10 Smart Ideas about Inbound Marketing

10 Smart Ideas

about Inbound Marketing

1. Marketing automation should be customer-serving

One of the central concepts behind inbound marketing strategy is that helpful, valuable content will always win out over sales pitches. Pay attention to which types of content resonate the most with your leads, and, if possible, after the lead has converted on a form, try to prevent them from having to fill out any more forms for content.

2. Marketing automation should be pressure free

Gleanster reports that 50% of qualified leads are not ready to purchase immediately. If you push them through a series of hard-sell emails, you’ll likely lose them. Instead, think of yourself as a consultant. Send them resources and useful tips to help them decide.

3. Marketing automation should support the internal sale

For B2B companies, your job is not only to work with your individual lead, but also to provide them with information to help them get internal approval to purchase your product or service. Send them useful tools to help explain the benefit of purchasing your product or service to others.

4. Marketing automation should be part of an integrated inbound marketing strategy

A comprehensive inbound marketing strategy should closely reflect the customer lifecycle. It should enable prospects to control how and when they navigate the buying process and reframe marketing as a source of information and support rather than a pushy sales pitch. Marketing automation is just one tool in this process and shouldn’t replace the full strategy.

In An Inbound Marketing Strategy Attract Leads: Instead of attacking prospects with a series of ads and direct mail, attract them by creating useful and interesting content that is relevant to their interests. Then optimize that content for search, making it easier for prospects in need to find you. Nurture leads: Once leads have expressed interest, leverage what you know about their interests and needs to send them tailored communications and help them decide about your service or product. Again, these communications should serve the lead, not interrupt them.

 5. Marketing automation should support customers and drive repeat purchases

Marketers’ jobs are not done after the point of purchase. Continue to trigger tailored communications after the point of sale to help the customer get the most out of their purchase, encourage brand advocates, and offer help to those struggling with your product.

6. Marketing automation should be content-driven

No matter how strong an individual piece of technology is, the success or failure of a lead nurturing campaign will still rest on the quality of the content you are delivering. Content, therefore, must be the backbone of any marketing automation strategy. Are you providing value? Are you pushing things further? These questions are inherent to good marketing.

7. Marketing automation should be multichannel

Buyers control how and when they interact with your company, and more and more they are navigating their decision process outside of the confines of your website and your exclusive set of marketing campaigns. To truly be relevant, lead nurturing and email campaigns need to take into account buyers’ experiences across multiple channels and platforms. For example, if an individual has downloaded a whitepaper, that’s one thing, but what about if they tweet about it too? That indicates an additional level of interest.

8. Marketing automation should reflect Interest, not just Action

Additionally, you should be triggering communications based on all the types of content a lead has viewed and not just the forms he or she has submitted. For example, we want to know that a person has signed up for a free trial, but what if they signed up for a free trial and primarily looked at one content type on your site? That information can help you provide an even more personalised experience to your leads, and should also be available to your sales team so that they know in advance what your lead was looking for. You should consider all of the avenues that someone could use to find your content..

9. Marketing automation should be accessible

Make sure that anyone receiving your communications can view it no matter what browser or application they are using. In order to gain significant traffic, your emails and site need to be compatible with multiple browsers and devices.