Inbound Marketing, Permission Marketing
Inbound marketing enables businesses to attract, engage and serve their target audiences in a non-intrusive manner.
Inbound Marketing: Prospect – Led Sales
Attracting your target audience is the first step in the inbound marketing process. It involves creating content that appeals to their pain points, interests and needs. This could be in the form of blog posts, social media updates, videos, webinars or a podcast… ish, for example.
The difference with traditional or outbound marketing is that, with inbound marketing, you need to be ready when your prospects’ needs arise, without disrupting their day with advertising. This is what drives most arguments about SEO, social media and algorithms.
Email subscribers have higher purchase intent than social media connections.
Once you’ve attracted a qualified prospect’s attention, engage with them. This means interacting with qualified prospects through comments, emails, surveys, quizzes…
You can also use lead magnets such as e-books, whitepapers or templates to incentivize them to provide you with their contact information. The goal is to nurture them towards becoming customers.
Lead magnets only work if they are useful to your leads
we won’t sell your information
In inbound marketing, you could say that a few of those who are not buyers can be influencers, brand ambassadors or the latest words used to describe promoters. They can provide (superficial) social proof around your brand, thus reducing the perception of risk among shoppers.
Following the Path of Least Resistance
Inbound marketing’s appeal lies in the ability to create a seamless and irresistible experience for your target audience. This means understanding their needs, preferences and behaviors to craft better reasons to buy so that you pay less per customer.
Storytelling
Statistics and jargon are sleeping aids, use with moderation.
Your story can persuade more prospects if influencers endorse you, which involves leveraging testimonials, reviews, and paid endorsements.
Finally, a dash of humor can go a long way in making your content memorable and shareable.
