Mashable.com created a fantastic infographic comparing Inbound versus Traditional Marketing.
According to HubSpot, an inbound marketing platform, inbound marketing attracts, converts, closes, and delights your individual ideal prospects. This method of marketing is far less expensive yet far more effective than outbound advertising like television and radio ads, print advertisements, or even cold calling.
Mashable.com published a study of outbound marketing strategies in action. Here are the results:
- 44% of direct mail promotions are never opened. That means that you’re paying that much extra for postage, paper, and labor per prospect just to open the letter.
- 86% of people skip television commercials. You’re only reaching 14% of people and how many of those are your ideal prospect?
- 84% of those aged 25-34 click out of a website due to an intrusive ad. Who is your target prospect group? Are you marketing to them or scaring them off?
- 200 million Americans are registered on the Do-Not-Call list.
Inbound marketing is effective due to its failure to actually directly sell to your prospect. No one wants to be sold to; instead, they want to be informed and make a decision on their own as to what they buy. You must be there for them throughout this process in a way your prospect can trust.
Attract Your Ideal Prospect
Outbound marketing does not discriminate against who sees or hears the ad. This means that while you may be targeting your ideal prospect, they may or not actually come in contact with it. Instead, those who aren’t in need of your product or service will have seen or heard it in one ear and out the other.
How do you attract your ideal prospect?
- Blogs: Your ideal prospect seeks out useful information through search engines. Blogs give your company a chance to be the answer to their question. The closer your blog is to the answer your prospect is asking, the more likely your blog will come up as the expert to this question.
- Social Media: Give your brand a face and voice through social media by sharing your content to your ideal prospects and interacting with them. This is the best method of answering specific questions or cultivating your relationships.
- Keywords: Throughout your content creation process, keep in mind and implement the keywords your ideal prospect is using to search out your product or service.
Convert Your Ideal Prospect
After attracting your ideal prospect, ask them to take action. Whether this is signing up for your email newsletter, downloading your newest ebook, or gaining access to further detailed free access, by asking your prospects to do something, you can expand your lead bank.
How do you convert your ideal prospect?
- Calls-to-Action: Once your prospect has gained the information your website offers, keep the momentum going by offering a white paper or ebook for download. Calls-to-Action are the buttons your prospect sees on the page that links to your landing page.
- Landing Pages: After clicking the call-to-action, visitors are sent to a landing page in which they exchange their email and names, for example, with your free content you have advertised. This produces leads that could later turn into clients or customers.
- Forms: By creating a form that is easy and simple form on the landing page, your visitors are more likely to submit the form for your lead bank than one that is long or intrusive.
Close Your Deal
Traffic to your website is important but without closing, your business won’t last very long. Keep in mind that even though your prospect is beginning to trust you, he or she will leave very quickly if they feel that they’re being pressured to buy something. Instead, by using specific techniques in which you ask for their business, they will be more likely to follow through when they’re ready.
How do you close the deal with your ideal prospect?
- Email: Stay on the mind of your prospect after they’ve downloaded your free ebook or filled out your form for a free newsletter by sending related and useful content straight to their email. Continue to build your credibility and trustworthiness for when they are ready to purchase.
- Specialized Auto-Responders: You have prospects coming from Facebook and Twitter, Google and Bing. You have prospects who are looking at one specific service or product and others who are looking at something different. So why would you treat any of these prospects the same? By sending specialized auto-responders, you’re letting your prospects know that to you, none of them are the same.
Delight Your Ideal Audience
Loyalty and referrals are based on how happy your prospects, visitors, and most importantly, your customers are with your content and campaigns. If you forget about this once you have their money, you may be leaving behind a bad aftertaste in your customer’s mouth. Not to mention, as your business grows, so could their business with you as newer products or services are added to your arsenal.
How do you delight your audience?
- Specialized Calls to Action: Your audience can be in different places in their buying journey at any given time. By specializing your calls to actions specific for them, you can pull them closer to your company while building your relationship.
- Related Content: By giving your prospects exactly what they want, you can introduce to them products or services that can be useful to them based on what they have already shown an interest in. Keep your audience coming back to you.
- Social Media Interaction: Show off your incredible customer service for not just customers but for the prospects that may feel reluctant due to the automated-service society we live in. Social media also gives you the opportunity to answer prospects questions in real time that can be shared or liked for the added marketing boost.
Inbound Marketing is about personalizing your campaigns around your ideal prospect and getting to know their desires, fears, and beliefs. Partnering with your company will work to appeal to their desires, extinguish their fears, and uphold their beliefs within your company.
