What is Inbound Marketing: A Complete Guide (2024)

Why is inbound marketing essential?

The digital age has connected people and information globally.

It gave birth to the digital-hungry modern consumer and forever changed the way we do business.

With products, services, and solutions that are easily accessible online, the gaps that businesses once built and enjoyed are now easily bridged, with consumers moving freely from one offer to the next.

In this digital environment, the frantic pace of Information has increased exponentially, competition for an ever smaller amount of attention available to the consumer..

In addition, modern customers are more savvy, informed, and aware of their incredible consumer power.

Old marketing and business methods are becoming expensive, ineffective, and obsolete.

Content Marketing Costs on Average 62% Cheaper than traditional marketing and generates 3x more leads.

Organizations need to market their products and services in a way that fits seamlessly into the modern customer buying journey.

For This, You Need To Find ways to deliver value, build relationships, and generate conversations with the consumer according to his conditions, Rather than trying to disturb and distract him.

If you want to grow your business in the modern era, while creating a brand that is authentic and loved by customers, the Inbound marketing is the solution.

Difference between Inbound Marketing vs. Outbound Marketing

Inbound Marketing takes advantage of the demand for informative and educational content to raise awareness and nurture prospects throughout the customer journey.

Educational content is a powerful marketing tool : it is highly sought after, promotes trust in expertise and reveals the intention of the buyer.

By transforming your website in a wealth of information, Internet users are attracted to solving problems that you specialize in and for which you are authoritative.

Providing useful resources allows organizations to identify potential buyers while creating opportunities.

By guiding you through the buyer journey, you ensure that you are at the forefront when a buying decision is made.

Furthermore, when resources are created to help the customer after the purchase, Inbound Marketing becomes an effective tool for creating advocates for your brand, increasing the customer life value and reduce support costs.

Here are a few examples of inbound marketing content and tactics:

• Blogs
• Video
• Social networks
• Downloads (guides, ebooks, statistical data, case studies, etc...)
• Online events (for example, webinars)
• Email Inbound (for example, newsletters)
• Podcasts

Inbound marketing comes down to:

1. Create valuable and educational content for the entire customer journey.
2. People looking for information find your content
3. Engaging in content demonstrates “intent” and generates leads.
4. The sales department recruits quality prospects and feeds them with quality content.
5. Support customers and increase loyalty, word-of-mouth, and lifetime value.

In contrast, outbound marketing is more permissive, disrupting, hindering, and distracting potential customers. It invades their daily lives in the hope of attracting their attention.

Prospecting call methods are less effective today in encouraging prospects to action because, in most cases, they do not correspond to the client's current priorities or goals.

Outbound marketing methods include:

• Trade shows
• Seminars
• Sending emails to purchased lists
• Cold call
• Telemarketing
• Advertising (banners, television, radio, etc.)
• Digital ads driven by third party cookies

These efforts attempt to cast a heavy net on a large audience in the hope of even a minimal return.

Because of the nature of outbound approaches, they are more expensive, less efficient and have a lower return on investment (ROI) only inbound marketing.

Why use inbound marketing?

Inbound marketing is unbelievable effective in increasing traffic, generating leads, and converting customers, for a number of reasons.

1) Modern consumers are inundated with ads in all formats and all day long.

“A research firm estimates that a person living in a city 30 years ago saw up to 200 advertising messages per day, compared to up to 5,000 today. “(Source)

Advertising fatigue Make people less receptive and less sensitive to these intrusions, which results in less compelling ads.

2) Like the consumers' tolerance for distraction is increasing, these methods are becoming less effective.

To compensate for this problem, marketers are tightening wider nets: they pay high amounts to target increasingly specific segments of ideal customers.

3) Ads have become so pervasive and pervasive that there are entire industries today designed to help people block “advertisers.”

This arms race between ad blockers and ads has inflated the price of displaying ads, which further reduced the return on investment.

4) With the proliferation of available services and products, modern consumers are increasingly looking for multiple sources of information before making a purchase decision.

