Inbound marketing, they’re the two words on everyone’s lips in the sales and marketing world. But what does it actually mean to ‘do’ inbound marketing? And why is it that it’s now so important?

Inbound marketing is “a method of attracting, engaging, and delighting people to grow a business that provides value and builds trust.” This is done through creating compelling content and growing your online presence, so that people find you online and approach you. It becomes a friendly way to guide and sell to people rather than traditional outbound methods such as cold-calling and cold-emails.

It’s all about being genuinely helpful to people and doing business in a more human way. People who find you are more likely to have a need and are therefore more likely to do business with you if you help them along the way.

Why is it so important?

Things have changed, people don’t want to be cold-called anymore or spammed on email. Consumers and businesses want to make their own informed decisions about what product or services they’re going to invest in. The first place to look? Online.

Making your website ‘inbound-ready’  is the first step. You need a website that is clear about your products/services, has plenty of content and resources on it, and plenty of call to actions that a potential prospect can respond to. No one wants to buy something off an outdated website where things don’t load properly, and the copy is a hard-sell with no real value.

Top techniques

The beauty of inbound marketing is that there are so many techniques that work together to get great results. So, for example, as a result of writing a blog post, you can share this on your social media, use it to boost your SEO rankings with keyword usage and even send it in a nurturing email.

Here are some of the top techniques you can use to maximise your inbound lead generation.

• Content marketing – think blog posts, eBooks, whitepapers, how-to guides and webinars etc.
• SEO – short for search engine optimisation. Optimise everything you post online so that it’s filled with keywords and you’re therefore more likely to be found.
• PPC – pay-per-click marketing which can be used alongside your SEO strategy. Be careful though, it can get pricey.
• Social media – LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram etc.
• Email marketing – keep an email list of people who have signed up through call to actions. Remember, inbound marketing is about contacting people who have contacted you first.

These tactics all work hand-in-hand to make your overall inbound marketing strategy grow from strength-to-strength.

If there are some things you are unsure of, then why not get some extra help? There are now different workshops you can attend, or you can outsource to an inbound agency like ourselves who are experts at all things inbound.

Inbound marketing tools

HubSpot is your inbound marketing best friend; trust us on this one, that’s why we’ve partnered with them!

HubSpot allows you to create and share content, send emails, monitor interactions, nurture leads, create reports and much more. It’s basically one big hub (if you pardon the pun) with all of your inbound marketing data, where you can manage and organise everything.

When it comes to SEO and PPC, however, you will need a Google account, and when scheduling social media posts there are platforms such as Hootsuite. Whatever you find easiest.

Out with the outbound, in with the inbound?

We’re not saying that you should completely scrap all of your outbound marketing tactics, but you should really be considering adopting an inbound approach when it comes to your marketing.

In a world where people are busy and don’t want to be disturbed, inbound marketing is your number one strategy for success; and that’s why it is so important.

If you’d like to find out more about how you can maximise your inbound marketing strategy, or would like to create one from scratch, then drop us an email at grow@bbdboom.com and we’ll be more than happy to help. 

To learn more about inbound marketing click here.