What Is An Inbound Marketing Strategy

For almost a decade now, inbound marketing has been the most successful marketing model for companies that do business online. This method of marketing attracts people who want to learn more about your company and what you have to offer. But, that does not happen without thought and planning.

An inbound marketing strategy is the tool that makes successful inbound marketing happen.

What Makes Up Effective Inbound Marketing?

Inbound marketing turns traditional marketing on its head. Traditional, or outbound, marketing depends on spreading the word about a company as far and wide as possible. This is done with TV ads, mass mailings, billboards, banner ads, etc. The hope is that someone, somewhere, will have an interest in what the company has to offer. This can be as little as 1 percent of the people who see an ad or receive a mailing.

With inbound marketing, the focus is on naturally attracting traffic that already has an interest or need of the company’s products or services. It is done with high quality, targeted content that pulls people into a place they want to be. Sharing information will attract qualified prospects to the business. Those prospects will keep coming back for more.

Effective inbound marketing is a true conversion machine. It attracts a targeted audience and prepares each visitor to become a qualified lead. It works to convert a lead into a paying customer. It contains a number of critical pieces to do its job:

• Informative content to enhance search engine rankings and to get visitors to come to the company’s website.
• Calls-to-action which capture visitor information in exchange for an incentive.
• Targeted email offerings to entice a prospect into returning to the company website.
• Landing pages to present an offer to a returning prospect.
• Website analytics to measure the conversion rates for visitors and prospects.

All of these components play a role in your company’s inbound marketing strategy.

What Does the Strategy Encompass?

Executives want to know the bottom line. They will ask “How can you measure the effectiveness of inbound marketing?” That question is answered in the inbound marketing strategy.

• It identifies your company’s target audience. Who is your ideal customer? You need to know this audience as much as possible. Demographic data, like age, gender, region, job title, etc., can help flesh this target customer out. What challenges does this person face and how can your product/service help him or her?
• It maps out the content you will generate to attract your target audience. Do you need to produce articles, white papers, webinars, videos, or infographics?
• It outlines the website conversion architecture you will use to draw your website visitors into your sales funnel. It links each piece of content to the audience and purpose it will serve. It will lay out the calls-to-action, landing pages, and offers that will draw your ideal customer into becoming a prospect.
• It outlines the marketing and website metrics you will gather at each step of the process to track and measure your progress.
• It ties all your metrics and efforts back to your company’s inbound marketing goals.

If you are interested in learning more about constructing an effective inbound marketing strategy, Marketing Matters Inbound can help. It starts with identifying strategies and tactics that work. The good news? We’ve already made an in-depth report outlining the data provided by inbound professionals in the last year. Take a look and see what they said worked, what didn’t work, and the plans they have for the future. Just click below to download the report, free of charge. Enjoy!