According to the study Zero Moment of Truth conducted by Google in 2011, “consumers consulted an average of 10.4 sources before buying; this is double the number of sources consulted the previous year.”

These modern trends have considerably reduces the effectiveness and value of outbound marketing methods.

Consumer behavior has changed. Did your marketing do it too?

What is the true value of inbound marketing? Compound returns

As markets and consumer trends continue to evolve, Inbound marketing proves to be the most effective marketing strategy to develop reputation and generate prospects.

Here are a few examples of Inbound Marketing that is more effective than Outbound:

• B2B businesses with a blog generate on average 67% more prospects per month that businesses that don't have them (HubSpot).
• 80% of business decision makers prefer to get information about a business from a series of articles rather than an advertisement
• B2B buyers conduct an average of 12 searches before visiting a specific brand's site (google).
• Inbound methods produce 54% more prospects than outbound practices traditional (HubSpot).
• Inbound marketers double the average site conversion rate from 6% to 12% (stream).
• According to a report by Chief Marketer, the most effective content To advance prospects in the sales funnel, B2B consists of articles and blogs.

While inbound marketing takes time to produce results — typically 5 to 9 months — it has long-term cumulative effects. Quality content, ranked highly in search engine results, generates brand awareness and website traffic 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Methodology

Inbound Marketing is the process of developing your organization by investing in meaningful relationships with your customers and prospects through a shared success model.

The inbound approach is about providing value and enabling people to reach their goals, overcome obstacles, and discover information at every stage of their journey with you. This includes both before and after they became customers.

Inbound Marketing has 3 distinct “phases” to ensure that your customers get value throughout their journey.

• Attract: Attract the right people through quality content and conversations that make you a trusted advisor they want to engage with.
• Commit yourself: Present ideas and solutions that align with their problems and goals, so they are more likely to buy from you.
• Delight: Provide the help and support needed to enable your customers to make successful purchases.

Strategies

Inbound marketing is a holistic approach to the customer journey.

Marketing doesn't stop with awareness. When you focus on meeting your customers' needs rather than continuously extracting value, they reward you with their loyalty and commitment.

Inbound marketing strategies provide value and build relationships throughout the customer journey. When marketing supports sales and service, businesses can shorten sales cycles, motivate buyers, increase adoption, reduce service costs, and increase customer loyalty.

Fundamental principles

To take full advantage of “INBOUND MARKETING” and become a titan of brand capital, you're going to need to make some investments.

If this is your first foray into INBOUND MARKETING,” here are the six fundamental concepts you should keep in mind when developing your strategy.

The six fundamental concepts are as follows:

1. Building an authentic brand identity

Nobody wants to read endless content, see ads, and interact with a brand that is only promoting itself.

To create content that people want to watch, read, and listen to, you need to connect with your audience about something more meaningful than your idea of excellence.

On the contrary, express your brand and be authentic in your communications. Share your passions, invest in a goal, and get involved. Authentic brands are memorable, which is why they generate traffic and stand out.

2. Adopting a customer's mindset

Inbound Marketing is effective because it takes into account and anticipates the buying behavior of modern decision makers and the needs of your customers.

To create smooth, compelling buying journeys and memorable customer experiences, you need to understand your customers and address their needs, challenges, goals, and preferences directly.

3. Generate reputation through search engine optimization

Search engine optimization (SEO) is a TLA (three-letter acronym) that is often repeated.

But do you know what it is?

Simply put, SEO is the practice of increasing the quantity and quality of traffic to your website through organic search engine results.

However, it takes a lot of research, nuances, and strategy to ensure that your information gets good relevance on search engine results pages (SERPs). SEO is of paramount importance in getting your educational content into the hands of potential customers and allowing them to research your brand when they are looking for help with challenges.

Do you know what keywords brought you here? Or how we managed to appear in your search results despite all the businesses that generate related content?

That's the power of SEO, baby.

