What is Inbound Marketing? – A Complete Guide

By TechFunnel Contributors - Published on September 7, 2020
Inbound Marketing Guide

The technique to drawing in prospects, customers and an audience to products or services a company provides is inbound marketing. These techniques can include content marketing, search engine optimization (SEO), branding, social media marketing, influencer marketing among many others. These techniques can be measured and used to keep track of how important they are for company growth because they allow for prospects and customers to make the first move with getting involved with the company.

What is Inbound Marketing

Inbound Marketing is a strategy to help draw prospective customers and regular customers into viewing products and services provided by a company. This draw helps give consumers a chance to make the “first-move” towards a business and what they provide. This lead generation can scale and grow if done correctly, possibly bringing in many new clients.

The main strategy that uses inbound marketing involves social media and different marketing channels. When looking into digital marketing, techniques like SEO, social media, influencer marketing and content marketing helps improve reach and drives quality traffic to an advertisement or landing page. The main goal of a successful inbound marketing campaign helps improve engagement and dialogue between customers and the company.

Why is Inbound Marketing Important

If done correctly, inbound marketing can help inform and provide valuable information to returning customers. However, the real power in Inbound Marketing comes from being able to convey messages to prospective and new consumers. This reach helps draw potential customers into a company ecosystem and can ultimately lead to more sales on future marketing campaigns. This mindset of growth can help make a difference when scaling a business.

How does Inbound Marketing work?

It’s important to use the correct inbound marketing technique that works best for a business/company and their particular product/service. Each technique has its pros and cons, so it’s important to value each technique and how they affect the company’s growth and traffic. As a proven method, it’s a technique that can be used multiple times as a less expensive and more efficient lead generation source. As consumers are exposed to this type of marketing, they make decisions on their own to interaction, share and purchase goods from the company.

Types of Inbound Marketing

  •  SEO

    Search Engine Optimization is the technique of using keywords and optimizing search engine results to improve the visibility and reach for marketing campaigns. By having the ability to rank higher in search results, this helps give companies a stronger chance of being seen by new consumers and those who already know about the message of the company.

  • Blogging

    By creating word articles, these readable marketing strategies can help explain products or services and provide important context that otherwise would not be known. Blogs can contain information to help push a certain campaign further.

  • Social Media

    With the draw and magnitude of social media, this can be an easy and effective strategy to promote marketing campaigns. Many different social media platforms have built-in marketing tools that can help provide insight and growth opportunities for campaigns.

  • Live Events and Webinars

    By using interactive and face-to-face interactions, this can develop a personal relationship and provide a reputable source of information by connecting with consumers. These can also be performed online and holding these will only attract quality targets.

  • Email Marketing

    This method typically targets those who are already somewhat interested in the company and their products/services. Email Marketing is reserved for prospective consumers who have visited websites/shops and for those who have already purchased previous products/services.

  • Research Studies

    By performing research studies, this can connect interested people and provide value to the company through a study. This can help bring a connection from the consumer to the company as well as improve the credibility and connection of the company to its audience.

  • Video

    A visual representation of a campaign that a company is running can help provide an easier form of communication between the product/service and the consumer. These are easily shareable and scalable and can be reused. Videos are incredibly effective for showcasing a company to a wider audience.

  • SlideShare

    A slideshare is an effective visual representation of a campaign that can also be used as a readable source of information. By sharing information through a slideshow, it can easily be consumed in a smaller environment and more intimate audience. This gives higher quality consumers accurate and valuable information.

  • E-Books and White Papers

    Providing written content such as E-Books are White Papers give prospective consumers opportunities to learn more about the company, their campaigns and goods and services. This provides interested customers with content that they can willingly consume in order to have a higher quality prospective consumer.

Benefits of Inbound Marketing 

  • Enduring Strategy

    As an enduring strategy, inbound marketing can be scaled to reach new potential customers as well as target more customers already in one’s ecosystem in order to maintain an audience. It’s the ability to retain an audience that helps propel inbound marketing as a viable strategy.

  • Generates Quality and Informative Leads

    Rather than pushing out content to dead ends, inbound marketing allows for higher quality traffic data by relating content to those already seeking it. This lead generation technique helps retain customers a company already has and reaches out to similar consumers.

