What is Inbound Marketing?

Simply put, inbound marketing starts with valuable content that your target audience wants, instead of just advertising your services. In a traditional marketing model, you would simply “spread the word” about your business through print or online ads. With inbound marketing, you instead focus on providing valuable information or items your customers can use. For example, you might start with an ebook, a quiz, a checklist or a blog that your ideal customer might find useful. You dangle that content offer to get nibbles in exchange for a form fill or phone call, and then follow-up with more direct advertising.

There are two core tenets of inbound marketing that go hand-in-hand: the buyer’s journey and the flywheel The buyer’s journey defines the steps people take when deciding to use a service or purchase a product. The flywheel is the mindset that it’s not enough just to attract people to your website – you have to continuously provide resources and help after they become a customer. Providing value to your existing customers is just as important as attracting new customers. The stages in the buyer’s journey are the oil that allows the flywheel to spin faster: Attract, Engage and Delight.

Everything begins with content. In order to attract people to your website, social media, email or blog through inbound marketing, you need to provide valuable content. Start with free content such as blogs, social media posts and pages on your website. This could include promotions/discounts, information on how to use your product, customer testimonials and an explanation of your services. Once you have a solid foundation of base content, you’ll move onto content offers.

Content offers are more in-depth content pieces that you offer to your audience, typically in exchange for an email or phone number. These include:

• eBooks: Take a look back at some blogs you’ve done – a simple eBook idea is to take a few blogs you’ve written on the same topic and compile them into one larger eBook.
• Quizzes: You can create targeted quizzes related to your industry and gate the results – simply have people enter their email before they can see their results. Quizzes are unique content offerings in that they’re interactive and allow you to mine more information about your leads before you meet with them.
• Gated Videos: Try creating a webinar about a topic that you’re knowledgeable about (or even have a roundtable discussion with other thought leaders in your industry). You can then work this into an inbound marketing campaign by gating the video – requiring visitors to fill out a form or RSVP online before they are given access to the video. 
• Templates/Worksheets: Templates or worksheets are a fantastic way to deliver content to your audience that they can use. Best of all, these content pieces will be used again and again.
• Checklists: A checklist can help someone new to a process or concept navigate through it with ease. Checklists are also very simple to create as they’re typically only a few pages in length. 

Once you have compelling content, you can attract new visitors to your website with an SEO strategy. Optimize all your content and target the keywords relevant to your products or services. This will propel your content forward to appear organically in search results. Having a strong SEO presence backed up with content allows your ideal customer to find you on their own.

Your current customers have the potential to be the most powerful brand ambassadors, but are often ignored in digital marketing strategies that focus on bringing in new leads. Beyond that, it’s simply good business to take care of your current customers after they make a purchase, so they feel valued and respected.

Chatbots and surveys are fantastic, automated ways of keeping in touch with current clients. Like in the engaging step, chatbots can be used on your website to help current customers find their way, too (“How do I pay my bill online?”). Surveys allow you to solicit information and source reviews from your audience that doesn’t require much effort on their part. When rolling out a new product update, send a survey to your clients to get their feedback.

Social media is a fantastic tool for delighting current customers. They can use social media to ask questions, provide feedback or share their experiences. When you respond publicly, potential customers can see the care you take with your current customers. This also makes current customers feel heard and seen.

Finally, remember that a truly successful inbound marketing campaign focuses on the customer, not on the bottom line. Whether or not your business sees any direct value or ROI from a situation, inbound strategy focuses on delighting customers in any situation. Every action has a ripple effect – taking the time to respond to a customer’s question on social media may not earn you money in that moment, but a customer who feels heard and loyal to a company may recommend your business to a friend.

You’ve learned the what, why and where of inbound…now for the how. Inbound marketing is a multi-channel and multi-person strategy that is difficult to wrangle on your own. BizzyWeb is a Minneapolis-based digital and inbound marketing agency that creates powerful inbound campaigns for our clients and provides education so our clients can become powerful inbound marketers themselves. As a HubSpot Partner Agency, we rely on the power of HubSpot’s suite of inbound-ready tools to execute these tactics.

HubSpot offers marketing, sales and service software that allow your inbound campaigns to work seamlessly. Through their tools, we organize, track and build better relationships with your customers.