4. Creating a solid content strategy for inbound marketing

Your content strategy is another central pillar of your inbound marketing strategy. A well-defined content strategy identifies topics, keywords, materials, and timelines for creating and sharing educational resources.

Effective content strategies can distill a broad range of information and tactics into a concise map that guides all content efforts. A good content strategy has many aspects, but the basic principles are:

• Content should be problem-solving and engaging.
• Topics and resources should cover the entire buyer and customer journey.
• Match messages to the right audience and channel.
• Use multiple media (audio, visual, written) to match learning styles.
• Direct prospects to “intentional actions,” which generate leads.
• Build content networks that motivate shoppers.
• Link content together to guide users and get high rankings in SERPs.
• Share content with your audience on social media, posts, and communities.

If you do it right, your content will be valuable for years to come and provide you with a flow of high-value organic leads and customers.

5. Tools and technologies for inbound marketing

Marketing is no longer just about pretty colors and emotional messages. The digital age has created the need for a high level of technical skills.

Because marketers are, well, marketers, they're hiding all of these profound internal mechanisms behind beautiful images and brilliant experiences.

They do it so effectively that most people take for granted the in-depth technical skills required to manage effective digital marketing.

A successful INBOUND MARKETING strategy is based on a handful of technological solutions that we call pillars. It is about:

• Lead generation website
• Marketing automation platform
• Automating sales operations
• Customer relationship management (CRM) software

6. Measuring inbound marketing performance

Developing and implementing a strategy doesn't mean much if you don't understand how it helps your business.

Without proper measurement of inputs and outputs, it is difficult - if not impossible - to determine the return on investment and to take advantage of the results.

The good news is that “INBOUND MARKETING” is easy to measure and track.

By recognizing early signs of success, organizations can quickly pivot to respond to consumer behavior and stay ahead of the competition.

Authentic brand identity

“You're in trouble if customers can't put your brand on the map. The worst thing you can do is blend in.”

Identify the why of your brand

Before people listen to you, you need to know who you are and what you stand for.

The same rules apply to a brand.

The first step in brand identity is creating a purpose and a mission.

To do this, it is not necessary to make big dramatic statements or obvious gestures, but simply to explain why you do what you do.

Start with a strong mission statement that lets everyone know who you are.

Make a powerful mission statement:

• Create it with your partners so that it is a shared vision.
• Simplify things to make them more efficient
• Avoid generalizations and generic statements
• Make it relevant for customers and team members.

Whatever you choose, make it unique and strive to be more than the solutions you provide.

Here are some good examples of simple missions that evoke meaning:

• TED : Disseminate ideas.
• REI : Inspire, educate, and equip for a lifetime of outdoor adventure and stewardship.
• Patagonia : Making the best product, not causing unnecessary harm, using business to inspire and implement solutions to the environmental crisis.

These highly recognized organizations promote loyalty and engagement by adopting the brand objective and the Marketing the cause.

How to create an authentic brand image

Once you know your mission, present it to the world through a unique brand image.

Although superficial in appearance, a brand's visual identity is part of its genetic heritage.

A consistent brand image will make your brand memorable, your content easily identifiable, and your presence credible.

One of the most effective steps you can take is to ensure that fonts, images, colors, logos, graphics, layouts, and animations are consistent and as unique as your business.

Apply this style to everything you produce (blogs, videos, websites, social media, documents, etc.)

Even if you have thousands of competitors offering the same services or products, they are not you. Make it your advantage.

Strengthen the authority of your Brand

Share your knowledge with the world.

Join discussions, create informative content, offer free guides, participate in your industry community, and do your best.

Any business, regardless of its sector of activity, can be authoritative with its community and its customers.

Even if you make industrial packaging, you need to make the best industrial packaging and tell everyone why you believe in what you do. Explain how you are different, and provide an overview of your industry and trends.

Take thought leadership and show people what you think the future is and how you will get there.

Take risks, share your opinions, and most importantly, make sure your message is accessible.

People want to have the information and skills to make the best decisions based on their needs. Provide them for free, and you'll draw people to your brand.

