A step-by-step breakdown of the inbound marketing process
Inbound marketing is a relatively new term brought to prominence by the founders of HubSpot, a marketing software developer who specializes in this approach to digital marketing. The basic idea of inbound marketing is to create content and experiences that attract customers to a brand and business, rather than that brand or business going out to capture customers or leads.
This approach goes hand-in-hand with digital marketing and became relevant during the rise of the internet and a large audience of users who were increasingly consuming free digital content delivered by search engines and more recently, social media networks. To adapt, marketers began to realize the opportunity to use these new channels to attract potential customers to brands and products by providing quality content and experiences and slowly converting users to customers.
If you’re looking to meet your digital marketing goals and grow your business, it is critical to have a better understanding of the inbound marketing process. We hope the following step-by-step guide will help.
How the inbound marketing process works
There are four main steps to the inbound marketing process. Each with its own unique requirements for building your brand while providing your audience with the information they’re looking for. These steps are:
- Attract — The goal here is to start to bring people to your business, but not just any people: the right people. That means first you need to know who your target audience is through demographic research and consumer profiling. Next, you can start to attract these potential customers to you through carefully crafted content that begins to build your authority. This can be accomplished through tactics such as blog posts, social media updates and search engine optimized content on your website.
- Convert — Once you have begun to build, understand and attract your audience, the next step is to convert them into a lead who is specifically interested in your products or services. This is usually accomplished through demonstrating value and providing more in-depth content such as Ebooks or white papers.
- Close — This step is typically where the handoff occurs between a marketing team and a sales or customer support team. In the inbound marketing process, closing an interested lead requires a combination of data-driven approaches such as lead-scoring and lead-routing combined with a helpful and empathetic staff who can match potential customers with the product, offer or service that is best for them.
- Delight — This phase is all about keeping customers who have committed to your organization happy and on track by providing a positive experience that will keep them coming back and recommend your business to others. The goal is to create a base of brand advocates who will help attract new people into your inbound marketing process.
For both small and large organizations, the inbound marketing process has become a standard procedure for developing customers and meeting goals, but successfully implementing it often requires expertise and experience in the digital marketing field.
Burg & Co. Marketing can help you attract and convert customers to meet your goals
We are digital marketing experts who provide a full range of options for all types of businesses and organizations. Our marketing professionals can help you develop your brand and your audience through search engine optimization (SEO), social media marketing, content marketing and pay-per-click (PPC) advertising.
Contact us today to learn more.
