With so many marketing options available today, it can be difficult to narrow down the best strategy. This is particularly true for businesses without a dedicated marketing team and smaller budgets.
So, what marketing techniques offer the biggest bang (preferably for the lowest buck) for those who look to outshine your competitors? Inbound marketing is still a bit of a well-kept secret for some. Gone are the days of traditional outbound marketing—buying ads, using lists to target buyers, hoping and praying. Inbound marketing is intended to bring the people to you, not the other way around. It is based on the premise of using quality content and relevant information to draw your target audience to you.
There are four basic tenets of inbound marketing: attract, convert, close, and delight. Here is how to use them to outshine your competitors and grow you business!
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Use your website wisely. Your website is a snapshot of your company; it is not all things to all people. Don’t use it as a dumping ground of data. It should contain pertinent, quality content that your readers care about. Customers will come to your site for information that matters; don’t try to impress them with superfluous info. Be personal and keep it real.
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The call to action (CTA) is where it’s at. The CTA is the key to conversion. Once you get potential clients to your site, you need to really hook them. The CTA allows you to offer them the next step for information: link them to an article, highlight a product that will help solve a problem, offer a free whitepaper download, or ask them to post a personal story or photo. The all-important CTA also connects to another key point of giving away free business-related resources, so be sure to sensibly tailor it to your audience.
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Words and pictures. According to the Statistic Brain Research Institute, the average attention span is only a mere 8 seconds! And, we know that old saying about a picture being worth a thousand words. So combine these two points and get visual! Use images, pictures, and video to give you the edge. Yes, there are always going to be people who prefer reading, but they are becoming fewer and fewer in the digital age. Visual aids are the fastest, most effective way to grab a hurried audience with short attention spans.
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Make social media your friend. We know that sometimes social media can be a drag, but don’t neglect it. Especially when it come to marketing to Millennials and the Internet generation, SM is critical. It’s not just a way for you to post info, it is an effective way for you to engage with prospects and create online relationships. Remember, it is called social media, so be social: start conversations, answer questions, respond to requests.
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Guest blog. This one does not show up on every inbound suggestion list, but we like it for a few reasons. Not only does it create exposure, it often introduces you to a new but related audience and helps establish you as a thought leader (remember quality content). It also helps you build your personal brand and increase link-backs to your site.
So, now that you have learned more about inbound marketing, what will you take away? How will you use the information provided here to expand your reach and grow your audience?
If you still need more information on how inbound marketing can help, click on the image below to read the case study of how one brand used it to increase ROI. (See what we did there? We gave you a CTA!)
