When it comes to promoting a small business or blog, inbound marketing is the most effective way to attract customers and increase profits. Focusing on content, place, and time, inbound marketing can revitalize a business and help it to build the customer base it needs to be successful. For more information about inbound marketing and its many terms, read on:
What is inbound marketing?
Now that it’s been established that inbound marketing is important, you’re probably wondering what exactly it is. As opposed to earlier marketing strategies – often called outbound marketing – inbound marketing strategies focus on drawing the customer in using quality content that is designed for your audience. Outbound marketing, on the other hand, focuses on using ads and buying email lists, hoping that doing so will prove effective.
The biggest aspect of inbound marketing is high-quality content that’s published at the right time and in the right spots (blogs, social media sites, websites, etc.).
Term 1: Landing Page
Get your flashcards ready, it’s time to learn some inbound marketing terms that will be essential in creating an inbound marketing strategy. The first term you should familiarize yourself with is landing page. A landing page is a page that your customer will “land” on when searching for content. Usually, this page contains an overview of your business, business contact information, and links to other pages on the website.
Term 2: Call to Action
A call to action may be the most important inbound marketing term you learn. A call to action refers to the blurb of text at the conclusion of a piece of content that asks your customer to do something. A call to action can be a request to call for more information, to forward the blog to a friend, to stop into the store to make a purchase, to add an item to a cart, or to “like” something on a social media site. Essentially, a call to action sentence or button is the key to furthering the process of turning a lead into a sale.
Term 3: Dynamic Content
Dynamic content is pretty self-explanatory, but its importance warrants a brief review here. Content that is published on a website or blog should be dynamic, meaning that it’s original, interesting, engaging, ever-changing, and completely unique.
Term 4: Keywords/Keyword Phrases
If you’re not already familiar with the term keyword, or keyword phrases, then it’s about time you learn it. Keywords are the group of words that best describe your product or company. For example, if you’re a sock company that wants to write a blog about the longevity of your socks, then “long-lasting, durable, reliable socks” might be the keyword phrase or words that you choose to incorporate a few times throughout the post.
Term 5: SEO
SEO, short for search engine optimization, is the process of optimizing content so that search engines, like Google, can find your website more easily. Optimizing content to make it search-engine friendly is a complex process, and involves creating great content, link sharing, posting pictures and videos, and more.
Term 6: Workflow
In order to gather more information about a potential customer or lead, the tool known as a workflow is used. A workflow helps to keep customers engaged, and relies on an automated process.
Term 7: Closed Loop Marketing
Closed loop marketing refers to the process of being able to track all of your marketing efforts. If done well, closed-loop marketing will illustrate how your inbound marketing strategy has impacted your business’s growth. One example of closed-loop marketing would be tracking a customer from the moment they first made contact with your business to the point where a sale was finalized.
Term 8: Buyer Persona
Buyer persona refers to the personality and preferences of the type of buyer that your business is attracting. Buyer personas can vary depending upon product preference, how buyers buy (online, in-store, using mobile devices, etc.), when buyers buy, what factors influence buyer decisions, what their buying goals are, and more.
Prioritizing Your Inbound Marketing Strategy
After you’ve familiarized yourself with important terms, the next step is creating an inbound marketing strategy. Remember, the most important part of an inbound marketing strategy is remembering that content is king – along with the way through, remember that creating great content involves incorporating many of the terms mentioned above.
The first thing that you should do when thinking about your inbound marketing strategy is to think about buyer personas. Who makes up your audience? What do they want? How can your business attract them? Content should be designed specifically with buyer persona and audience in mind.
Secondly, you’ll want to create an SEO strategy. An SEO strategy should include an idea of how frequently you’ll post, a schedule of content you’ll write about, choosing keywords, social media sites you’ll use, and other companies you can link share with.
Next, it’s time to create your content. Remember, content should be dynamic. Don’t repeat what you’ve said before or what other websites have already posted. Additionally, stay creative, and make sure your content provides your audience with information that is both interesting and informative. Using photos, videos, and other graphics can be a great way to increase the inventiveness of your content.
Finally, share your content and your website. Utilize social media sites, like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, to increase your visibility; use review sites, like Google+ and Yelp, to get people talking about you; and post other relevant links to blogs/websites on your page, and encourage other companies/blogs to do the same for you (this is called link sharing). The more you publish and the more you share, the more likely you are to expand your customer base and increase your profits.
The Importance of an Inbound Marketing Strategy
Inbound marketing is one of the most important parts of having a successful business. Inbound marketing relies on social media, SEO, content, and more to create brand awareness and attract new customers. A great inbound marketing strategy can increase your profits, and by familiarizing yourself with the inbound marketing terms above and knowing how to prioritize your strategy, you’ll be well on your way to business success.