What is Inbound Marketing?

Wouldn't it be great to have a way of attracting new customers to visit and then return to your site? Today we are discussing what is inbound marketing and how you can use it to attract more visitors to your website!

What is Inbound Marketing?

Inbound marketing is an online marketing method aimed at getting people to your website. It focuses on the creation of amazing website content that your target audience wants. The theory is that by providing the specific information to your target audience exactly when they want it, they will then be easier to convert into being one of your valued customers.

It is a more affordable and long-lasting way to obtain new customers, as you are not having to pay for ongoing advertising! Traditional advertising requires you to continually pay for the ad in order to keep getting traffic to your site. With inbound marketing, the content you put on your site remains there for as long as you want it. You don't need to pay anyone to get visitors to that page, as it is found organically via search engines.

Inbound marketing works by you attracting the type of person to your website who is most likely to buy your product or service. To get them there, you must give them the exact type of content they want when they want it.

3 Marketing Funnels of Inbound Marketing

Inbound marketing has four distinct parts to it. Each of these parts is called a funnel, in that you want the visitor to move through each part in order to achieve your website goals. They are:

1. Attract - you want to firstly get the customer to your website. This is done by them finding your site through search engine results, or seeing a Facebook or social media post which directs them to your site.
2. Engage - they're at your site and your job is to turn them into leads. This means getting their email address so you can contact them. This is quite hard, because the information you give them needs to be so amazing that they will happily share their email address with you in order to recieve more of it.
3. Delight - it's time to exceed their expectations and continue to provide them with outstanding content and support to keep them loyal to your business.

How to Use Inbound Marketing for Your Website

With inbound marketing, it's all about creating something so great that the customers come to you, rather than you chase them. To get you up and running, here's what you need to to:

• know your target audience well - what do they want to learn about?
• create wonderful content - from videos to articles, the content you create and provide your audience with is crucial! If you struggle with content creation, or don't have the time, we suggest using one of our recommended copywriters.
• create email marketing campaigns - once you capture your audience's email addresses, you need to have the content to send them!
• be active on social media - it's a great way to drive traffic to your website and engage with your audience.
• check often on how you are going - use Google Analytics to see what's happening with your website traffic

For more information on inbound marketing, check out HubSpot's website - they are a wealth of knowledge on this topic.