What is an Inbound Marketing strategy : some tips and best practices !

With inbound marketing, you strive to provide valuable information to your target audience. You use a pull strategy instead of the traditional push strategy. In the latter method, you try to force a product or service on your potential customers by constantly promoting it in front of them. Inbound, on the other hand, focuses on "giving" knowledge and offering help, which then leads to an interested customer coming to you.

What are the benefits of using the pull strategy?

The benefit of the pull strategy is that you present yourself or your company as an expert by posting content that is relevant to your target audience. You provide answers to their questions, and when they stay informed longer, you develop trust and credibility.

This brings the potential customer to you.

In inbound marketing, among other things, you use :

1. 1. ( cold ) e-mailing with quality information for the customer

1. 1. online marketing campaigns : you website^[3] or landing pages where you ask the customer to leave his data ( for more content to be mailed to him later )

1. 1. marketing automation^[1] software / CRM such as hubspot

1. 1. social media^[2] campaigns to drive more visitors to your website ( funnel )

Is inbound marketing content a quick way to gain leads and sales?

No, inbound marketing is not a solution that offers quick results, it is a long-term strategy. It's about gaining the trust of your target audience. They need to be convinced of your expertise, and that takes time.

Inbound marketing involves creating a relationship with your target audience, your prospective customer (getting to know-talk to-trust-sales ).

How do you start using inbound marketing tools?

If you want to start inbound marketing, it is advisable to take a comprehensive look at your target audience. What are their concerns and challenges? 

What do they lie awake at night worrying about? Once you've gathered this information, you'll be well on your way to producing content that aligns with your inbound marketing strategy.

How can your business get started with inbound marketing?

Anyone within the organization can begin inbound marketing, as this form of communication is no longer the sole responsibility of the marketing department. Fortunately, teams are increasingly open to working together on this; consider teams consisting of sales, marketing, HR and communications.

Don't forget that an employee in the logistics department is also excellent for inbound marketing. 

After all, he/she can answer all customer questions in the field of logistics, and he/she may have already built up a large number of followers within a short period of time.

The 4 phases of a good inbound marketing strategy

Convert this attention into customers, lead your visitors to your website and make it easy for them to register (Convert). At this stage, you should also make sure that your customers continue to receive information about your brand to keep them warm.

The next step is the closing phase (Close), where the sale takes place. Here, use email marketing, retargeting and other techniques to ensure that your visitors actually become customers.

The final step is Delight: once your customer has converted, it's important to engage them with your brand. Give them valuable content, reward their loyalty and thus build a bond with your warm ambassadors (Delight).

In the conversion phase (Convert) you turn the cold target group into a warm lead, by contacting your leads. In this phase you offer your leads something valuable, such as information relevant to your business and related products/services. When closing the deal, you make sure your customer feels good about his/her purchase and lives up to her expectations. In addition, it is important to ensure that your customer is not only satisfied with what he/she has purchased, but also that it really contributes to their life. You create this during the Delight phase, where you create engagement that results in ambassadorship.

The most common misstep I observe in the attention phase is that entrepreneurs and companies keep promoting their items, accompanied by persuasive sales pitches. Leave this behind.

Then encourage your prospects by, for example, inviting them to a webinar (Convert).

Then you keep in touch via email, feeding them valuable content to further build trust until the customer proceeds to purchase (Close).

This is another important point: creating satisfied customers who become your ambassadors. Your satisfied customers (Delight) are the best way to gain new customers.

Examples of social proof , such as reviews and word-of-mouth publicity, are indispensable because what others say about your business is more credible than if you share it as your own reference.

"Placing valuable content = lead generation "

Referrals provide an additional source of potential customers.

A referral ( referral ), someone who brings a new customer to you, can be extra rewarded. The incentive can be a share of sales ( percentage ) . This is a valuable approach for current customers, but also consider whether it is interesting for employees, after all, they are already ideal representatives.

I suggest you research who has knowledge on how to apply inbound marketing strategically step by step . Then create an action plan, including a content strategy. If you are SME or an independent professional, you now know what you need to do to generate more results and leads.

Learn more about best practices in inbound Marketing and sales ?

Solutional provides support to businesses in the form of LinkedIn^[4] Marketing, email marketing, personal branding and visibility. Are you interested? For more information, contact.