Attract, Engage, and Delight
Definition
A non-invasive business strategy, whereby you create valuable and compelling content and experiences specifically tailored to a curated audience you want to attract to your website. The idea is to engage at scale but treat the prospect individually, thus making a deeper connection without the fuss of intrusive marketing techniques. It entails a methodology that requires a certain degree of ‘virtual hand-holding, as you will accompany the prospect during the entire process: from first contact to loyal customers.
2 Key Factors
- Convert this deeper, more natural connection into trust, thus driving high-profile leads (quality clients eventually) who are demonstrating an active interest in your brand products and/or services.
- Diametrically opposed to outbound marketing —the outwardly paid advertising and direct promotion of your brand, products, and services—, which is often invasive (ads are often imposed on private enjoyment, such as TV or YouTube), intrusive (because your offering is something your audience may not want or seek), even aggressive (certain campaigns are too out there and risqué). And although both types of marketing are complementary, you always want to make sure that Inbound can never be defined with the three adjectives used above. It should be a soothing invitation of sorts, a call to engage based on your audience’s tastes. You for them, not them to you.
Metaphor
Equate inbound marketing to subtlety and patience. Ever been to a Zumba class? The group connection, the exercising, the health benefits, the fun, the dedicated instructor, the dance… is what stands out. Yet the music and the choreographies are curated to a tee, not impinging on the experience, but skillfully helping you along. Ever been to El Bulli? An omakase? A prix-fixe tasting menu at a Michelin-starred restaurant? The creativity and the yumminess of the food are all the rage. And yet, the choreography of the service is the deft and graceful undertone that set you up for maximum enjoyment of the whole experience. The choreographies above are a good analogy to what Inbound Marketing should be.
Examples of Inbound Marketing
Blogs: Marketers who favor blogging are 13 times more likely to land a positive ROI.
Infographics: Consuming upwards of 1,000 words may not be your go-to choice. A snapshot of whip-smart insights in the form of a pie chart. Who doesn’t love that; aren’t we all suckers for that?
Whitepapers: Well-researched, in-depth pieces that seek to educate about a topic employing a more formal tone and approach than a blog. Rigor, originality, and value are expected. Presentation is half the trick.
e-Book: Along the same lines as a whitepaper: authoritative information, normally in exchange for a prospect’s contact details.
Case Study: Shining a spotlight on your customers.
Webinars, Podcasts, Video Series, etc.
Benefits
When done well, if it hits that special soft spot of your audience… the generous buzz and your growing status as a source of valuable information will set you apart as a benchmark provider.
Your brand will generate qualified leads, to the tune of 12 every 370 visits, multiplying your actual leads by five in the first year and by 14 in the second. *
Your brand will double qualified marketing contacts in 1 year, x7 in 2 years. *
Your firm will increase website visits by 4 in the first year, and x12 in the second. *
Inbound enables you to target B2Bs (higher visit to registration conversion) and B2Cs (rapid hike in accumulated visitors).
Finally, as you work SEO to attract visitors to your tailored content, you will find that inbound marketing becomes a stronghold of your on-page and off-page SEO strategy, as you optimize content for specific keywords and build linkage from reputable websites.
Methodology
Sure, methodology means work and planning, but the rudiments of inbound marketing speak to very real benefits that you will be building as you tread the process. Attracting traffic is the first step. Focus on quality users that match your ideal customer persona. Convert prospects to leads, starting with contact info. Valuable, tailored content marketing, especially via social, is key to this cocktail. Once leads, you want to make them customers through lead scoring and nurturing marketing automation and systematization. Once the lead becomes a client, loyalty and incentive strategies kick in. Remember: Maintaining a client is much more economical than making a new one from scratch. Now you have all the necessary data and tooling to enact your KPIs for outcome analysis. These last two steps are the automation phase, after the first two attraction and conversion stages.
* Source: ‘The Results of Inbound Marketing’ study
Sources
- https://www.cyberclick.net/inbound-marketing
- https://www.hubspot.com/inbound-marketing
- https://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2018/11/05/inbound-marketing-examples
