We Speak From Our Own Experience
Inbound marketing is one of the most effective marketing strategies for any business, yet, we find that so many businesses don’t have one. Maybe because it’s time-consuming? Or maybe because several brands don’t even know what inbound marketing is? Whatever the case may be, brands that aren’t taking advantage of inbound marketing are missing out on a lot of prospective leads that could be coming through their sales funnel.
Our agency knows about this firsthand, as in the last six years, we have embraced inbound marketing and learned how massive the results can be. We credit our continued new business sales growth specifically to Inbound Marketing. And just recently, have begun offering our knowledge to other brands to help them build their own Inbound Marketing programs. In this blog, Hollywood Branded explains 4 reasons why every brand should have an inbound marketing program as the foundation of their marketing strategy.
What Is Inbound Marketing?
Inbound marketing is an exciting strategy that can help businesses attract and retain customers through valuable and informative content. By using different online channels, such as blogs, social media, e-books, infographics, and search engines, companies can reach their targeted audience and offer them helpful resources at every stage of their buying journey. Through inbound marketing, businesses don't have to struggle to capture the attention of customers, but rather focus on providing the right information to people who are already looking for their product or service.
Inbound marketing can also provide several other benefits for businesses. First, it can help build brand awareness and credibility. By consistently producing high-quality content, businesses can establish themselves as thought leaders in their industry and gain the trust of their audience. Second, generate more leads and conversions. Third, save money. And fourth, provide valuable data and insights about customers. By using marketing automation tools, businesses can track and analyze customer behavior and preferences, which can help improve their marketing efforts and customer experience.
1. It’s Cost Effective
When it comes to cost, inbound marketing is the winner. Unlike most outbound marketing efforts that can drain your budget, inbound marketing can generate just as many leads, if not more, for your business at a fraction of the cost. Plus, the leads that come from inbound marketing are already further along in the buying cycle than a cold call could ever achieve.
These cost savings are especially crucial for small and medium-sized businesses that have tighter marketing budgets. With inbound marketing, you can stretch your marketing dollars further and still see impressive results. So, if you want to make the most of your marketing budget and attract high-quality leads that are already interested in your product or service, give inbound marketing a try!
2. Increases Visibility and Brand Awareness
In today's world, it's easy for a brand to get lost in the sea of businesses out there. But, thanks to the internet, there's also more opportunity than ever to get noticed by customers. Inbound marketing is all about creating and sharing content that helps customers along their buying journey while also increasing the chances of gaining new business. Imagine you're a skateboard company, and you write a killer blog about the benefits of silicone boards over wooden ones. A buyer who's searching online for a new skateboard might stumble upon your blog and decide to purchase a silicone board from you. And if that buyer shares your blog on their social media, then you could reach even more potential customers. It's all about creating valuable content that resonates with your audience and gets them excited about your brand.
But, there's more to inbound marketing than just creating great content. By including "call to actions" in your content, such as offering a free e-book or infographic, you can ask for the reader's contact information in exchange. Then, you can continue to share more valuable content with them that they'll find useful, without bombarding them with sales pitches. It's a win-win situation where your brand can increase its awareness, while also providing value to potential customers.
3. Increases The Quality of Traffic & Leads
As a brand marketer, your main goal should be to get as many (quality) leads into your sales funnel as possible so that your sales team can do their job more easily. So, how do you increase the number of quality leads that are inquiring about your product or service?
By consistently creating and promoting relatable content, the people that interact with your brand will be those that are already genuinely interested in your product or service, not just those that have fallen victim to your outbound marketing strategies. As a result, these prospective buyers are already a few steps down the sales funnel. In fact, brands that have implemented an inbound strategy find that overall traffic may drop off but their sales have increased. Now, how is that possible? Well, that’s because the quality of leads coming into the sales funnel has dramatically improved. You are now targeting an actively buying consumer versus someone who may not be relevant at all.
4. Increases Trust and Credibility
This is arguably the most important benefit of an inbound marketing strategy for any business’ future plans. By consistently giving the world great content, your brand will slowly start to build itself as a thought leader in the industry. As a result, your brand may be the first one that pops into someone’s head when they’re thinking about making a new purchase.
For example, say you’re a kitchen appliances company and over the years, your company has been consistently putting out content that talks about some of the newest trends and technology in the kitchen space. Today, someone is looking to purchase a new dishwasher and immediately thinks to go to your website because over the years, they’ve come to associate your brand as the brand that’s always up-to-date on the latest and greatest. Boom. Just like that, your brand is at the forefront of this buyer’s decision making process all because of the content that you’ve been putting out over the years. You can thank your inbound marketing program for that new lead.
Getting great press leads by the way plays right into inbound marketing. It gets your company noticed, and when the individual who read the article hops over to your website, they need to see material that they can download and read or watch that continues that conversion process.
Not Done Overnight
One thing to keep in mind about inbound marketing is that it’s not a quick fix; it’s a long process that requires several iterations and heaps of patience. But like they say, “good things take time”.
So, sit back, relax and start putting great content out there! The results will be worth the wait and hard work. If you are interested now in product placement... also check out these blogs our agency wrote!
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