Become memorable

People are drawn to authentic encounters.

We all want to be part of movements and experiences that are unique.

Harness your uniqueness, be yourself, and offer the authenticity that people are looking for.

Being authentic can seem daunting, especially in corporate cultures. But by taking responsibility for what makes your business different, you'll generate more compelling content that people will want to share and defend your success.

Brand authenticity is a major differentiator and a competitive advantage. To exploit authenticity, your brand needs to be:

• Coherent
• Responsable
• Responsable
• Memorable
• Invested
• Charitable

Don't be afraid to make mistakes when creating your authentic voice. With sincerity and real effort, people will be drawn to you and adopt your message.

Know yourself. Express your authenticity. Never look back.

Customer Centered Mindset

“It's not your customer's job to remember you, it's your obligation and responsibility to make sure they don't have the opportunity to forget you.”

- Patricia Fripp, award-winning author

Customer success model

When your customers succeed, you succeed.

Shared success is the new paradigm that promotes customer loyalty, creates advocates, and develops virtuous sales cycles.

INBOUND MARKETING efforts should focus on forming long-term, mutually beneficial relationships rather than short-term transactions.

Ensure that you are investing in your customers and providing value to them throughout their lifecycle.

By establishing these shared success relationships, customers become advocates, spread word of mouth, come back for multiple purchases, and seek your ideas as an expert for future decisions.

Don't underestimate these advocates for future lead generation.

“Over 90% of consumers trust word-of-mouth marketing recommendations over any other type of marketing and customers referred by other customers have a 37% higher retention rate.” (stream)

Identify your ideal customer

You can't talk to strangers, provide value to them, or build relationships with them.

You need to know who your customers are if you want to build trust, anticipate their needs, and help them solve their problems. Also, if you try to fake this understanding, you risk being dishonest or disconnected, which will turn people off and hurt your brand.

Create customer personas for each ideal buyer you want to target.

A customer persona, or buyer persona, is a fictional and generalized representation of a company's ideal customer. Personas make it possible to better understand and adapt content to the needs, behaviors and concerns of prospects and customers.

Effective buyer personas are the result of market research and information gathered from your existing customer base (through surveys, interviews, etc.). Depending on your business, you can have one or two personas or dozens. (Note: If you're new to personas, start small! You can develop other personas later if needed).

Make sure to capture:

• Demographic data
• Objectives
• In need of
• Challenges
• Communication channels
• Common objections
• Industry
• Role of employment

Define your target market

As we said, knowing your customers is essential for successful INBOUND MARKETING.” In the same vein, you need to understand your target market.

Determining target markets allows you to speak the language, address specific pain points, solve problems, share valuable information, and highlight expertise.

Don't talk to everyone who has a pulse. Reach out directly to specific segments and meet their needs.

Understanding your customers includes knowing how to communicate with them and about the channels where they congregate. Managing this nuance requires an intimate understanding of your customers' behaviors and needs.

By identifying and addressing specific customer segments, you'll be more effective at getting your message across and attracting prospects.

Understanding your customer journey

People are not static. Their needs change as they move through the buyer journey and continue to evolve once they become customers.

Understanding where customers are in their journey and anticipating their needs makes it possible to create tailor-made, memorable and rewarding experiences.

It is essential to connect with buyers and customers by adopting strategies to provide them with relevant information throughout their journey in a transparent manner. Consider commitments, education, communities, and resources that can help your customers reach their goals.

Failing to adapt messages to specific needs alienates customers and turns advocates into detractors. Savvy consumers will find the resources and information they need, even if it's not with your brand.

A well-designed customer journey turns visitors into leads, prospects into customers, and customers into advocates.

SEO search engine optimization

What is search engine optimization?

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the practice of increasing the quality and quantity of organic (non-paid) website traffic through search engine results.

It is the art of ensuring that content is understood by search engine robots and desired by the intended audience. SEO is as much about people's search preferences as it is about the technical details that make your content understood by search engines. While every website requires a unique approach to keywords, there are fundamental principles and hierarchies for effective search engine optimization.

