If you are still trying to figure out how your company will stand out amongst your competitors online, you need to revisit the Inbound Marketing method. This method will allow you to identify the right kind of prospects online and turn them into satisfied customers and brand loyalists.
The major component of Inbound Marketing is the process of nurturing a “stranger” into a customer over time. The following are the four phases of the inbound marketing method that are essential to the natural progression of the lifecycle of B2B marketing.
ATTRACT
The first step of the inbound marketing methodology is to Attract. In this phase, we want to get clear about the quality of our target audience rather than focus on the volume of individuals visiting our website. This type of quality customer, or target audience, is also known as our buyer persona. The buyer persona is the “holistic ideal of what your customer is really like (HubSpot).”
This ideal person is created through a profile broken down into specific goals, challenges, needs, as well as their personal demographic information. Some important tools used to attract the right consumers to your website are: Blogging, Search Engine Optimization, Inbound Content, and Social Media Marketing.
CONVERT
Once you’ve attracted individuals to your website, the next step is to convert those visitors into potential leads by gathering all their information. An email address is one critical piece of contact information necessary for any further online marketing. The lead simply submits their information into your website, and you give them something in return. This “payment” can consist of any content such as a free E-Book, whitepaper, or tip sheets, and anything else that you regard valuable to your buyer.
Some of these fundamental tools for converting visitors into leads include: Content Offers, Landing Pages, Calls-to-Action, and Contacts Database.
CLOSE
The close stage is absolutely critical to the inbound marketing method process. This step can lead to revenue for your company, so you want to carefully use these strategies to close the deal. There are marketing tools out there that can ensure that you’re turning the right leads into customers, at the right times. These tools include:
CRM (Customer Relationship Management): Keeps track of the details about all the contacts and facilitates sales by making sure you better engage with prospects across every channel,
Email: A series of emails focused on relevant content that can build trust with your prospective customer and can lead a visitor to click on a call-to-action, a landing page, or download a whitepaper, and lastly...
Marketing Automation: A process that allows marketers to automate messages that are strategically personalized interactions to prospects and customers.
DELIGHT
You’ve arrived at the very last step and the most important one in this inbound marketing process. In the entire marketing journey, it’s imperative to provide remarkable content to your leads and customers. Just because you haven’t closed a deal with that new customer doesn’t mean you can forget about them altogether. Inbound companies continue to engage and delight their current customer base of the organizations they love. Some of the most important tools to delight your customers are: Surveys, Social Media Monitoring, Smart Text, and Smart Calls-To-Action.
The inbound marketing method covers every step necessary to attract the right visitors, convert them into leads, close customers, and delight them every step of the way. With this marketing foundation, a company can create and deliver content that appeals to their target audience and generate desired results in their business.
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