Over the years there has been a change in customer preferences. Modern customers are turning down traditional marketing tactics.
The traditional marketing methods fail to reach out to the right people. In order to attract customers, marketers need to provide them with something which they love and this is when Inbound Marketing comes to play. Inbound Marketing is a combination of tactics to reach the right people at the right time.
Znbound has been awarded HubSpot's Onboarding Accreditation. HubSpot Accreditations are for Solutions Partner Organizations that support the success of HubSpot customers at the highest levels of quality, service, and strategic insight.
As per HubSpot, “Inbound marketing is an approach focused on attracting customers through content and interactions that are relevant, helpful and not interruptive. With inbound marketing services, potential customers can find you through channels like blogs, search engines and social media. Unlike outbound marketing, inbound marketing does not need to fight for customer attention. By creating content designed to address the problems and needs of your ideal customers, inbound marketing attracts qualified prospects and builds trust and credibility for your business.”
Interpretation
The four actions viz. Attract, Convert, Close and Delight are crucial to the company that they must take in order to obtain visitors, leads, customers and promoters.
Content is the heart of Inbound. Right content attracts right visitors, converts them into leads and closes them into customers.
Content has to be in the right place i.e. where your ideal customers are spending time. Content distribution plays a major role in the success of your marketing strategy. Content distribution is what provides context to your content.
Inbound empowers buyers to purchase when they are ready. Providing the right content at the right time is what makes your marketing and sales approach relevant and helpful.
Go beyond inbound marketing theory to get on-the-ground campaign insights. Understand what works and what doesn’t? e.g. is content really key? Znbound has opened the gates on all its content. Intrigued?
Do you want to attract just anybody and everybody? No right? The right traffic is what we should look for. The ideal customers for our business should be our target audience.
Only the right customers end up being the happy customers. And to know the right customer, we create buyer personas, these are the holistic ideals of what your customers are really like, inside and out.
Buyer personas have details like their pain points, challenges, objectives, personal and demographic information and a lot more. Your business revolves around your personas.
Do you want to attract just anybody and everybody? No right? The right traffic is what we should look for. The ideal customers for our business should be our target audience.
Now how do you get that? So in order to get the contact information, you have to offer them with informational and helpful content in various forms - eBooks, checklists, whitepapers and FREE consultation. This is a tried and tested formula by top agencies around the world (including Znbound)
Now you’ve attracted the desired audience, converted them into leads, now what?
Wouldn’t you want to close them as your customers? In order to close them as customers, you’d want to use the below marketing tools to effectively accomplish your goal.
Your customers are your promoters. A good experience will make your customers share your content and spread a good word of mouth.
Inbound marketing is all about delighting your users with quality content whether they’re visitors, leads or customers. Even if they’re your existing customers, you’ve got to engage with them, delight and (hopefully) upsell to make them happy promoters of your organization.
Znbound's inbound marketing portfolio showcases success stories and failures. Additionally, take a look at our design work and understand why we are committed to developing websites that load within 1 second.
Unlike traditional marketing methods wherein you force your products and advertisements on the poor consumers, Inbound is more targeted in its approach.
It focuses on attracting and nurturing highly qualified customers that are searching for a product like yours. The better way to explain this is using the analogy of the magnet and the megaphone. Inbound marketing is more like a magnet which only attracts the elements relevant to it. This behavior is unlike the microphone which is used to shout at a group irrespective of their interest in the announcement. Inbound marketing focuses all its efforts towards
The persona is experiencing the symptoms of a problem but is unable to pinpoint or give a name to the problem. Content on this stage should help the user in identifying his problem. For example, if your persona is a sales head who’s unable to reach his sales target, your content in this stage should help him identify his problem.
In this stage the persona has identified his problem and is searching for potential solutions. Content on this stage should help the buyer in researching for potential solutions. For example, if sales head has identified the problem as lack of information about the leads your content should be on potential solutions.
In this stage your persona has identified the solution he will take to solve his problem. This is the stage where you’ll introduce your product. Content on this stage should focus on how your product can help the buyer.
A number of B2B companies have highly specialized products, which the buyer cannot take a decision on instantly. The more complex a product, the more time a buyer needs to evaluate and weigh the pros and cons, against its alternatives. This long and complex buying cycle provides a perfect opportunity to nurture leads with valuable and insightful content about the problems your potential customer is facing, or you can start with the solutions your product can offer, depending on which stage of buyer’s journey your prospect is on.
When you have a high value product / service or if it is difficult to understand, you get a lot of ground to play with content. People like to understand difficult things explained easily. You can create educational and informative content, and with proper distribution plan, generate leads, and nurture them until they become sales ready.
“Twenty years ago, your marketing effectiveness was a function of the width of your wallet. Today, your marketing effectiveness is a function of the width of your brain.” – Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah, HubSpot Founders.