The human element of SEO has to do with what people are looking for and what keywords they use to find information. It's about knowing “how” users express their intention. Intent can come in the form of questions, the use of words, or formulations - all of these are extremely important in creating content that meets the needs of researchers.

The search engine aspect of the SEO equation consists of structuring information so that search engines can index it. Search relevance determines the ranking of web pages in search engine results pages (SERPs).

It is essential to develop content that is suitable for search engines and humans.

Thanks to effective SEO and quality content, users easily search for and find your brand.

Why is SEO important in inbound marketing?

SEO is an essential element of any INBOUND MARKETING strategy. By tapping into the vast amounts of online search traffic, you can increase the number of organic visitors.

Organic traffic refers to visitors who deliberately searched for your content and didn't get there through paid advertising.

While ads can draw visitors to your website, these tactics are expensive, often seem unbelievable, and only represent a small percentage of overall web traffic.

According to Moz, the Organic traffic represents 20 times the total volume of trafficking Paying per click (PPC), both on mobile phones and on desktops.

Relevant, optimized content that generates organic traffic pays “dividends” for years. Unlike paid ads, whose traffic declines as soon as you stop paying, quality content and SEO efforts contribute to brand and “domain” equity in the long term.

Focus on providing value to customers

The last thing to mention about this is that while search engine rules can be “played,” we don't recommend focusing on manipulating the system.

Many brands are looking to play short-term games to get immediate benefits. In the medium to long term, they lose the benefits of brand SEO and domain equity that come from providing “real” value to customers.

As an organization looking to implement a genuine INBOUND MARKETING strategy, you need to provide high-quality and valuable content for your prospects.

Here are a few things to keep in mind when considering your content and SEO strategies.

First, Google's search algorithms evolve as they refine the results and make the process more useful for researchers. Investing in tactics to outsmart the system often results in efforts that break down as soon as algorithms change, making content potentially harmful.

Second, traffic obtained by “playing” with the system often results in high bounce rates and is classified as “low quality traffic.” When tactics and content aren't aligned to deliver value (and engagement), the result is often a dramatic decrease in traffic AND conversion opportunities. Additionally, when search engines recalibrate their algorithms, “poor quality” traffic ends up hurting your SEO score.

Thirdly, search engineers are constantly refining their approach — finding and eliminating sites that play with the system. Dishonest sites are sanctioned, which often results in a significant reduction in organic search traffic. How successful will your business be when your entire domain never appears on Google again?

Finally, quality content stands the test of time. Even as algorithms change, if you provide value that people want, you'll still reap the benefits of high organic traffic and engagement.

By defining and adhering to an SEO strategy focused on creating value for the customer, you will establish a resilient brand presence and SEO score that will drive growth for years to come.

What is an effective content strategy?

“What separates good content from great content is the willingness to take risks and push boundaries.” Brian Halligan, co-founder and CEO of HubSpot

The fundamental principles of content strategy

Effective INBOUND MARKETING requires a content strategy.

Before you start creating tens of thousands of words and tens of hours of video or podcast, draw a map.

You'll thank yourself later.

A content strategy will help you align the content you create with specific customer needs. It also allows you to evolve your content efforts and streamline the activities of your current and future team.

The aim of your content — as we mentioned — is to provide value. More specifically, it is about providing visitors/readers with information that instructs them, alleviates their concerns, and helps them overcome obstacles to make decisions.

Your content demonstrates your mastery of a given subject, which is also called authority. When potential customers see you as an authority, their trust in you grows and they will come back to you based on the commitment and trust you have generated.

But what does that mean for your content strategy? Very simply, you need to create three types of content:

• Raising awareness - Content that will help you be found on search engines and demonstrate your relevance to visitors so that they engage more.
• Consideration - Content that educates and informs visitors, strengthens your credibility (authority) and the loyalty of visitors to you.
• Decision - Content that persuades and encourages the people concerned to take action.

