Inbound Marketing 101

Inbound marketing might seem like a magic trick that pulls leads out of a hat for your business. Instead, it is a layered marketing strategy tailored to bring your audience to you through valuable content, at the time they are looking for your services. Outbound marketing tactics involve putting your message out to the crowd in hopes that it resonates with them and drives them to action. Think more so along the lines of traditional or broadcast marketing. Inbound marketing is a tiered strategy that helps to connect your brand to potential customers in a way that nurtures the relationship. Step off your soapbox and embrace inbound marketing with these tips! 

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a common phrase used when talking about digital marketing, but what exactly is it? SEO is a long-term strategy to optimize your website content and structure to rank higher than your competitors on search engines. Investing in SEO is a cost-effective approach to increase your website traffic. It is also a necessity when it comes to outranking competitors and reaching customers when they’re looking for your product or service. You’ll notice SEO in the Awareness section of the Inbound Lead Strategy Funnel. SEO helps to make potential customers aware of your brand and peaks interest. As SEO is ever-evolving as algorithms change, it can feel like a complicated beast to tackle. Keeping keywords, codes, website structure, link-building all in your head can be a lot to handle. Start by identifying what keywords have the highest reach and enough user intent behind them to drive action . Then ensure your SEO is in tip-top shape by checking your loading page speed, adding videos to your site, and optimizing your website for mobile. BriteIdea Marketing can get your website optimized for search engines helping you be found organically online. We implement long-term strategies that will keep your site ranked and up-to-date in the everchanging SEO space. Allow our SEO experts to craft an SEO strategy that will prove your site to be a credible source to search engines and increase quality traffic.

You might be thinking, wait, isn’t pay-per-click (PPC) advertising a part of outbound marketing? The answer is no, as PPC allows you to target and show ads to users based on past behaviors like searching for a specific product or service. PPC ads do not interrupt your audience’s activity as they were already on the hunt for something that relates back to your business . PPC ads on search engines will most likely yield the highest results as users already have shown intent. PPC advertisements like SEO, fall under the Awareness section of the funnel as your ads are warming consumers up to your brand. Your paid search ads will allow you to bid on specific keywords, control your budget, target mobile searches, and pause your ads as you need. SEO and PPC ads should work hand-in-hand to reach the highest volume of leads. SEO will help get your webpage in front of your audience organically, while PPC will help you reach those that may be searching for similar items but may not know your company. PPC is also a part of the Purchase stage as you’ll want to remarket your ads to those that have interacted with your site. Develop a plan that keeps them engaged, even if they didn’t make a purchase. Remarketing uses cookies to identify visitors and delivers ads to them, reminding them to come back to your website. This is a great place to incorporate a mix of search , email marketing, and social media advertising to reach those web visitors that have visited your site, specific pages, or have placed an item in their cart but not completed the purchase. 

Your SEO and PPC have welcomed potential customers through the door to your website, now what? Now onto the Act or decision making stage of the Inbound Lead Strategy funnel. Your content should help nurture and keep potential customers intrigued. Fresh, useful, and informative content is key to maintaining and converting your leads. Your content should come in multiple forms and help answer a question or solve a problem for your audience. Your content should also stand out. With so much competition online, your content should stand out from the crowd and not be content for the sake of content. In short, content without a purpose is just noise. If your website doesn’t already have a blog, then your first step is to create one. A blog is a great way to attract new visitors, gain returning visitors, and nurture warm leads. A blog is a one-stop-shop to keep your audience informed and cement your place as a thought leader in your industry. Your next step is to create a content calendar to ensure you are creating content with a purpose. Your blog should consistently publish fresh content regularly to keep your audience coming back. Creating downloadable content is a great way to provide value to your audience if it pertains to your business. This is also a great way to collect emails for an email marketing campaign later down the road. As the last step to your website content marketing strategy, including customer testimonials and case studies on your site. 88% of consumers trust user reviews as much as personal recommendations making testimonials vital to convincing leads into customers. 

The next layer to your inbound marketing strategy is to up your social media game! Social media falls under several sections of the Inbound Lead Strategy Funnel. It is part of the Awareness stage as new potential customers will discover your social media. Potential customers may also look at your social media to research what kind of company you are and if there is any negativity surrounding your product. Social media is also a part of the Act pase as you’ll use your platforms to push your blog and website’s content. Social media has become a place for users to discover, research, and stay connected to brands . Tap into your customer personas to ensure you spend the most time and effort on the platforms where your audience will be. Then spend time creating a social media strategy and include promoting your website content. Check-in and analyze your social media regularly to identify your top-performing content and adjust your social media strategy accordingly to provide value to your audience. Lastly, social media is also a part of the Engage portion of the funnel. Social media engagement and listening should be a key part of your social media strategy. Your followers or potential new customers may use social media to provide feedback, ask questions, or share their experience with your product or service. To create lifelong customers respond to these interactions in a meaningful way, which means providing information, listening, and responding with care. Engaging with those that engage with you is also important because potential customers could be researching your company to see how you treat your customers taking us back to the Act section of the funnel.

Now that you understand the basics of an inbound lead strategy, it’s time to talk about how to track your efforts. Landing pages touch all sections of the funnel; They are a great place to send leads from your PPC, social media, and SEO to quickly capture their information then encourage them to explore your website. Your landing page needs to be top-notch, as it will profoundly affect whether a lead converts. A few things to consider are the relevancy, focus, and design of your landing page. Your landing page should be relevant to the call-to-action your lead saw before arriving at your landing page. For example, if you own a bakery and your paid search ad is advertising a special on a cake, then your lead should land on a page detailing this special and not a page with a listing of all of your products. Next, ensure your call to action is clear. Come back to your goal to narrow your focus. Is the goal to have leads download a guide, sign up for a newsletter, or make a purchase? Once you’ve identified your goal, ensure your landing page has a clear CTA above the fold. Also, keep your forms short and limit navigation to other pages slightly restricted until they complete the form. Design is another major element of building a landing page that converts. Use videos, images, testimonials, and other trust elements to help improve your conversion rates. We recommend A/B testing your landing pages to identify what resonates with the audience. 

We know you want to fill your sales funnel as quickly as possible, but this can cause more harm than good. The benefit of an inbound marketing strategy is that the leads you generate have warmed up to your brand. A purchased list of leads has no familiarity with your brand. Typically they’ve “opted in” at some point with another site when signing up for something, and they most likely didn’t know they were opting to have their information shared. When you send your message, they may end up more upset over receiving an unwanted message. Since this lead has never been to your website, followed you on social media, and may not have an interest in your product, your message comes off as disruptive and intrusive. Trust us, it is always better to generate leads organically than to buy them!