Inbound Marketing

What is Inbound Marketing?

In a nutshell, inbound marketing is about combining a set of tools with great content to draw new clients to your business.

At Austin SEO for growth, we make a distinction between demand generation and demand capture.

Demand generation is about all the things you do, online and off-line, to make a very broad audience aware of who you are and what you offer. As such, it is unfocused and therefore inefficient.

Demand capture, on the other hand, is about connecting with people who are already looking for what you have to offer. This means you already have a leg up because they are what you might call “warm leads”.

Let’s use a car analogy to understand the relationship between a marketing-oriented website, inbound marketing, and compelling content.

Think of your website as the engine. Simply having an engine doesn’t mean you can go anywhere or get anything accomplished.

To gain the ability for your engine to do something useful, you need to build a vehicle around it.  Your vehicle will have many components that must all work together if your vehicle is to provide the utility you want.  Also, the vehicle components will vary depending on the intended use of your vehicle.  Inbound Marketing is made up of a variety of components that all work together to define how your marketing machine will serve you.

Content is the fuel for your vehicle. Without fuel your vehicle can’t go anywhere, and the same can be said for a marketing machine without content.  And just like your vehicle, your Inbound Marketing machine needs periodic refueling in the form of new and fresh content.

So, when we build an inbound marketing machine for your business, we always start with a website and a content marketing plan, and then add the other elements of the system that will keep visitors engaged in moving toward doing business with you.

Why your business needs inbound marketing

Not to be too blunt about it, but if you’re not using an inbound marketing system, you’re probably missing out on a huge number of warm leads. And remember, warm leads are more desirable than cold leads because they have a higher likelihood of converting into customers.

Research shows that people like to buy, but they don’t want to be sold to. This means that they want to learn what their options are and investigate trade-offs and choices – and here’s the key – on their own terms. And what better way to connect with buyers on their terms than to use the content strategy that includes educational and informative materials combined with tools that allow them to engage with you?

What are some of the elements of an inbound marketing system?

• Content that educates, informs, and keeps prospects on your website versus jumping to your competitors
• Search Engine Optimization to ensure your content gets found when people are looking for answers to their questions
• Social Media connections to encourage sharing and increase your reach
• Reputation Management for social proof and increased online visibility
• Email or text messaging automation to increase engagement and keep you top of mind
• Calls To Action that encourage your visitors to take the steps that will eventually lead to them becoming clients or customers

Are compelling content and great tools enough?

Using our car analogy again this would be like having a shiny new sport coupe, a full tank of gas, and nowhere to go.

A well-designed inbound marketing system uses tools and content to facilitate the warm leads you have attracted in continuing on their journey through know, like, and trust to the decision point of becoming a client or customer. After all, if you’re not moving them toward taking action, you’re just telling stories.

The best way to facilitate this customer journey is by offering content of value at each step along the way and then asking them to do something to keep moving forward.

For example, when someone visits your website you could offer them a one-page, no strings attached checklist relative to their interests and how you might serve those interests.

When they download the checklist, you can drop a cookie in their browser so that later they would see an ad for your product or service while on Facebook or surfing the web. The ad might say something like “if you liked the checklist you’ll love our free report, click here”.

When they click, they would go to a landing page or they would be offered a for free report in exchange for their email address. Since you have established some level of trust by giving them a free checklist they are more likely to give you their email address.

Once you have their email address you can send them a series of helpful tips. The last email in the series would then make an offer for something they could buy, or in some way engage your services.

As you can see, there are a lot of moving parts but they mesh together to create the machine to power your business to the next level.

We can help

At Austin SEO for Growth, we have experience with all aspects of inbound marketing, and we have the capabilities to build an inbound marketing system that is tailored for your business.

Our Principal Consultant, Jeff Stec, is not only a certified SEO for Growth consultant, but he is also a Certified Duct Tape Marketing Consultant, and he is Inbound Certified by HubSpot Academy.

Contact us today to see how we can put inbound marketing to work for you.