Inbound marketing uses various non-intrusive techniques that help you to increase the number of visitors to your website, get these visitors to convert into leads for your company, among others. Inbound marketing is also understood as internal marketing or attraction marketing. Contacting people who are at the beginning of the buying process is one of the goals of this method.
Once the contact is established, they are accompanied through appropriate content for each stage of the buying process until the final step is reached: the purchase, always taking the customer "by the hand" in a friendly way to achieve loyalty. And, if we apply it well, the customer will tell others and attract more future customers for your business. The goal of this methodology is to create meaningful and lasting relationships with consumers, prospects and customers.
Strategies of the inbound method
There are three strategies for applying the inbound methodology:
1. Attraction:
Capture the attention of the right people for your brand through valuable content that strengthens the position of your brand as a reference in a topic of their interest. This strategy allows you to attract your target audience and your buyer personas to your content. If you want to attract your audience, the first thing you should do is start creating content that really means a contribution and adds to them, such as blog articles, content offers in networks, among others. Today you can make tutorials that teach how to use your product, the solutions it provides, solve doubts, problems and so on.
2. Interaction:
Offer solutions and information taking into account the needs and objectives of people to increase the chances of them buying your product or service. In addition, when interacting with your customers, make sure to convey the desire to establish a lasting relationship with them and provide them with important information about what your company can offer. At this point, it is important that your customer service team manages calls from interested people in the best way. And do not make the mistake of selling your product, remember that it is better to sell a solution, that is, offer them a value. In this way, your customers will see the usefulness and advantages of your product or service and will be willing to continue listening to you.
3. Delight:
Provide help and tools in order to help them achieve success thanks to their purchase. In other words, with this strategy of the inbound method you want the customer to feel satisfied with their purchase not only at the very moment they make it, but also some time later. Do not forget that all treatment at this level must be attentive and unconditional. Here, surveys serve as attentive and timely instruments to provide support to your customers, as well as to know their opinions. Also, attention to social networks is basic to delight customers. When your followers leave you a question or comment, do not delay in responding to them and do so by offering them relevant information that shows that you listen to them and that their opinion is important for your brand because it helps you grow.
Using the inbound method in marketing
Attract
Keep in mind that the important thing is that your website is visited by those who can truly convert first into leads and then into customers. Don't forget that here, offering valuable content is the most important thing and don't stop analysing and reporting on your content in order to understand what works and what doesn't. This analysis is important so that you can improve your strategy.
Tools to attract:
- Ads
- Videos
- Blog posts
- Social media
- Content strategy
Interact
The most important word here is "conversation", as this will help establish long-term relationships with prospects. Use email, live chat, messaging applications, etc. Here it is key that you use conversion tools to aggregate data from prospects who visit your website. Lead information will serve to personalise the website experience, as well as the buyer's journey.
Interaction tools:
- Sales opportunity flows
- Email marketing
- Lead management
- Conversational bots
- Marketing automation
Delight
Use email, marketing automation and conversations to deliver the right information to the right person. Create interesting content that your prospects will want to share with their contacts, friends or family. Don't neglect other formats such as reels, tutorials or videos - these are much more engaging and a more interactive way to reach people.
Tools to delight:
- Smart content
- Email marketing
- Conversation inbox
- Marketing automation
The inbound method has certain advantages for companies that use it. One of the advantages is that it increases marketing qualified leads (MQL) by a factor of 7.3 in one year and 9.8 in two years, increases leads by 3.8 in one year and 14.7 in two years, and increases website visits by 4.7 in the first year and 24.3 in the second year.
This method not only generates an impact of visits, leads or MQL of a company, but also provides assets. That is, the money used for inbound campaigns does not represent an expense, but an investment. For example, with an online advertising campaign we will receive concrete results, but the content we create for our inbound strategy remains present on our website. This means that part of the actions help to build elements that not only exist, but that give a return over time. It is also being applied by many companies today, as it helps to increase the reputation of their brand while reaching more people.
And you, would you apply the inbound method in your marketing strategy?
