a magnet over speaker when your approach shifts to buyer-selling perspective. Empower your leads and get discovered by them. Draw people in and create a marketing campaign that people love. But how? Activities like personalised forms, CTAs, emails, automated navigations etc.

7. Close into Customers and further, Promoters

This stands as the ultimate stage of inbound marketing, wherein potential prospects get converted into customers. But thinking beyond selling is what inbound marketing focuses on. Nurturing leads is necessary to gain their loyalty and build trust, which will in turn empower them as promoters of your business. If they like your product or service, they will undoubtedly spread the word about you with more people who may be your future leads. Quality of performance over quantity is appreciated as the main inbound marketing success mantra.