Inbound marketing can help you attract more of the right type of visitors to your website and ensure you spend less time fighting for the attention of the masses - and more time attracting people who are genuinely interested in your products or services.
You’d be surprised by just how well inbound strategies can help you build brand awareness and increase lead generation - especially when you’re designing content with your customer's key needs (and pain points) in mind.
Keep reading to discover our top 5 tips for harnessing the power of inbound marketing:
1. Get creative: think outside the square.
Think quality, not quantity. By spending the time to really get to know your existing customers - you assume a more educated position from which to articulate your brand's identity online.
Really think about who you are talking to, and who you want to talk to.
What would they care about? What information are they looking for and what type of content do they prefer to consume? There’s no point in having a content-rich blog section if your customers are busy juggling life and choose to consume content quickly on Instagram.
2. Create content that your target audience is looking for.
It’s simple: base your content on what your customer wants, not what you are trying to sell.
By researching your customer’s most FAQs, searching Internet forums, and comparing keyword trends for your industry, you can create content that resonates with your readers.
Using external search forums and sites is a great way to find out what customers want to know more about – and once you’ve created the content, you can link and share this within the forum.
The trick: align your content with your customer’s key interests, while educating and inspiring them in the process.
3. Be analytical
A successful inbound strategy is built off your organisation's ability to analyse and interpret how people are engaging with your digital content. So if you want to develop your brand with inbound marketing you need to first identify what you’re doing correctly, what needs improving ASAP, and what you can work on improving over time.
Analysing your existing social media performance over a 6-12 month period is a great place to start. Try finding social discussions about your brand that exist outside of your usual following and your own websites. Ask yourself why these people were discussing your brand on a particular date and time? Is this when they are most active? Is there anything in the discussion you can use to create a blog article or even address on one of your social channels?
Over 70% of consumers who have had a good social media service experience with a brand are likely to recommend it to others. By making sure your social presence is relevant to your target audience, you can harness the power of social media to increase brand engagement and convert new customers.
4. Develop your digital tone of voice
The tone you use when communicating with your online audience heavily influences how people respond to your brand.
It’s helpful to think about your brand’s tone of voice as if you are trying on clothes - do you want to keep your tone all “suit and tie”? Or are you speaking to the tech savvy #yogamama in her active wear?
Creating a persona for each of your customers will help you figure out their needs, wants, fears and desires. Speak to your customer with passion – if you don’t believe what you’re saying, nobody else will either.
5. Give your customers the chance to communicate with you
Inbound marketing is your tool for having meaningful two-way conversations, with your customers, which will help you to better understand the needs of your audience. But unless you give your customers (and potential leads) the chance to engage with you - you’re going to miss out on the information you need to develop relatable content.
Creating a dedicated content hub will help you to establish your brand authority. More content equals more web traffic, making you more discoverable in search engines.
To create your content hub, consider blogs, infographics, podcasts, webinars, photos and videos – anything that is shareable, entertaining or informative can offer value to your potential customers. Because of the inherent value of targeted content, you’ll draw potential customers in, keep them engaged and potentially develop advocates for your brand.
And the bonus from nailing your inbound marketing? You create a platform for content, which not only engages your customers - but also showcases your brand's personality.