How much content do you need to create for each of them?

How do they apply to the types of content you are going to produce (blogs, podcasts, etc.)?

What topics should you focus on?

All of these questions explain why your content strategy is so important.

Overall, your content strategy should present and describe the following elements:

Once these elements are documented at a high level and approved by your organization's leaders, your content strategy will serve as a guide throughout your “INBOUND MARKETING” journey.

Define the goals, objectives, and direction of your content strategy

Your content strategy should convey your current main goals to anyone who will be involved in your content marketing. Define your goals, outline your approach, and provide general advice in a quick and concise format.

If you're new to content marketing, your main goals are likely to be to increase awareness and web traffic.

Here is an example of a plan:

<insérer le sujet/mot-clé ici>During the first and second quarters of 20XX, our main goal is to set up a conversion funnel around. The aim is to increase organic website traffic and improve the rankings of the keywords around <sujet primaire>and the main keywords described in our section on SEO keywords.

The main objectives are:

• Full conversion and pricing pages for the<sujet primaire>.
• Generate X pieces of content per month (minimum)

• X long-lasting coin (pillar or cornerstone)
• X short pieces (support blogs)
• X news article or press release
• X conversion download (white paper, guide, or checklist)

• Define criteria and measure website traffic, downloads, and conversions (Marketing Qualified Leads).
• Increase organic website traffic by XX%+.
• Ranking on page 1 of Google for at least two keywords
• Streamline efforts and create standard operating procedures for content generation efforts.

Secondary goals include:

• Identify future content X opportunities (engagement topics, thought leadership, content types, etc.)
• Identify X additional keywords useful for SEO optimization

Once we reach these goals, we'll analyze and determine other forms of content to optimize the funnel, increase engagement, and generate more leads.

Complementary thoughts on your content strategy

As noted above, there are many other aspects to an effective content strategy. We won't detail all of them here, but we'll discuss some of the most important elements.

Keywords for search engine optimization (SEO)

SEO research and planning should be integrated into the very structure of your content strategy. You can create the best content in the world, but if no one searches for those search terms online, you won't get the results you want.

By planning your most essential keywords from the start, you'll help inform all of the marketing decisions you make later, whether they're primary content categories, topics, page titles, meta descriptions, how you insert hyperlinks, and more.

Just knowing which search terms get the most traffic, which perform best in terms of clicks, and how fierce the competition is will boost your inbound game.

Content types, categories, and themes

Plan the types of content you can create around the categories and topics you've chosen. Decide how often you're going to produce content to generate traffic and reach your goals.

What types of content and media are you best able to create?

Are you going to create blogs, podcasts, videos?

How will each of these elements contribute to your ability to raise awareness, educate, and promote action?

Channels, content promotion, and socialization

The next step is to determine through which channels you are going to promote your content. Social media, business networks and lists, and email marketing are among the most popular.

For each channel, define how your message best applies to that specific audience. For example, you might want to use more authoritarian, values-based language for LinkedIn, while remaining informal and letting your images speak for you on Instagram.

Make sure you have a strategy for publishing and promoting your content across a variety of channels. Marketing automation tools can help you expand your reach, but the fact is that other media have much more traffic than just your website. You need to get the word out.

The role of advertising in your content strategy

In general, “INBOUND MARKETING” is a medium and long-term strategy aimed at increasing domain value, organic website traffic, and quality leads.

While it can take months before you see a significant impact on organic traffic through your integration efforts, ads can help support your efforts and deliver results much more quickly.

If your marketing budget allows, you can test segmentation and promotion strategies using your strongest core and conversion content, even at the beginning.

With a small budget, experiment to identify users who are interested in the different types of content being promoted. It is essentially a short-term stimulation program that will allow valuable content to be presented to viewers. The traffic generated can then be analyzed to optimize messages and identify customer segments.

Update and revisit your content strategy

As you produce and develop content over time, you'll need to revisit and review your content strategy. Conduct a content audit at regular intervals to update goals, optimize content, and refine the approach.

