Inbound Marketing

Inbound Marketing

Introduction Inbound Marketing

The term inbound marketing was coined in 2006 by HubSpot. Unlike traditional marketing, where marketers had no choice to promote except by going doors to doors, inbound marketing is way more efficient and a lot easier too.

Competition is seen in every sector nowadays. It has become really hard to attract and satisfy the customers and clients because of their changing demands and also because of the competitors. In this scenario, inbound marketing plays a vital role. Inbound marketing is something where the marketers provide useful information and insights to their target customers, with no charge. In doing so, marketers clear the queries of the people and gain their trust.

5 INBOUND MARKETING PRINCIPLES

Inbound marketing is continuously evolving and along with it, the methodologies of inbound marketing also changes from time to time. Still, the five core principles of inbound marketing are:

1. Standardize
2. Contextualize
3. Optimize
4. Personalize
5. Empathize

1. Inbound Marketing is Standardize

While marketing, there are lots of things, information, and insights that you can provide to potential consumers. It is true that the way of presenting the ideas, giving solutions, and recommendation varies but it is very important to keep the content standard and scalable. The essence of the information should not be missed and most importantly, lying, exaggerating, or changing the story should not be done.

2. Inbound Marketing is Contextualize

The first principle focuses on making the information precise and accurate and the next principle, i.e. contextualize focuses on making that information resonate with the right person at the right time. For example, not everyone is looking for a solution to their problems, not everyone is curious about the quality and reputation of your company and not everyone is familiar with the same communicating medium. Therefore, it is necessary for marketers to recognize the way of delivering. To do this, they need to focus on what aspects are the customers facing problems, their stage in the buyer’s journey, and the medium through which they have to deliver the content.

3. Optimize

The principles of inbound marketing are not about a fixed way of presenting the ideas in a fixed order. It is almost impossible and equally inefficient at the same time. So the third principle, optimize, focuses on improving the content with time. After making the content standard and relevant, in the third step, we can go in-depth with the content and find out the missing things and fill the gaps to make the information even better.

4. Inbound Marketing can be personalize

Everybody feels good when they get attention, especially in this world where people hardly have any time even for themselves. So, in this fourth principle, it suggests the marketers have one-on-one communication, if possible so that the relationship and trust grows and become better. By doing so, the customer shares their personal experience, their likes/dislikes, and what they would prefer in detail which can help the marketers to focus on that and attract and retain those customers. Hence, personalizing is a very important principle of inbound marketing.

5. Empathize

When marketers provide information, insights, suggestions, solutions, and recommendations to your potential customers and too free of cost, a type of emotional attachment is developed between the customers and marketers. This is the fifth principle of inbound marketing. Empathy is the principle that holds the other four principles together.

EXAMPLES OF INBOUND MARKETING

Inbound marketing is a developing concept that is adopted by almost every huge company and no doubt there are a lot of ways it can be performed. Few examples of inbound marketing are as follows:

1. blog
2. Infographic
3. Webinar
4. Video Series
5. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

1. Blog as a Inbound Marketing

Blogs can be a very effective way of presenting ideas and information to potential customers. As mentioned in HubSpot, marketers who give priority to blogs are thirteen times more likely to get higher returns. The blog has to be instructional, informational, and updated in order to attract more clients and retain them.

2. Infographic

Written contents such as blogs, articles, and reports that are used to provide information are good as they are detailed and all but not everyone has that much of time to sit down and read those contents for every queries and problem they have. So, an infographic is another example of inbound marketing. It is short and people can go through it without spending a lot of time. Also, if it took them an hour before, when they had to read one blog for one question, now they can look more than one infographics and solve more than one problem in the same time frame.

3. Webinar

In webinars, the information is provided to the audience virtually in the same way as giving a lecture. In simple words, the webinar is an online seminar. The information that is given and taken is the same and the giver and takers are also the same but the only difference in the case of providing that information through a webinar is that it makes the presentation more attractive and engaging. Also, while reading, there is a possibility that people can interpret the information in their own way which can differ from the original thing. So, in a webinar this misconception can also be cleared.

4. Video Series

Providing information through video series is another best example of inbound marketing. Marketers want to attract every possible customer and for that, they have to cover every type of person. There are people who find it difficult to read or simply those people who are not interested in reading. Also, people cannot be free at a time when the webinar is going on. So, to mitigate these problems, video series works best. It is very effective, everyone can have a look at it, no matter when and where and it is also interesting as it brings your brand to life.

5. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Search engine optimization (SEO) is another important example of inbound marketing. Marketers work really hard to make their blogs as informative as possible, to make the webinars as interactive as possible, and to make the video series as interesting as possible but all this will work only if the customers find your work in their search pages. So obtaining the page that has your work on the top of the search page is the most important thing that should be checked first.

INBOUND MARKETING-FOCUSED EMAIL IS DIFFERENT THAN OUTBOUND MARKETING EMAIL

Many people have the misconception that email be it inbound or outbound. There are many things that make inbound marketing focused email different than outbound marketing emails. Some of them are as follows:

BENEFITS OF OUTBOUND MARKETING

1. Target specific buyers

The old school way of conducting marketing with the help of email was to get a list of random people draft an email and send it out to the mass. This was also regarded as a ‘shotgun’ or ‘fire and forget’ technique for a reason. It was nonspecific, impersonal, and extremely inaccurate. The sole way to gain results through such a technique depended on the luck; thinking about the sheer weight of numbers to bring in results through statistical probability that maybe most of the random people you sent the mail to found the email relevant in any way.

