How to Build Inbound Marketing Success
Digital Darwinism happened, and there's no going back. The time to act is Now.
In just a few short years, marketing has irrevocably evolved. Consumers today expect businesses to not only service them through multiple digital, mobile and social channels, but to also provide a more personalized connection within different contexts.
For 5+ decades, marketers built brands utilizing push marketing techniques. It was a fairly straightforward line toward building the brand: Advertise, promote, tell --- push out the message and convince people to buy.
In the "brave new world" of consumer behavior, potential customers have instant access to a wealth of information about products and services, and high expectations for their interaction/s with companies.
Traditional tactics are less successful, and marketers are realizing the depleting efficacy of push techniques. Savvy professionals now aim to balance their efforts and embrace the future.
As Brian Solis says,
"With every day that passes, enrollment multiplies. The question you have to ask is whether you want to lead or follow."
Frontier: Inbound Marketing and Web Design
There is a broad spectrum of marketing and digital firms that coordinate brand development, choreograph a marketing program, optimize SEO and analytics or construct a website.
True inbound marketers, however, believe it is not just the ability to design, create, build and measure effective marketing programs, but rather the ability to make these elements all work together that will set you apart from niche or traditional approaches.
Specialties in art, science and technology are converging to optimize inbound marketing results.
Inbound marketing (IM) employs a strategic marketing approach, where businesses implement tactics to “get found” by potential prospects online through myriad channels, such as Facebook, LinkedIn, or Twitter, platforms like YouTube or VEVO, search engines and blogs.
Inbound marketing methodology involves the art of creating and sharing remarkable visual, written, video and other content in conjunction with an iterative, scientific approach to engagement, education and measurement .
The science of converting visitors to your website into leads includes nurturing those leads through carefully constructed calls to action, A/B tested landing pages and valuable content offers. These elements drive conversion toward sales-ready customers as they move through the sales cycle.
Ultimately, “pulling” customers toward you into a buyer relationship with your company requires a structured inbound marketing methodology, rooted in measurement and analysis.
Inbound marketing strategies create brand awareness, improve SEO, create thought leadership, develop valuable customer relationships, establish credibility and build trust.
This process requires the use of technology and delivery platforms in combination with creative and design capabilities.
A proper balance of art, science and technology is essential for optimal results. Balanced integration and immersion in technology, content and social networks are essential. Adopting these tools help to define a solid business dynamic and quality inbound marketing results.
Science Behind the Balance
Within every top-performing online inbound marketing plan lies a creative, well-designed, and optimized Web approach.
Begin with analysis of the existing Web presence and website conditions. This includes site structure, creative design, context, content, SEO, calls to action, landing pages and analytics.
Inbound marketing design concepts are formulated and refined, incorporating the technical requirements for implementation. These technical aspects of the inbound marketing program, though seamless in the final product, are imperative for agency success.
A Full Range of Design
No amount of expertise is a substitute for collaboration. Remember the importance of working with agency partners throughout the building, driving and measurement phases of the strategic process.
Measurement and reiterative refinement are critical components of establishing an inbound marketing program that endures.
Inbound Marketing Maintenance
Upon establishing an inbound marketing program, insist upon partners that understand the design and intent of each content element. Working with the right talent enables you to nurture and maintain the quality of your initiatives, across relationships.
This can be an in-house inbound marketing professional, depending on the size of your program, or a full-service inbound marketing firm.
What is your online marketing approach? How can inbound marketing methodology enhance your business?
"Success" Illustration via Babs Rangaiah of Unilever (@babs26). It is attributed to Demetri Martin, author of the acclaimed This Is A Book.
Author: Barbara Robinson