Author: Chris Heiler
Inbound marketing is based on the concept of earning the attention of prospects and making your company more easily found online by producing content your customers value.
In contrast, cold-calling, direct mail, radio advertisements, sales fliers and other forms of traditional advertising are considered “outbound marketing", or interruption-based marketing, where companies push their marketing message to the masses hoping to catch a small piece of attention.
Social media, search marketing and content marketing each play a key role in a cohesive inbound marketing strategy.
Inbound marketing and your business
Inbound marketing is especially effective for small businesses, like many in the green industry, that deal with high-dollar values, long research and buying cycles, and knowledge-based products. In these areas prospects are more likely to hire companies who demonstrate superior expertise in their industry. Because of this, inbound marketing is an ideal strategy for green industry companies.
You don’t prove your expertise by running an advertisement in your newspaper or by sending a postcard. Advertising lacks credibility. You display your expertise over the long haul in the content you create and share.
And while a fancy postcard will quickly be introduced to the nearest trash can, your content resides online indefinitely for new visitors and prospects to find month after month, year after year, generating fresh leads. That’s real impact.
The content that drives the engine of an effective inbound marketing program is focused on building thought-leadership, being relevant and useful, and generating qualified leads for a business.
This approach is in stark contrast to cold-calling, radio advertisements and other methods of traditional marketing that focus on interrupting a consumer's attention in the hopes of building greater brand awareness.
Why inbound marketing works so well
Original content allows you to stay top-of-mind with your customers and prospects on a regular basis. When they are in a referral position or able to make a buying decision, they are thinking about you, not your competition.
Your content gives you credibility. What if someone wanted to learn more about your company and you had nowhere to point them, like a website? What if you sent them to a blog or Facebook Page that hadn’t been updated in three months? You would lose credibility.
Fresh content, optimized for search engines like Google, drives more traffic to your website where you are able to generate leads. The more content you have on your site the more opportunities you have to rank in search results.
Here are some of the various forms of content that can be utilized in an effective inbound marketing program:
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Blog posts
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Email newsletters
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Website copy
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News releases
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E-books and whitepapers
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Infographics
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Status updates on Facebook and Twitter
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Video
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Images
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Podcasts
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Webinars
The most effective inbound marketing strategy will include a mix of these, with one or two content types playing lead role while two or three others play a supporting role. For example, at Landscape Leadership we focus mostly on blogging consistently. But we also publish interesting news releases, a monthly newsletter, infographics and e-books on occasion to support our blogging efforts.
We understand that many companies can struggle with what to write about and how to “package” their knowledge and experience into content, like blog posts, that will resonate with their audiences.
Because of this, we created a workbook that will help your business develop a cohesive and compelling content marketing strategy.
You can download our FREE workbook, “Create a Compelling Content Plan & Editorial Calendar”, by clicking on the image below. And feel free to share your thoughts in the comments below. We would love to hear about your content marketing strategy, your biggest challenges and, especially, what has been most effective for you.
image source: kossy@FINEDAY
