What is Inbound Marketing: 4 Tips and The Best Definitive Guide

Are you looking to expand your brand value through inbound marketing? Are you in the phase of pro and con analysis for inbound marketing? Are you planning to implement inbound marketing in your business? This article answers all of your questions!

1. What is Inbound Marketing: The Definitive Guide

Inbound Marketing involves giving your customers the utmost importance. It has sustained itself in the market based on the belief that giving utmost importance to consumer criticism is the highest investment you can make in your business. In the process, your business strives to add value to your customer’s journey and help them reach their goals or achieve them. 

Before you implement inbound marketing strategies in your business model, ask yourself these questions-

1. Have you figured out your target audience? What are their age and regionality? This will help you have a rough idea of their preferences. 
2. If yes, how do you plan to know more about them? If not, how are you planning to attract this audience?
3. Are you willing to invest your time and energy in listening to their opinion?
4. In what way are your products/ services adding value to your customers?
5. What are the channels through which they can communicate with you?

Once you have figured out these answers, you will know if inbound marketing is your cup of tea or not. 

2. What Are the Different Practical Methods You Can Use? 

2.1. Attract Your Ideal Audience

With the growing population of the world, the amount of varied interests people pursue has also increased. It would be best to devise a way to attract your ideal audience to your business in a smart way. These people should be willing to create meaningful conversations about your business and thus engage positively. 

For example, if you create sports shoes and activewear, your intended audience would be people who are willing to invest their time and energy into sports. This is the audience that stays with you because you listen to them and give them value and because you are providing them with the services or products they need. 

This is the most difficult starting phase in your journey and might require huge effort as consumers have too many options in today’s day and age. Figure out what makes you different from your competitors and ace on the difference to be able to stand away from the crowd. 

2.2. Engage With Your Consumers

This can be an extension of the point that tells you to add value to the consumer’s life. Be open to conversations, questions, and criticisms. Nothing is more attractive than a brand that is willing to accept changes in its system. You are producing for the consumers and sending it to consumers. 

So, when you do take their opinions seriously, you are bound to be appreciated by the consumers. 

This isn’t as easy as it sounds only because not every consumer will like your products. Some might have an opposing view of your business idea itself. Some will question. In such cases, be kind to them. Your kindness adds personality to your brand. And inbound marketing thrives on personality. 

A personality that sets you apart. That is what the business world is seeking. This is what inbound marketing is all about!

2.3. Know What Your Audience Likes and What It Doesn’t

This is half the job done. Once you know the preference of your audience, you can make the content as per their needs. This reinforces the value of consumers, and they feel heard by you. This is the foundation of your inbound marketing strategy!

3. Let’s Talk SEO 

So how does Google’s SEO algorithm ranks inbound marketing?

Google gives a huge 23.87 % priority, the largest of all other factors for Trust and Authority of the host domain. 

Trust and authority are the immediate consequences of inbound marketing. Your consumers will trust you because you are taking action to instill trust in them! The more genuine and authentic you seem to be through inbound marketing tools, the more trust you gain from your audience and the higher SEO rank from Google. It is a win-win situation. 

3.1. How To Implement Inbound Marketing in My Business Model?

Enough talking about what is inbound marketing and what it can potentially do for your brand. Let us explore the various options you have to implement it practically. There are several ways to implement them, and the following points discuss them briefly.

3.1.1. Blogging 

Your blogs should be relevant to the interest and purposes you are serving. You should ensure that the content that goes up in these blogs is well-formatted, concise, and descriptive. This can potentially attract your target audience to your page in a very organic way. The organic way of growing is also the most long-lasting way to make impressions that last.

This audience will not only be interested in your services in a genuine way; they will also stick with you in the long run. These people will be your loyal customers. 

Include data-driven information, attract the consumer with your headline, and include stories in what you write to make it more relatable.

3.1.2. Advanced Content Creation 

You can curate e-books, tip sheets, whitepapers, how-to guides, and interactive calculators. The list is extensive, and you can choose which one works best for your business idea. This is a very convenient way to capture leads and give your customers the next action in their journey of buying your products. 

Advanced content tools are also great for generating new contacts and guiding existing contacts. You can guide your clients about specific products. While blogs are more about your business idea, advanced content creates a practical sense of purpose for your products. 

3.1.3. Video Marketing

It is estimated that almost 80 percent of consumer internet traffic consists of videos. Video content makes it easier for consumers to get information, and you get an opportunity to make your message visually appealing. Online video content is eye-catching and can hold the viewer for a longer time than written content. 

The content in videos can be a lot of different things all at once. It could be customer testimonials, product demos, and video blogs. 

3.1.4. Email Marketing

When consumers opt for email communication with a brand, they expect personalized and useful product information. Through emails, you can also promote blog content and advanced content pieces, encouraging the receiver to seek more information.

This will also enable you to send targeted emails to a specific contact list, and you are giving more reason for the consumer to stick with you through the tougher times. Through this channel, you are also providing the user exactly what they want. This increases their engagement with you. 

87 percent of marketers have stated that email marketing is one of their most widely used forms of attracting and increasing organic traffic. 

3.2. Beginner Tips 

3.2.1.  Survey Your Current Customers and Leads and Conduct In-Depth Interviews

This will help you identify what your users like and what they do not. You can also know about the problems they are facing, which will help you create an effective solution. Knowing user demographics will help you know about their general preferences. 

This is not very time-consuming and can be done on Instagram and Facebook with Insight tools. Otherwise, you can also use Google Analytics for blog posts. 

3.2.2. Start Guest Posting

Make guest contributions consistent. Publish on blogs that have engaged readers who are willing to pay attention. You should always have a list of sites that have a higher ROI. 

3.2.3. Host a Webinar in Real-time 

This will add a touch of personality to your brand promotions. They can learn about the problems in real-time that you might face and interact with you. When customers start understanding you and relate your products to your story and face, they are more likely to try more products. Moreover, they might even recommend you to other people. 

3.2.4. Use Resources Such as Quora!

Quora is great for consumers because the whole point here is to provide solutions! Consumers are constantly looking for solutions. It is easy to find questions that resonate with your niche and provide solutions here. You can share these answers on different social media platforms to show your clients that you provide the answers.

You can provide links to your Business page redirect some of the consumers. Asking people to upvote your answer is a good way to increase your organic reach on the platform. 

Inbound marketing works like a magnet. It pulls your ideal target audience to you by offering them the kind of content they have been looking for. If you are looking for organic growth that is meaningful and can start a conversation around a certain issue, Inbound marketing is one of the best ways.

 From a consumer’s point of view, it can be quite overwhelming to find one particular business that resonates with you. If you can tell your audience that you have what they need in a way that does not annoy them, they are bound to increase your business’s traffic! The hack of inbound marketing is to start seeing your customers as inspiration and learning from them. When there is too much going on in the market, inbound marketing might be a saving grace. 

Wishing you success in your venture!

Last Updated on August 26, 2023 by Laveleena Sharma