As a business owner, customer trust and satisfaction are crucial to success. And the best way to go about it is via inbound marketing. Gone are the days when customers wake up to see unwanted sales emails they never subscribed to or commercial advertisements that pop up when watching their favorite TV shows. In today's world, customers decide for themselves what to buy, who to buy from, how they buy, and whether they want to be advertised to or not.
Inbound marketing is the strategy used to draw in potential visitors and customers without the need for commercials and obsolete mass marketing techniques. The purpose of this article is to help you better understand what inbound marketing is, the fundamental of inbound marketing, and inbound marketing strategies, for running startups successfully.
What Is Inbound Marketing?
Inbound marketing is a marketing methodology that attracts visitors and potential customers by creating valuable content and useful materials/information specifically designed for them.
Instead of the traditional commercials that are no longer as effective, inbound marketing has proven effective in improving customer experience and builds business-customer trust. While outbound marketing focuses on broadcasting to customers, inbound marketing focuses on influencing customers' actions – an inbound marketing example would be whether to visit your site and buy from you.
Startups should focus on inbound marketing by offering potential customers information and/or materials that depict value – one which they find helpful/useful. This can be done via effective blog posts, newsletters, and social networking.
Inbound vs Outbound Marketing
While outbound marketing outwardly promotes a product, brand, or service by interrupting a customer with unsolicited content, inbound marketing is geared towards building lasting relationships with them. The goal remains to generate lead but in a manner that will solve problems, the customer already has. By solving a problem for your customers, you are solving yours as well.
The inbound methodology is about valuing, entertaining, and empowering potential customers to reach their goals at any stage while working with you.
The three fundamentals of inbound marketing are:
Attract: In the stage, marketers attract the right audience through valuable content, conversations, and materials that initiate trust between you and them.
Engage: Providing solutions and recommendations to the problems that are faced by potential customers. This puts you in a suitable position to buy from.
Delight: Sales don't end after a customer makes a purchase. Providing assistance and support is crucial to maintaining happy customers.
7 Best Inbound Marketing Strategies for Startups
To get the best result, the following inbound marketing strategies for startups will help you effectively market to your target audience.
1. Use surveys to know your current customers and leads
Knowing your target audience is the first thing inbound marketing strategy to note. This can be achieved through a survey. There is a free online survey software questionnaire tool to make this work. Start by sending them a simple question. For example: "What is your greatest challenge?" You aim to learn the kind of challenges they are facing so you can cook up some solutions to help them solve them.
2. Send informative content to subscribers
Your subscribers are expecting informative and helpful content for you. Upon signup, you need to provide them with valuable information for them to stay on your email list. Spamming or sending irrelevant and/or only promotional newsletters will make them unsubscribe from your list. They'll stay with you if they get the valuable information they can't get anywhere else.
3. Conduct in-depth interviews
A one-on-one conversation with a few subscribers or clients can go a long way. It may be via phone call or a video chat. If they permit, call them and ask them to describe what frustrates them and what unsuccessful solutions they tried that wasn't successful. This way, you can get in-depth information about their challenges and use this data to create helpful inbound content marketing.
4. Start with an exciting headline
A great headline works magic. Crafting a headline that appeal will drive more clicks and attract new traffic. Creating a headline that will trigger clicks might take time but it works more effectively than the content itself. According to WordStream, one of the best ways to drive traffic through headlines is to blend positivity with a bit of negativity. Also, don't forget to produce quality content, you want to make sure they read after clicking an exciting headline.
5. Create a free report to drive leads
A lead magnet is an essential tool for driving leads. Have you seen a report containing something you desperately need, and the only way to get that report is to drop your email address? Yes, that is a lead magnet. Creating inbound content marketing comes handy if your startup is in the B2B sector. The detailed guide serves could be an in-depth analysis of how to operate a product that you sell. The lead magnet is only powerful if the comprehensiveness of the report is convincing enough that your target audience will be willing to drop their email address.
6. Write long, but informative and data-driven articles
Just because it is a free report doesn't mean it should be short. Although short content works; however, long reports and e-books have a higher conversion rate. Whatever type of inbound content marketing you decide to write, just make sure it is effective and should provide helpful information for your customers. This is will improve your SEO rankings and also trigger a call-to-action e.g. to motivate readers to implement what you wrote, share it with friends, or recommend your site to others.
7. Ensure your site is mobile-friendly
A mobile-friendly website is the home of internet users. It is one of the surest ways of getting the conversions that your site needs to rank and convert traffic. With millions of gadgets, users access the internet using their smartphones because it is portable, responsive, and easily accessible. It only makes sense to optimize your website for mobile. This way, you can gain a lot of valuable traffic.
Call to Action
With inbound marketing, you can connect with potential customers and visitors through materials and experiences they find useful. Using the aforementioned inbound marketing strategies will help you attract and engage potential customers. When used the right way, inbound marketing can help your business grow better. Remember to avoid interrupting your audience with unwanted promotions and content.