Inbound marketing uses much more precise ways than ‘fire and forget’. With the help of a Customer Relationship Manager (CRM) it is easier to narrow down your contact database based on their relationship with you, growth potential, geographical location, job position or industry; or the other valuable metric as opposed to the random people. You will be able to deliver a selected message that they are looking for, or in other words, a message that meets their needs. The more an email answers the queries your prospects could have regarding your services, and help them understand your relevance to them, the higher is your click-through and conversion rate.

2. Inbound Marketing is Easy to personalize

The first step in marketing for identification of the target market is to segregate the target market. After you have established the segments, you are free to fully modify every email catering to it as per the person you are sending. In doing such you basically have a chance to create your vision the express that you feel and you care concerning them; you perceive their desires and might offer them a valuable service.

With emails you are not constrained to just texts. Every segment will have a totally completely different campaign approach, with graphics, written content, and video tailored to their desires that prevent the monotonousness of the texts and make the email more interesting and catchier. This can be what makes email promoting such a cheap and powerful arriving promoting tool.

Timing is personalized further. For every segment, there will be an ideal time to send the e-mail to boost up click through rates. This might be supported by the prospect’s zone, viewing habits, or operating pattern. Insight is gained into the responses that are received through analytics.

As an example, you will realize that a particular segment ‘Z’ responds best to your emails when sent on a Friday afternoon. A marketing automation package can assist you time your campaigns, so every phase receives their email at the most effective time for them which allows maximum engagements on the campaign from the people.

3. Create shareable content

Email-based content covers a high share worth. If the people are highly satisfied with your packages, the campaign and would assume that they will be helpful to other people as well, at the press of a button they will share your email with friends, colleagues, shoppers, and family. In the same way, email content also can be shared through social media platforms.

Emails are a really effective way to communicate brief content with the help of infographics and video content. The content itself is typically hosted on a part of your website, with a link embedded in every email. Because the prospect clicks through to the content, they are directed to your website, and may then share the relevant URL with their network through social channels. These emails will also help in boosting your company’s social media following on YouTube or Facebook, by making content that may simply be shared on these platforms.

4. Low cost, effective results

If you think of other marketing platforms like pamphlets, brochures, news advertisements, they are similar to email; they may have the infographics and the details on the relevant topic but the downside of these is that they are costly. Cost of printing or postage, pay per click expenses is all omitted through email.

Therefore, sending emails is reasonable, effective, and relatively fast, particularly once you have the vision for the content and the designs. It’s additionally the most effective means of reaching out to an international market, because it eliminates all the time lags and expenses of contacting overseas customers by alternative means and as mentioned earlier, it can be personalized on the basis of the needs and requirements of the recipient.

5. Fast Results

As opposed to other different types of advertising, which might delay in yielding the required results, results from email marketing can be amazingly fast. In a business environment especially, time is money and to waste time is to waste money, so a quick result will ensure that the campaign is timed properly.

It is common to visualize inquiries or sales coming back from the interested parties within minutes of the e-mail being sent. You will monitor your campaign statistics in real-time and watch your customers respond. There really aren’t too several better feelings than this!

6. Effects can easily be measured

Email marketing may be a dream come true for analysts. It permits you to visually observe very precise metrics that offer powerful insight into client behavior and the price of your information. Information is very crucial in business. This precise information and insights into client behavior will help the business a lot. Such as ponder on an appropriate amount for delivery rates, open rates that recipients have clicked through, and how many individuals have signed or unsubscribed.

With the help of this, the analysts, who are taking part in such a vital role in inbound promoting, have more in-depth and accurate knowledge and the results will be measured precisely as well, the more valuable they’ll be in designing subsequent campaigns. By this, you can conclude how effective every email has been, and the way a lot of its price you to come up with each lead.

Email promoting has such potential as an inbound promoting tool. It is a tried and tested effective procedure of spreading brand awareness and sharing content, in a manner that keeps your business at the lead by grasping your prospect customer’s attention, and makes it more likely that they’ll convert into a regular customer.

DOES INBOUND MARKETING WORK?

Yes, it does! Let us look at our own purchasing behavior for this. Would you ever purchase a smartphone solely based on what was advertised on the television, the radio, or social media platforms? No, we do not. The first thing we do is check the reviews on the phone from who has actually purchased and is currently using the product.

Furthermore, 65 percent of smartphone users agree that they look for the most relevant answers to their questions ranging from the pros and cons, any problems that they have faced, regardless of who’s providing the information.

On top of that, as we discussed earlier, inbound marketing minimizes some of the costs that traditional marketing would have incurred. According to Infographics, Content marketing costs 62% less than traditional marketing and triples the leads. This means that the businesses that chiefly rely on inbound marketing save around $14 for each recently acquired client. Along with that, the price per lead drops eightieth after five months of consistent inbound marketing.

In addition to that, inbound practices produce 54% more leads than traditional outbound practices. Globally, 41st of marketers ensure inbound produces measurable ROI, and eighty-two of marketers who blog see positive ROI for his or her inbound marketing.

In conclusion, it is safe to say that inbound marketing is maybe what the business needs to achieve the organizational goals these days.