The 4 Stages of an Effective Inbound Marketing Strategy

Inbound marketing has been proven to be one of the most effective ways to promote and do business online. In fact, a survey revealed that 93% of companies who used inbound marketing experienced an increase in traffic and lead generation! The beauty about this strategy is its ability to draw quality prospects to your content. Its centers on providing valuable content that your ideal customers are naturally interested in. No more chasing or using antiquated methods like buying email lists. Inbound marketing is win-win for both parties involved as you offer solutions to your niche while your prospects glean value from your content.

The major component of inbound marketing is the process of nurturing a “stranger” to an eventual promoter of your business. In other words, your target market starts off not knowing anything about your company. They visit your content, become interested enough to subscribe to your list (become a lead), are cultivated through your email messages that they purchase your product, then are so enamored by your ongoing life-changing value that they essentially promote you and your brand from their customer experience! This is achieved through tactics such as your content marketing, social media, SEO techniques, and email content, just to name a few.

Each of these elements play a huge role in your overall inbound marketing success. You can’t just focus on generating leads and sales if you want a long-term sustainable business. If you do it right, inbound marketing will position you to create lots of loyal, happy customers. The following are the four marketing actions you must consider to generate desired results in your business.

1. Attract Visitors

The prerequisite to driving quality traffic to your sites is being clear about your target audience is and what interests them. Knowing the pains, problems, needs, and questions of your buyer personas prepares you to create a content marketing strategy that resonates with them by solving their problems. This is how you attract visitors by sharing information that speaks to your ideal customer.

Here are some of the most common ways to draw visitors to your content online:

• Social Media – Learn the networks where your target market “hangs out” to focus your marketing efforts there.
• Blogging – This an important facet to inbound marketing and the best way to attract visitors to your content. Your blog also positions you as the expert and authority in your niche. No business should be without a blog!
• Video Marketing – It’s predicted that by 2017, 74% of content viewed online will be from video; a compelling stat to motivate any business to boost their video strategy.
• Email – Even when visitors become leads, continue to send them to your content by sharing recent posts in email messages. This keeps them coming back to your brand and improves your search engine rankings.

2. Convert Visitors into Leads

Now that you’re attracting visitors, it’s time to convert them into leads and capture their contact information. The best way is through an exchange; you offer something valuable and enticing where they are compelled to give you the goods. This freebie could be a checklist, eBook, how-to video, guide, bootcamp series, webinar, discount/coupon…anything that would be deemed valuable to your audience.

This works great when the freebie is congruent to the message they’re viewing. Therefore, if you’re sharing content on how to lose 10 pounds in 14 days, a good offer would be a daily checklist that helps them to do just that! Align the offer to get better results.

Finally, (and this is very important), to capture leads from your content, you must leave a call to action (CTA) or tell the visitor what to do next. This can be as simple as telling them to click on the link directly below a video, or to leave a comment for feedback, or even to share your content with their network. The key is to give them directions to take your desired action.

3. Close Sales & Gain New Customers

The next key element is converting your leads into sales. The good news is that your leads are qualified and have expressed interest in your company. Moving forward, using tools like your CRM system to help you enrich your list that brings them closer to the buying decision is essential.

Below are some ways to increase sales conversions within your list:

• Use social proof, customer testimonials, case studies and tests findings to illustrate that people are getting results from your product/business. Testimonials are excellent because your lead now believes it will work for them too!
• Create deeper levels of target marketing by segmenting your email list. By separating your list even further based on certain criteria like interest, age, etc., you can increasingly personalize your messages to speak specifically to someone. It is one of the most overlooked features in email marketing software.
• Reduce or remove risk. Most businesses have a 30-day money back guarantee that gives consumers some comfort prior to purchasing. Make sure that your list is aware of your risk-free policies.

4. Engage & Delight with Value

This is where you build raving, loyal fans who gloat about your business to their networks. How does this happen? By continuing to give value that relates to your audience. You want to be so well in-tune with your audience that you can provide fresh, relevant content that keeps them in the know. Surveys work fine because you can directly ask what your customers want. Use social media feedback as way to improve your customer initiatives and create great experiences.

Studying and staying abreast with your buyer personas positions you to upsell and create new products centered around them. You are literally giving the people what they want…and they will love you for it!

The key to your inbound marketing success lies in focusing on these four key elements and getting really good at them. Hubspot offers invaluable training, tools and resources that will shorten your learning curve and give you the action plans to excel. As you start to implement this strategy into your marketing, undoubtedly will you see an increase in traffic, leads and sales.