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If only a few years ago inbound marketing was little known and, certainly, still not too experienced, today many people are attracted to it. One of the reasons has to do with the ability of this marketing technique to adapt to the new needs of buyers, who no longer want to be considered passive players in their purchasing journeys.
The goal of inbound is to be found by potential customers and establish a loyalty process with them based on the needs that have emerged. The relationship between costs and benefits can only be positive, therefore. Let’s see why, in today’s article!
Inbound marketing and outbound marketing: some considerations
Before going into the merits of the relationship between costs and benefits and the elements that make inbound marketing effective and performing, let’s focus on the differences with outbound marketing; the latter is the traditional strategy that requires the company to take the initiative, contacting the potential customer with emails, phone calls and paid advertisements.
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With inbound marketing, it is the potential customers themselves who are attracted by an interest, who decide to investigate further with the aim of providing an answer to questions and doubts.
Blog articles, premium content and free guides thus become the tool to expand one’s knowledge and CTAs the means to carry out further actions independently. Thus, the company intervenes when the buyer wants it, requesting advice, a demo or getting in touch with a salesman.
Why should a b2b company opt for inbound marketing?
As we have just seen, this marketing strategy follows a natural flow of events, does not force decisions and is based on the perceptions and sensations of the buyers. There are other reasons why incorporating this technique may be beneficial.
In fact, it’s not entirely new
If the company uses a blog and updates it frequently, some of it is already applying elements of inbound marketing. The goal of authoritative content is precisely to educate users, providing them with all the information necessary to independently identify their needs.
Reserve benefits…even for the budget
Unlike outbound marketing, inbound marketing does not require targeted advertising investments. The effectiveness of inbound marketing is largely due to the contents which, once positioned, push the public to read and deepen.
Ensure results
Inbound marketing prepares fertile ground for all users looking for specific solutions, the subject of authoritative and complete content. The more the website is enriched with interesting information for the target audience from an SEO perspective, the more the chances of positioning itself on search engines and, therefore, of differentiating itself from competitors grow.
Now that we have seen the reasons why a company should rely on this innovative marketing strategy, let’s move on to the tools actually available.
Where to start? What to prioritize? Here is a list of activities to put into practice immediately!
Inbound marketing
Inbound marketing insights
1) Helps in branding
Today, brands play a very important role in branding. Wikipedia pages are one of the best ways for brands to do branding. For this purpose, Wikipedia Page editors can be contacted. The branding of a band determines how its target audience perceives it.
2) Optimize the content on the website
The corporate website is a showcase of crucial information, which determines the positioning of the brand image and the perception of users. Optimizing it is essential to obtain results; SEO offers us all the information we need to improve the ranking of our pages and increase organic visits.
3) If you haven’t done it yet, start a blog
Corporate blogs help and support the positioning of the entire site, not only because many keywords used for research by users can be inserted within the articles. The number of pages, the use of links, the insertion of videos and images are tools in favor of SEO and search engines.
4) Enrich users’ buyer’s journey
The buyers’ purchasing path is not immediate, it requires time and lead nurturing strategies. In order for users to become loyal and to recognize the company as a solid and reliable partner, it is essential to constantly feed their interest, with quality materials, authoritative and, above all, suited to their needs.
5) What about contacts who are not yet ready to start a dialogue?
A prospect could leave their contacts and download a free guide, taking no other action in the short term. At this point, a move to demonstrate to the user that he has not been forgotten could be to activate a workflow, sending emails days later and offering him content related to the downloaded one. Lead nurturing allows you to continue to feed the lead’s curiosity about the company and, at the same time, to evaluate the effective quality of the contact.
6) Rely on a complete CRM
An inbound digital marketing platform like HubSpot comes complete with all the tools to track inbound marketing activities and drive performance improvement.
