Inbound Marketing: Definition, Strategies And Examples

Creating quality memorable content that resonates with customers takes time but the effort is worth it. As businesses, everyone wants to engage and drive in customers organically and this is made possible with inbound marketing. If you are looking to draw customers into your circle without opting for the paid route, this is the way. But what is it all about? We’ll explain that and how you can skillfully apply it to your marketing efforts, let’s get started. 

Inbound marketing: The Definition

First things first, Inbound marketing is defined as a methodology to attract customers to your business by creating quality content that aligns with their needs. This involves creating tailored marketing experiences that help drive customer engagement and growth. Even though a well-defined inbound marketing strategy leads to sales or profits, that isn’t the sole driving factor. It is all about helping people for providing them with what they are looking for.

Inbound Content Marketing: The Four Stages

Inbound marketing works in four stages: Attract, Engage/Convert, Close & Delight. These stages describe a buyer’s journey from first being attracted, then learning to eventually becoming a loyal customer of the brand. So, how does this work? Let’s dive in and learn more.

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Stage 1: Attract

As the name implies, this stage is about getting your customers’ attention and attracting them to your brand. Creating content that people are interested in is the best way to get started. This include blogs, social media posts, how-to guides, website content, etc. Doing this helps your content come first in search results when users search for information.

Stage 2: Engage/Convert

Once potential customers come in, the next stage is to convert them into valuable leads. And how to do that? Engage with them, get to know their preferences and persuade them to buy from your store. You can try out these strategies for an effective conversion process:

• Collecting information through web forms of customers interested in knowing more about your services or looking to subscribe to your newsletters, ebooks, etc.

• Design and implement AI chatbots that assist your customers and provide them with relevant information 24×7

• Develop visually stunning landing pages with appropriate CTAs that lead interested customers to your website for the next action.

Stage 3: Close

If the first two stages were all about getting customers, the next one is all about convincing customers, about what? Your services/products of course. The third stage or the closing stage is where you convince interested people that you are the best and list out reasons that solidify the fact. 

Leveraging various b2b inbound marketing strategies is a great way to close the deal and lead customers down the funnel. Some of them include marketing automation, personalized campaigns, etc, more on that later. You can offer discounts for products customers have shown interest in which will increase the chances of getting it sold.

Stage 4: Delight

Once you attract, engage, and drive a customer to the sales point, the customer’s journey is completed but yours isn’t. That’s the final stage, delight that involves turning customers into loyal brand advocates i.e. making them promote your brand. Once your customers make a purchase, it is important to continue engaging with them even after that. The point is to know if they are truly satisfied by choosing your product or service. 

There are certain ways that can be used to ensure that customers are delighted with your service:

• Providing well-detailed guides, and tutorials that help customers understand your products and services much more clearly.

• Offer excellent after-sale service and support for the products customers have purchased from you

• Establish loyalty programs, offer reward points, etc for customers that facilitate repeated purchases

Inbound Marketing vs. Outbound marketing

Another area of comparison most of us will make is between inbound digital marketing and outbound marketing. Both are digital marketing strategies by all means but their difference lies in how they connect with customers and their long-term goals. If inbound marketing is about getting customers through well-crafted quality content, outbound marketing is reaching out to a large audience group by pushing out a marketing message. Some of the key ways in which inbound and outbound marketing differ are as follows:

Inbound Marketing	Outbound Marketing
The primary focus is getting potential customers by offering quality content that they are interested in	Pushes out a common marketing message to a large audience through traditional means regardless of their interest.
Focus on the customers’ interest factor and leverage it completely by launching tailor-made engaging campaigns.	Leverages methods such as radio/TV ads that interrupt people to convey their marketing message.
Uses a wide range of top digital marketing tools such as content marketing, SEO, social media marketing and other forms of content.	Primarily uses strategies that can reach large audiences such as mass media campaigns, conferences, direct mail, telemarketing seminars, print ads, etc.
Focus on building long-term relationships, and trust with customers over time and assisting them at all times.	Fixated on selling products/services to customers rather than building trust and long-term relationships.

Tips To Make The Ideal Inbound Marketing Strategy

Now that we have covered inbound marketing and the differences between this and outbound marketing, let’s move on to learn the various tips that can be used to create the best Inbound Marketing Strategy

Develop a solid plan of action

A plan of action or content strategy tells your audience about your content and what output it shows. When trying to draw in customers, especially the newer ones, having a solid successful content plan is mandatory. Also, when creating a plan, it should be in such a way that it aligns with your business goals, and audience needs, and offers the best possible solutions to the problems faced by your target audience.

Before you make an inbound content marketing plan, it’s crucial to consider three things. One, have a clear goal in mind, you should know why you are creating a strategy in the first place. Two, fix your target audience: preparing a plan without knowing who is it for is like driving without a destination. Third, do content auditing as it helps discover fresh content ideas to improve your content plan.

Optimize content for search intent

Creating inbound digital marketing content on topics people look for is important but it’s also important to understand why people search for content. This is why you should optimize your content for your target audience’s search intent because it not only attracts them but also offers your solution in the first place. Whenever customers want to learn something, find a particular product or any needs, your should be optimized to meet those requirements.

Experiment with various content formats

In this digital world, the options are endless when it comes to creating compelling content for the best saas inbound marketing strategy. It is wise to experiment with various types of digital marketing campaigns to keep existing customers engaged, attract newer ones and get better results. 

Also, having a diverse content portfolio shows to potential audiences that you can cater to various client preferences and interests. When it comes to different content, this can include social media posts, blogs, reels, podcasts, infographics, and more.

Don’t neglect CTAs

No inbound marketing strategy is complete without a compelling call to action (CTA). Whatever content strategy you have prepared, it must have a purpose and desired action for the customer to take. Having great content makes customers stay and strong CTAs guide them to the next point of action. Always keep this in mind whenever you are creating an ideal content plan of action.

Learn About Inbound Digital Marketing From GTECH

Inbound marketing is indeed a very useful technique that can expand your business reach, draw in more customers, build trust and a lot more. When planning and creating a successful b2b inbound marketing strategy, you must have clear goals and also make sure that it attracts the right customers to your brand.

However, the process takes time if you are pretty new to this scenario but not for us at GTECH. 
We are one of the most trusted and reputed agencies offering top-quality digital marketing services in Dubai. If you have an inbound digital marketing strategy in mind, we are always ready to make it happen. Having years of professional experience in dealing with various clients and using the latest set of marketing tools, we can create compelling content that elevates and brings customers to your sales funnel. Visit us now!