Inbound Marketing: definition and concrete examples
Every business needs to do marketing, we agree.
But what type of marketing is most effective?
Most conventional marketing approaches are too expensive or too complicated so that startups can use them successfully. This is why inbound marketing, and its different techniques, are suitable for all businesses, but particularly for businesses that do not have a lot of budget.
Inbound marketing or inbound marketing is more of an approach than a list of tactics.
Let’s now understand together what inbound marketing is and its advantages.
Summary
- What is inbound marketing?
- What is the difference between inbound and outbound marketing?
- What are the different inbound marketing acquisition channels?
- Benefits of inbound marketing
What is inbound marketing?
Inbound marketing is the process of attract the attention of prospects (getting them to your site), through content creation, before they’re even ready to buy.
It’s one of the best and most profitable ways to convert Internet users into customers and promoters of your business.
You’ve probably heard of inbound marketing, or even the term content marketing, and wondered:
Is this right for my business?
Can it actually help me generate more leads…and how?
Many people are in your situation and ask these questions.
Today, we are here to answer them.
Of course, generating new visitors and leads is only half the battle.
Inbound marketing strategies help you transform these prospects into customersand your customers into promoters of your brand, which leads to more customers and so on.
The inbound marketing process can be broken down into different stages as below.
We will now explain this inbound marketing conversion funnel.
Attract :
The goal here is to attract the right visitors (your target persona) to your website and brand with quality, compelling content that answers the questions they have.
To do this, you can use blog articles, social networks, natural referencing, etc.
Convert :
With optimized landing pages, forms and compelling calls-to-action, you can convert these visitors into qualified leads.
The email address (and its consent) is the most valuable metric there is for the company, since it will allow a lead nurturing strategy to be implemented following an on-site conversion.
Following a guide download, for example, you will be able to send your lead different content (guide, infographics, white papers, invitation to webinars, etc.) and thus build their loyalty and familiarize them with your brand.
Closer:
Using techniques such as lead scoring, lead nurturing and other inbound marketing techniques, you will then work to transform these prospects into customers.
For example, if you carry out a lead nurturing strategy coupled with a lead scoring strategy (with each new interaction you increase or lower the rating of each lead) you will be able to determine quite precisely which leads will convert more or less if a sales come to talk to them.
Delighter:
This sometimes overlooked component of inbound marketing can be your secret weapon to ensure a good reputation and retention.
Once a lead becomes a customer, you don’t want to forget about them, and you will continue to post and share content that will help them better use your products or services and appreciate them as a partner and leader in your field.
What is the difference between inbound and outbound marketing?
The difference between inbound marketing and outbound marketing is subtle and the lines between the two are often blurred.
For example, a inbound marketing strategy can be coupled with an outbound strategy to generate leads together.
Let’s quickly explain what outbound marketing is.
Outbound marketing is the act of chasing the customer on all possible platforms in order to display their advertising message.
You can carry out outbound marketing through different channels such as email campaigns, social ads, television, etc.
Inbound and outbound are complementary since inbound marketing will allow visitors to come naturally to your site by luring them and outbound marketing will really consist of chasing the lead by sending emails, promotional messages, directly in front of his eyes.
Together, they create a sustainable, long-term program that can produce a continuous flow of sales opportunities.
The key to your B2B lead generation success lies in the ability to leverage inbound and outbound marketing techniques.
Inbound marketing is necessary to replenish your sales pipeline with new leads, while outbound marketing helps you track and guide your existing prospects through the buying cycle.
Only by combining both practices can you build an effective lead generation engine capable of filling your sales pipeline.
You may also like: Boost your conversion rate with marketing automation!
What are the different inbound marketing acquisition channels?
There are of course dozens of different acquisition channels, but here we have listed the main and most famous ones:
- Blog posts
- White Papers
- Webinars
- Social networks
- guest blogging
- Research reports/studies
- Video content
- Slideshare
- Marketing side project
Benefits of inbound marketing
The objective of inbound marketing is to reach the right target in the right place and at the right time to generate quality traffic.
The great advantage of inbound marketing is that it comes naturally and for free. (or almost)
Inbound marketing involves giving potential customers the information they are looking for, in a creative and engaging way.
It’s not about pushing your product at every opportunity but about appearing as an expert in your field. So you will quickly gain credibility.
By using inbound marketing as a way to present your brand as a leader in the field, these visitors will likely come back to you when it comes time to make a purchasing decision.