In principle, you should review your content strategy at least once every six (6) months. If you're investing heavily in content marketing to generate significant growth, it's best to review your strategy quarterly or even monthly.

Tools and Technologies for Inbound Marketing

“Marketing is not magic. It's a science.” - Dan Zarrella

The technical ecosystem of inbound marketing strategy

To succeed in INBOUND MARKETING,” organizations need to create and manage content that meets specific customer needs, is widely distributed, and caters to multiple audiences.

Managing all of the activities, processes, and operations required to generate traffic and convert leads is a complex undertaking, especially on a large scale.

However, with systems and marketing tools adapted, these efforts become easy to manage, well-organized, and effective campaigns to grow your business.

Generate leads with your website

Not all websites are created equal. A brochure is not enough; INBOUND MARKETING requires a site designed and optimized based on an entry strategy.

A lead generation website maximizes your content efforts, attracts traffic, and converts visitors into leads.

A lead generation site and a brochure site have some similarities.

• Present a high-gloss image and finish
• Easily navigable and intuitive
• Highlight your value proposition on the main pages
• Digital representation of your brand

Lead generation websites differ from standard websites because they are.. :

• Built from the start taking search engines into account (referencing the structure, keywords and metadata).
• Optimized for high performance
• Equipped with a content delivery engine to manage, distribute, and organize content.
• Strategically designed to nurture and generate leads through landing and conversion pages.
• Designed around the countryside
• Integration of analysis tools to measure traffic and facilitate decision-making.

Without a lead generation website, your organization will struggle to generate high volumes of organic traffic and will be unable to effectively generate conversions and leads.

If you're not seeing the results of your digital marketing, despite the high value and the constant production of content, it's likely that your current website isn't up to par.

Marketing automation platform

Managing large volumes of content is a difficult task for any organization. If you add multiple segments, channels, audiences, calendars, and campaigns to these efforts, the task becomes overwhelming.

Marketing automation platforms allow you to tame the beast of content marketing by streamlining, automating, and managing content at scale.

Effective marketing automation platforms allow an organization to:

• Tailor messages to specific target audiences and potential customer segments.
• Create automated email campaigns for prospects and customers
• Engage with prospects and customers on channels other than email.
• Manage relationships and personalize customer experiences
• Make better strategic decisions through reports and analytics
• Measure engagement through video, email, and content tracking.
• Focus on the whole funnel, from awareness to the customer

Marketing automation platforms add value and reinforce your “INBOUND MARKETING” strategies to fill the lead pipeline and maintain interaction with current customers and prepare them for sales.

Sales management software

Effective lead generation doesn't mean much without the tools that allow your sales team to track and convert leads into customers.

Sales automation software streamlines workflows, automates administrative tasks, eliminates redundancies, and ensures accurate data entry.

Without sales automation:

• Ways to go unnoticed
• The sales experience is inconsistent
• Value propositions, information, and materials vary
• Successful tactics and strategies are underused
• The progress of operations and forecasts are imprecise

When implemented properly, sales automation tools benefit the customer and improve the shopping experience while providing in-depth insights into sales direction.

Sales automation allows:

• Qualification, notification and transfer of responsibility
• Email automation and templates to remove redundant tasks
• Calendars and reminders to keep track of sales team members
• Detailed guides that guide sales team members to effective strategies tailored to specific customer needs.
• Easy-to-use mobile systems that eliminate the administrative tasks associated with updating CRMs.
• Automated workflows that allow specialists and “closers” to help close deals.
• Automating transaction management to generate quotes and rebate approvals, eliminating the problem of escalating each transaction.
• Integration of emails, calendars, and meetings so your customers are never left behind.
• Seamless data capture

Effective sales automation isn't about reducing or removing sales team members. The need for soft skills, direct human engagement, and skilful negotiation is not disappearing.

Sales automation is about providing your sales team with the tools needed to delight customers, identify and engage high-value leads, follow up, and increase transparency.

