Inbound Marketing is the best way to turn strangers into customers and “brand fans” excited to promote your business, and at the center of this Inbound Marketing universe is your website.
- Companies are 3 times as likely to see higher return on investment (ROI) on Inbound Marketing campaigns than on outbound.
- 84% of small businesses are predominantly using Inbound Marketing.
- 3 out of 4 marketers across the globe prioritize an inbound approach to marketing.
HOW INBOUND MARKETING WORKS
In a nutshell, here’s how Inbound Marketing works:
- Strangers learn about your brand through keyword search and blog and social media content.
- They visit your website where they begin to view you as the leader in your space because you provide valuable content they can’t get anywhere else.
- Prospects return to your website, blog, and social media pages routinely to consume additional information until, ultimately, they see value in doing business with you and become paying customers.
- Your satisfied customers and “brand fans” eagerly promote your business to others.
YOUR WEBSITE IS KEY
While Inbound Marketing seems straightforward, its success depends greatly on the presence of a highly-functional website that offers valuable content and a great user experience. Your website anchors your online presence and is the hub around which all your Inbound Marketing efforts revolve.
If you’re not doing everything you can to deliver valuable content to your customers and prospects on a frequent basis via your website (in concert with blogging, social media, and search engine optimization), and then converting those visitors into leads and eventually customers, you’re missing out on numerous opportunities to grow your brand fanbase.
CONTENT MATTERS
Your capacity to generate excellent content that consumers want and value, and on your ability to do so on a routine and consistent basis, is a critical success factor as well. By publishing the right content in the right place at the right time, your marketing becomes relevant and helpful to your customers—not interruptive (like traditional marketing).
And just as people have different learning preferences, so too do your target customers have preferences for how they like to consume information. Your content should appear in more than one form—ranging from articles, blogs, books, and eBooks, to videos, podcasts, and even live events such as seminars, webinars, and classes—so you can appeal to varying interests.
IN IT FOR THE LONG HAUL
Success with your Inbound Marketing efforts takes patience and persistence. It’s not a “one and done” proposition where you post a blog or share something on social media and then sit back, waiting for the turnstiles to spin. Inbound Marketing requires an “in it for the long haul” mindset as you cultivate relationships with your audience, first to interest them in your brand and then to convert them into paying customers and enthusiastic brand fans.
As such, a successful launch or refresh of an existing website requires more than just putting up a few new web pages. It requires a well-thought out strategy for buy-in, development, execution, measurement, refinement, and maintenance.
LEARN MORE
The Barrel O’Monkeyz team is ready to help you build your successful Inbound Marketing Machine. Contact us today to start talking strategy. In the meantime, let us know what your experience with inbound marketing has been.
Paul June is King Monkey of BARREL O’MONKEYZ, a San Diego-based strategic marketing agency specializing in Sports and Active Lifestyle markets. We serve as a seasoned, outsourced marketing team for companies looking to ramp up sales and launch new products. Our barrel is full of talent and creative arms ready to prove we don’t just monkey around!
