Inbound Marketing: What is it? How it works? Learn more about the attraction strategy
Unlike traditional marketing, inbound marketing consists of a set of strategies for attracting, converting and retaining customers. In various digital channels, such as blogs, social networks and search engines, through quality content.
With this, in addition to generating more sales, the brand can strengthen its image and create authority in the digital environment.
One of the main differences between traditional or outbound marketing and inbound marketing, which, in free translation, means attraction marketing, is that in the latter, the company does not go after the customer. But, it arouses his interest so that he looks for the company at that first moment, and becomes interested in your product or service.
Therefore, the purpose of inbound revolves around attracting and building a relationship with potential customers, influencing their purchase decision.
Advantages of inbound marketing as a solution for your company
With the dominance that the internet and social networks have had in people's daily lives, all digital marketing strategies have only to contribute to a company or brand, regardless of the segment.
However, inbound marketing is capable of offering very peculiar advantages and providing results that no other marketing solution offers. Here are some of the main benefits that this type of resource provides and how it can help your company grow.
Reach the target audience assertively
Much more than reaching a large audience, inbound marketing manages to reach the right audience and this is one of its main advantages.
It happens that many strategies can reach a large number of people, however, if this audience is not interested in that message, all the work and resources used will not have the expected result.
With inbound marketing, the reality is quite different, as the strategy can be targeted only to people who have the potential to become customers, through content segmentation.
Relationship with customers
One of the pillars of a company in relation to its customers is to maintain a relationship of proximity and trust. By providing content that somehow helps the customer; inbound marketing can contribute to building this relationship.
We need to take into account that it is much healthier to contribute aspects that are relevant to the lead than simply “forcing” the acceptance of a product or solution.
Following the path of content marketing, the audience you want to reach will naturally be more inclined to approach your brand, accept your guidelines and recommendations and, consequently, purchase your product or solution.
It is also important to highlight that the basis of inbound marketing is to maintain constant communication with the lead and the customer, which makes this relationship increasingly narrow and becomes something effective and lasting.
Higher chances of conversion
We have been hearing for a long time that advertising is the soul of business, but nowadays, we can consider that any business is much more likely to happen if this “advertising” is based on inbound marketing strategies.
By using this feature, you will be providing your leads and customers with content that will make them turn their attention to the product you offer or your company.
This is a way to gradually make the public begin to arouse interest in what they are following and naturally build their buying journey.
Inbound Marketing strategies are also very efficient as they serve as tools to obtain information about the people who access your content. We call this process lead generation and by generating leads, your company has much more opportunity to close a deal.
Confidence when buying
Still on the subject of increased conversions and more chances of sales, we need to mention the fact that well-informed and correctly oriented leads are more inclined to close a deal.
In addition to the possibility of selling more by gaining the public's trust, processes based on inbound marketing help to reduce the risks of selling to the wrong people, who will later demonstrate dissatisfaction and may even damage the company's credibility.
Situations like this are more common than it seems, because many times, a customer purchases a product or solution that does not meet their needs, because they were not guided correctly before the acquisition. This can lead to wrongful culpability that can easily fall on the company.
Improve organic search rankings
Search engines are a resource that is massively used by a large number of people who want to close some kind of business or purchase a product. Thus, it is essential that your company ranks well in these mechanisms so that it is one of the first to be seen by the user.
With inbound marketing strategies focused on SEO (Search Engine Optimization) , your content becomes much more relevant, which results in greater visibility within organic searches.
The chances of reaching more customers this way are much higher, and this process leads to a much more consistent digital presence.
Cost reduction
Some marketing strategies are usually very expensive, which makes it impossible for many companies to implement them. But this is not the case with inbound marketing, which is generally cheaper than traditional solutions based on internet advertisements or other communication vehicles.
As nowadays we have learned that what is cheaper is not always of less quality, we must take into account that having lower costs in marketing strategies does not mean loss of efficiency. On the contrary, the results are usually much more positive than traditional and more expensive marketing solutions.
Instant measurement of results
The results of your marketing processes need to be tracked in each process, because in this way, it will be possible to identify what is working and what needs to be improved.
In inbound marketing, this monitoring is possible, and best of all, it can be done in real time, something that does not occur when using outbound marketing, where the number of people who had access to your ad or the information about them is only approximate. or even, cannot be verified.
There are several tools that can be used so that, through inbound marketing, you can obtain data such as numbers of hits on your page or content, number of clicks, numbers of visitors, conversions performed, among other important information.
This monitoring, in addition to allowing you to measure the reach of your strategy, makes it possible to know what people are thinking of your content, through the return that can be obtained in communication with the public.
How does Inbound Marketing work?
All the steps foreseen in the relationship strategy between the company and the lead, or potential customer, are part of the process: sales funnel. This funnel represents the path that the lead takes from the first contact with the company to the completion of the purchase.
So, the purpose of inbound marketing is to encourage this audience to cross the sales funnel until these leads actually become customers. And the main bargaining chip for this to happen in the most efficient way is the delivery of relevant content, with a strategy called content marketing.
In parallel, there must be an alignment between the sales funnel and the purchase journey, which must be well worked out by the marketing team. The purchase journey represents the phases that a customer goes through until the purchase decision is made.
So, a visitor who just became a lead, for example, would go to the top of the funnel. In fact, this new lead may have already made the purchase decision and is just comparing options to make the best choice.
That is, since this lead is at the end of the purchase journey, about to buy, it should also go straight to the bottom of the sales funnel and, thus, receive the contents related to the last stage. This would be the “final shot” to show why your product or service is the best option and close the sale.
Attraction and conversion
From here, we’ll cover the steps of inbound marketing, starting with attraction. At this first moment, the objective is to increase the organic traffic of your website and leverage the capture of leads.
For this, in addition to quality content, it is essential to insert conversion points into your channels, through forms or Landing Pages. Thus, your company offers some benefit, in exchange for basic visitor data, such as name and email.
It is worth delving into how to use the blog, SEO techniques, sponsored links and social networks to work on this first step.
Thus, there is the conversion of the visitor into a lead, from the moment the company has access to the data necessary to maintain this relationship based on the sales funnel and the purchase journey.
Keep in mind that a website with a high volume of visitors and few lead conversions, in inbound marketing, can indicate a flaw in the way the company tries to convert.
So, consider trying out different models according to your business, doing A/B tests, offering, for example:
– E-books;
– Webinars;
– Spreadsheets or other tools;
- Budget request;
– Among other rewards.
Relationship
In general, most leads do not arrive ready to make a purchase. There are a number of steps provided in the purchase journey that must be respected. In order to prepare that lead through the relationship, until the moment of making the final approach and significantly increasing the chances of making the sale.
Therefore, developing a strategy using email marketing as a relationship tool in the sales funnel is still the best way to efficiently segment your campaigns.
Thus, the lead starts to receive the right content, in the right place and at the right time, making their journey through the purchase journey faster.
sales and analytics
Each lead that passes through the funnel stages and is ready to be approached by the sales team represents an opportunity. Depending on the type of product or service, the purchase can be made on the website, for example, or the sale requires contacting a seller to close the deal.
Generally, the more elaborate or complex your product is, the more consultative and personalized the approach must be by the sales team and, thus, masterfully complete the relationship work of inbound marketing.
And, finally, one of the main advantages of working with digital marketing in your company is the possibility of accessing and analyzing the results of your actions accurately, proving the return on your investments, and thus making informed and assertive decisions.
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