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Trends can be fleeting. The hot new thing one year can quickly fall off the radar the following year. Focusing your marketing efforts on the wrong trend can be detrimental to your business’s budget and planning. Inbound marketing is the most effective and efficient way to increase your customer base and retain them, and it’s a trend that is here to stay! As one of our top tips for 2019, understanding how to use inbound marketing properly will be a game changer for your business and your bottom line.
mConnexions Principal Strategist, Julie Holton talks us through Inbound Marketing in this video.
What does inbound marketing really mean? It’s defined as a technique for drawing customers to products and services via content marketing, social media marketing, search engine optimization, and branding. It’s all about putting your marketing to work for you through generating leads for your business, by attracting people who are already out there looking for your products or services. That’s right, they are already looking for you! But they aren’t looking for a typical sales pitch. They want to form something lasting with a strong brand. “Life is all about relationships,” says Holton. “It’s the same thing for marketing. Building connections should always be at the heart of what you do when marketing your business.” Inbound marketing helps build those connections by avoiding “salesy” sounding pitches and turning one time users into repeat customers.
Unlike traditional marketing, which is disruptive by design and casts a wide net to anyone who might hear or see you (think commercials), inbound marketing is highly targeted. It focuses on your target audience, or persona. One of the biggest mistakes businesses can make this year is to skip the step of understanding their target personas. You must understand your customer’s needs, goals, and challenges. If you don’t know these, you’ll end up focusing on yourself and what you provide, instead of on your customers and what they need.
To capitalize on the inbound marketing process, you must first attract those ideal clients to you through your content: blogs, social media posts, or published digital content. Then, nurture those connections. This can be done through e-books, social media engagement, whitepapers, and remarketing campaigns. This converts your viewers into users and clients. Next, you maintain that ongoing connection to retain those new clients and grow your business relationships.
This is where social monitoring, email automation, and other types of content creation come into play. Inbound marketing focuses on building trust and increasing engagement. These work together to grow strong relationships with your clients and create long-term opportunities for development and growth.
When it comes to Inbound Marketing, one important thing to remember is, don’t put all your eggs in one basket. This means protecting yourself from over-reliance on one channel. Instead, use multiple tools, as encouraged above, from e-books to social media. High-quality advertisements and outreach tools should be promoted in all the places your audience is looking. Maximize your online presence and watch existing clients stay involved and new clients roll in.
When utilized effectively, inbound marketing can:
- Increase brand preference and awareness
- Allow opportunities for clients to interact with you and each other
- Offer increased customer engagement
- Build trust and brand loyalty
- Offer search engine optimization
- Reach the right audience and increase quality traffic
Most importantly, it generates quality leads, at a much lower cost than traditional marketing!
Don’t stress about implementing inbound marketing overnight. It takes time to understand your audience and clients, create efficient campaigns, and to refine them. Do your research, formulate your strategies, and be ready to review your first actions using analytics so you can improve on them. A disciplined approach to content creation is often necessary. Many businesses use designers, developers, social media marketers, and campaign managers to craft a full plan for inbound marketing.
At mConnexions, we have the expertise of all of those positions, along with the drive and passion to make your inbound marketing plan painless, effective, and outstanding!
Stay tuned for more marketing trends from mConnexions Owner & Principal Strategist Julie Holton. And, let us know what you would like to see featured in our next video!
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