Know exactly where your growth opportunities are and the best ways to convert customers through sales automation.

Customer relationship management (CRM) platform

With the golden record of all customer activities, a well-built customer resource management (CRM) platform is the backbone of your customer experience. A CRM makes it possible to personalize experiences and accurately measure and record your interactions throughout the customer journey.

When a CRM supports marketing and sales efforts, team efficiency and business growth reach new heights.

Without an integrated CRM, your sales and marketing efforts are inconsistent, executive decisions are made without accurate data, and opportunities are missing out on you.

These are environments designed for darkness, customer disappointment, and ultimately failure.

With an integrated CRM, the monitoring of interactions with customers, the adaptation of interactions, the execution of campaigns, and the alignment of teams become transparent. Never miss a moment with customer experience data that covers the entire customer journey.

Measuring performance

Measure and develop your inbound marketing efforts

Inbound marketing is a long-term strategy that creates value and pays dividends over time.

Because of its distant horizon, it is essential to develop strategies that set goals, discern progress, and measure results.

Without a system to measure your INBOUND MARKETING efforts, it's easy to miss out on opportunities and trends that have huge growth potential. There is also the risk that your content will slowly fall into oblivion, and that it may take months of effort to correct it.

Fortunately, the nature of “INBOUND MARKETING” makes it very easy to measure success and identify areas of opportunity.

Before we get into what you need to measure, let's talk about metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs).

Metrics are goals you set and actions you take to identify progress.

Key performance indicators consist of leading and delayed indicators that identify specific and tangible results.

• Leading indicators are predictive measures that influence change.
• Delay indicators are an outcome measure that shows what has happened.

Each of them is necessary to know where you are going, how far you have come, and when you will reach your goal.

Define metrics and measure the performance of your Inbound Marketing

You haven't started until you've set a finish line.

A practical goal identifies a specific result that you want to achieve.

Most people say, “I want to increase my website traffic or move up the SERP rankings.” But these are only indicators of delay in disguise and they often lead people to short-term solutions.

Your goal should be something like: “I want to grow my business by doubling my conversions from 50 per year to 100 in 12 months.”

From there, setting up a metric to measure progress is simple. You can measure the increase in lead conversions compared to your goal, as well as the time elapsed at regular intervals.

Time-bound and easily measurable goals provide the framework for determining return on investment and managing growth.

I spent “X” on “Y” time and got “Z” out of it.

Common KPIS for inbound marketing

Next, you need to determine the primary and secondary key performance indicators.

These will vary depending on your specific goals, but typical useful indicators are as follows.

Examples of leading key performance indicators (KPIs):

• Organic website traffic, month after month
• Bounce rate
• Click-through rate (CTR)
• The top-ranked conversion page
• What are the channels that generate the most clicks and engagement?
• Landing page conversion rate
• Maturation funnel completion rate
• Keyword ranking
• Inbound email statistics

Examples of lagging key performance indicators:

• Visitor conversion rate
• % change in the conversion rate
• Percentage change in the conversion rate of each landing page
• Total site conversions
• Conversion won/lost

Taking into account advanced and delayed key performance indicators (KPIs) is essential to get the big picture.

Failing to measure the whole picture creates blind spots that increase the risk of wasting resources, overlooking high-quality conversions, and missing opportunities to take advantage of trends.

Summary

“Success is making those who believe in you look brilliant.”

- Dharmesh Shah, co-founder and CTO of HubSpot

Inbound marketing is a holistic strategy that aligns your content with the behaviors, needs, and authority of modern consumers.

To successfully integrate INBOUND MARKETING into your business, you need to change the way you think about your customers, provide them with value, and build lasting relationships.

Once established, it's the most cost-effective and effective way to generate leads, promote customer defense, and build brand awareness.

Through strategic, thoughtful, and customer-focused content creation, you can attract customers to your brand as a valued authority, not just a solution provider.

There are few more effective measures that an organization can invest in to grow its brand business.

Your customers are looking for you. Are you ready to be found?