  • Enhances Brand Position

    By elevating reach and trust for a company, this also leads to the enhancement of the brand’s position in an industry. As they grow a quality audience, this can grow and influence others to be a part of the company’s ecosystem.

  • Increases Trust in Company

    By giving potential customers information that they are looking for, it gives them an opportunity to engage in the company in a creative way. Rather than being pushed out information, they are consuming it “naturally” and at their own pace and will rely on the company to provide them information as a reliable source. This leads to more purchased goods and services.

  • Cost-Effective

    This method is proven to be a cost-effective way to scale an audience for a business. Since methods can be repeated at a cheap cost, it can give an overall reach that’s more effective than other methods.

  • Increases Visibility and Reach

    By reaching higher quality leads, this gives the visibility of the company a higher reach, as there will be less dead ends in terms of targets. As quality prospects and returning consumers flood a new campaign market, this helps show the company’s project in a bigger light.

  • Brings Sales and Marketing Together

    By integrating sales and marketing together, this helps not only add collaborative methods to teams in a company, but also brings teams closer together as well. The collaboration aspect can be invaluable to a team and create stronger campaigns.

  • Inbound Marketing is Accepted by Audience

    As a less invasive form of marketing, this method is typically more widely accepted by prospective consumers and returning customers. This allows the company to provide more valuable information rather than invading an audience’s space.

  • One Platform Management

    By creating simple marketing techniques, it’s easier to manage on one platform. Through whichever platform that is, teams can easily collaborate and create content that is relevant, manageable and easily organized.

  • Works Alongside Traditional Outbound Strategies

    With the utilization of all methods to help out with marketing for a company, it’s important to have integrations that work well together to scale a business. By reaching out to quality targets alongside a wider audience, this creates a system that has the widest reach possible to showcase products and services companies provide.

How to Initiate Marketing

In order to initiate Inbound Marketing, teams need to be put in place to focus on the marketing for campaigns. This team can focus solely on developing campaigns to help invite prospective consumers and provide valuable information to returning customers. This content can be developed in-house or through another party that is managed by a marketing team. There are many different strategies that a team can implement into their campaign to get the most reach.

Inbound Marketing Strategy

  •  Attracting Strategies

    By looking into buyer personas, it’s easier to target consumers that are “warm” or “hot” and can be targeted to returning customers as well. The idea behind attracting strategies is that they are able to attract the right people at the right time.

  • Engaging Strategies

    By using strategies that require engagement from consumers, only those who are interested in the company, product or services will interact. With that intimate connection between interactor and company, this will provide quality connections in the company’s ecosystem.

  • Delighting Strategies

    By creating a connection with consumers, this delights them and invites them to come back to interact again. When these prospects feel closer to a company, this builds credibility, allows for stronger interactions, future interactions, and a wider range of audience reach.

(Also Read: Inbound Marketing Strategies to Drive your Business)

Inbound Marketing Examples 

  • Content centers can offer how-to videos, informational videos, written blogs, research case studies, webinars, white papers and production information
  • Interactive digital content can increase promotions for the company, especially when working with another similar company
  • Social media campaigns can be interactive and spread easily and can also provide opportunities for user-generated content. Sharing this content builds a connection between consumers and the company, as well as less work for the company to be creating content

Inbound Marketing Tips 

  • Use different techniques to attract new consumers
  • Diversify marketing strategies to help strengthen the marketing team
  • Use an appropriate marketing technique for each product/good/service and company/business/industry

Conclusion

When implemented properly, inbound marketing can be a strong tool to help grow a company by promoting new products/goods/services. By working with inbound marketing techniques alongside similar businesses and/or outbound marketing strategies, it can help build on top of sales, service and customer relationship management for a business. It helps grow and market the business as credible and as a viable source of information.

TechFunnel Contributors | TechFunnel.com is an ambitious publication dedicated to the evolving landscape of marketing and technology in business and in life. We are dedicated to sharing unbiased information, research, and expert commentary that helps executives and professionals stay on top of the rapidly evolving marketplace, leverage technology for productivity, and add value to their knowledge base.

TechFunnel Contributors | TechFunnel.com is an ambitious publication dedicated to the evolving landscape of marketing and technology in business and in life. We are dedicate...

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