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Why Inbound Marketing Is So Important for Your Business

Why Inbound Marketing Is So Important for Your Business

2017-02-14 13:00:00 | Melissa Hultstrand | inbound marketing

Let’s be honest – the marketing world has completely transformed into a different beast in the last several years. Customers, once convinced by cold-calls and impromptu pitching, have become desensitized to all the old, overused marketing methods. They’ve seen it all, they’ve heard it all, they could care less about it all.

Customers are learning to put on their ear muffs and block out most of the babble.

If you’re a marketing professional, or a small business owner, this situation can feel like a major bummer. But don’t get discouraged! We’re here to assure you that where there’s a will, there’s a way. The solution to consumers who don’t want to be bombarded with ads? Drumroll please… inbound marketing.

Inbound marketing is the key to your business’s success. Because we’re living on a planet where consumers take the time to research online, and choose where and when to interact with your business, inbound marketing can ensure that you’ll still be able to nurture a budding relationship with your ideal customer.

Want to learn more about the key elements to a great marketing strategy? Click here to download our Get it Glowing Starter Kit today!

Inbound marketing really works. It’s not a fad, it’s not a trend, and it has nothing to do with the hipster movement – it’s an effective way of reeling in the best leads and customers for your business.

4 simple ways to use inbound marketing to turn strangers into your loyal customers

Be Attractive

They say beautiful people have a leg up in life.  You could argue that the same is true in inbound marketing. Like bears to honey, you have to attract your ideal customer and get them to come to you. One of the ways you can be attractive to the search-happy consumer is by creating relevant content for them:

  • Start a blog with industry-related, interesting content
  • Use Google Adwords to find what keywords your ideal customer might search for
  • Leverage social media to also spout creative, interesting, and relevant information.

By being a useful, interesting, even funny source of info for your people, you will gain credibility and become a trustworthy lead magnet.

Want to know how to grab attention on social media? Download our free Ultimate Facebook Guide to radically improve the success of your social media marketing.

Turn Strangers into Converts

Once you’ve gained the trust and interest of strangers, they may transform into visitors. In following the inbound marketing methodology, it’s likely that those people you’ve attracted with your killer content will find themselves tempted (using the links you’ve provided) to give your site a visit. Because this will happen – and trust us, it will – you’ll need to boost the visitor experience with landing pages specific to what they’re looking for. For successful inbound marketing, those landing pages should include a short form and a call-to-action. Make it simple for them: ask for easy details like their full name and an email address and then tell them what to do (download, click here, submit this). Now you’ve done it. That stranger liking and sharing your social media has just become a bonafide lead.

Be Clutch and Close the Deal

It’s the final inning of inbound marketing and you’re ready to kick a basket into the… okay, well, whatever. It’s time to close the deal. After your visitors have filled out forms to become leads, it’s time to use proper customer relationship management methods and put them into a workflow. A workflow, often with several emails, can help nurture this lead relationship and help them along to becoming an actual customer. At Radiant Marketing, we prefer HubSpot for our workflows, but hey, you gotta just do what feels best. These emails to your leads should have the same excellent, creative, and engaging content that got them to become leads in the first place. You’ll need to pull out your A game in order to successfully close them into happy customers.

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Be Delightful, Dangit

Congratulations!  You’ve successfully made it through a round of inbound marketing. Time to move on, right? Well, not quite. You’ve just put all of this hard work into turning a total stranger into a customer. Don’t you feel like something is missing from this relationship? We do! Now that you’ve snagged a shiny, new customer, it’s time to put a bow on it. In order to turn your customers into loyal, brand advocates, you need to put more work into the relationship. Keep them delighted on the daily by sending them more relevant, awesome content that keeps them engaged. Use surveys to gauge how they’re feeling and what other topics they might be interested in. Use social monitoring to keep up with what they’re talking about, sharing, and liking. Going the extra mile for your customers will only help you – your biggest fans will keep coming back AND they’ll make sure to bring their friends, too. Seems like a pretty easy way to turn one customer into a community of customers.

Effective inbound marketing can really transform the way that you do business. By having your customers come to you, you’ll be saving yourself a lot of time and headache and you’ll become a lot more successful. Try it! You will be amazed at the positive changes you’ll see.