First, make sure you know what inbound marketing is. Inbound Marketing is anything that provides a tremendous amount of value to your target customer without asking anything in return from them. This is the major reason that people love Inbound Marketing. Inbound Marketing assets like blogs are trusted and loved by people. There are tons of ways to do this and the best part is that these can be executed at minimal cost.
Inbound marketing is a strategy that focuses on attracting and engaging customers through valuable and relevant content. By providing valuable information and resources that address the pain points and interests of your target audience, inbound marketing helps to establish trust and credibility with potential customers.
Key reason why inbound marketing works is that it addresses the fundamental shift in consumer behavior. With the rise of the internet, consumers are now in control of the information they receive. They have the ability to research products and services on their own, and they're no longer interested in being interrupted by unsolicited messages.
Inbound marketing works because it aligns with this new consumer behavior by providing valuable and relevant content that addresses the needs and pain points of your target audience. By creating content that is tailored to their interests and needs, you can attract and engage potential customers in a non-interruptive way.
When we look for examples of where Inbound Marketing worked, the case studies on the HubSpot website are a good place to start. Znbound (HubSpot Partner) is itself an example that increased monthly traffic by 10x with the inbound marketing approach.
At Znbound a we believe that Inbound Marketing is always ROI focused. We understand, agree and stand for ROI. The inbound marketing methodology is scientific and empowers us to maintain an ROI driven approach to boost growth for ourselves and our clients.
The focus of the business is on providing insightful information to prospects to support their buying process.
One-way communication aimed at inducing buyers is the core objective.
Getting started is easy with small investments backed up with regular spends.
Conventional Outbound Marketing requires large spends upfront and in a regular manner.
The focus is on building enduring Content Assets across Social Media and various Social Platforms such that these Content Assets yield manifold results over years to come.
These are usually conventional media assets like Ads that attempt to play a near-term event or season to push business sales.
When starting off, it is recommended that businesses take expert help. And over a period of time, businesses can insource Inbound Marketing with a full fledged dedicated team.
This would require professional assistance from large Media Agencies and of course would cost a bomb.
The two-way interaction process ensures businesses are almost always customising their market approach based on customer needs and wants. That is, businesses do what customers want.
This one-way process is like “Spray and Pray”. Businesses do what they think the customer wants. And most times, there is a logical GAP.
You run a campaign, see result immediately and quickly change the campaign to hit your goals.
You run a campaign, and then wait for the next season.
Inbound marketing is constantly evolving, and new trends are emerging all the time. Here are a few of the current trends in inbound marketing that digital marketers should be aware of:
Personalized marketing is becoming increasingly important as consumers are more likely to engage with content that is tailored to their interests and needs. Marketers are using data and technology to create more personalized experiences for their target audience.
Video continues to be a popular and effective form of content for inbound marketing. Video can be used to tell stories, explain products or services, and provide a more engaging experience for viewers.
Interactive content such as quizzes, polls, and surveys is becoming increasingly popular as they provide a more engaging and interactive experience for the audience.
Brands are leveraging the power of social media influencers to reach new audiences and build trust with potential customers.
AI is being used to personalize content and enhance the customer journey. It's utilized in chatbots, personalized emails, and even for creating content.
ABM is becoming increasingly popular for B2B businesses as it allows them to target specific accounts and tailor their marketing efforts to them.
Micro-moments are the times when a person turns to their phone to act on a need or a want. Marketers need to be able to reach consumers in these moments with the right message, on the right device, and at the right time.
With the rise of voice assistants like Alexa, Google Home, and Siri, voice search optimization is becoming increasingly important. Marketers need to optimize their content for voice search in order to be found by users.
Inbound marketing is a strategy that focuses on attracting and engaging customers through valuable and relevant content. This type of marketing is all about building relationships with potential customers and creating a positive brand experience. In contrast to outbound marketing, which involves interrupting potential customers with unsolicited messages, inbound marketing is all about earning the attention and trust of potential customers through valuable content.
Account-based marketing (ABM) is a strategic approach to B2B marketing that focuses on a targeted set of accounts rather than a broader market. Instead of casting a wide net, ABM is about identifying specific accounts and tailoring your marketing efforts to them.
When combined, inbound marketing and ABM can be a powerful combination for B2B companies. By creating valuable and relevant content that speaks to the specific pain points and interests of your targeted accounts, you can effectively attract and engage those accounts while building trust and credibility with them.
One of the key benefits of using inbound marketing with ABM is that it allows you to create a more personalized and effective marketing strategy. By understanding the specific needs and pain points of your targeted accounts, you can create content that is tailored to them and addresses their unique challenges.
Another benefit of this approach is that it can help you build trust and credibility with your targeted accounts. By providing valuable and relevant content that addresses their specific needs and pain points, you can establish yourself as a thought leader and a trusted resource in your industry.
Znbound could not have been more excited to be a part of this journey. Here is their inbound marketing growth story.
Do you meet prospects during the course of your business? We do. And during the conversation on inbound marketing, the following do come up.
