What Is Inbound Marketing?

What Is Inbound Marketing?
How Inbound Marketing Can Help You Achieve Results
By: Debra Ward/DreamWeaver Marketing

Are you hitting your goals in getting leads you want for your business? If not, it may be time to look at the effectiveness of Inbound Marketing tactics. You may currently be using the traditional ‘outbound’ marketing strategies for your business, including: e-mail blasts, telemarketing, direct mail, & networking, and you may not be getting the same results you used to. Why? People are inundated with thousands of interruptions every day and are finding new ways to block them out.

In today’s marketplace, you have to ‘get found’ by people who are looking for you, learning about you and shopping for you in your industry. In order to do this, you need to set your website up like a "hub" for your industry, and you need it to attract visitors naturally through the search engines, partner websites, and through social media. While outbound marketing is collateral going out, Inbound marketing is about making information available for those who want ‘IN’. I believe that today, marketers should be spending just as much time on ‘inbound’ marketing as they are on outbound marketing, but these strategies must work together to achieve results. In my mind, one is not any more important than the other. They work together like a symphony making beautiful music when they are all in tune together.

As an Independent Marketing Consultant with 20 years experience helping businesses grow, I’ve seen a great deal of change, especially with the ‘information technology’ phase of life. Nothing is more spectacular to me than the ability today to search for the customers you want, and get the information you need to target your message specifically to their needs, wants and desires. All this can be achieved now through social networking and inbound marketing. There are restrictions, but it’s free for the most part, and you can’t beat that in today’s economy. In fact, it’s the economy that has driven many people to use more cost-effective ways of getting their name out there. I guess you could call it the 20th century trend.

Today, I utilize many simple, cost effective ways to help my clients achieve results. Below are the five most important inbound marketing tactics which I use with my clients.
First, if your website is not working for you, you need to take immediate action. If you cannot find yourself under general search terms for your products (not your company name), then your customers can’t find you either. Here’s what I can do for you:

1. Improve your Website. I begin by taking a long-hard look at what you could be doing on your website to generate more hits and more leads, i.e.:
a. Improving your SEO by adding key search terms to your keywords box, and adding search rich content to optimize your website, including a powerful headline that will increase your hits dramatically.
b. Adding all of your company benefits that set you apart from your competition (USP)
c. Having several ‘calls to action’ at the top of your pages to elicit a response
d. Adding squeeze pages to capture visitor information while giving them something of value
e. Adding videos to reduce your bounce rate
f. Adding photos that capture the attention of your visitors
g. Formatting your content with eye catching fonts & colors
h. Adding Google Analytics tracking gives you rich insights into your website traffic and marketing effectiveness. Powerful, flexible and easy-to-use features now let you see and analyze your traffic data in an entirely new way
2. Improve your company’s visibility and presence on the Internet:
a. Adding your business to Yahoo and Google Maps puts your business on the map. If you are not there, you are not taking the appropriate steps to compete in today’s marketplace.
b. Utilizing Social Media: Adding Facebook, LinkedIn, or Meetup pages allow you to build your database and provide value for your members, friends or groups. But, this will only work if you take the time to shop for potential clients, invite them in, and provide them with value. (This can be time consuming, and I haven’t seen great lead results from Facebook or Linked-in unless it’s done right. The trick is getting people face-to-face, and nothing works better than Meetup for that from my experience. But you must know the tricks to avoid disaster.)
c. Creating press releases and posting them on FREE PR websites creates a buzz for your company and better SEO. How? You take top position in search results with the right PR.
d. Utilizing a wide-array of free websites to post your business information. Knowing which websites is the trick of the trade. Getting on websites with great SEO (results above yours) is a great way to be found.
3. Generate leads through Webinars & Events
a. Webinars sometimes referred to as webcasts, can be a powerful and cost-effective way to generate quality sales leads. Educational or training webinars can strengthen your connections with partners, prospects, or customers. By posting and promoting free webinars in your inbound and outbound marketing, you are generating leads while creating a great way to educate your customers about your product or service. They come because you are providing them with value. In return, you get a database of people interested in what you have to offer, which you can offer great promotions in the future. Effective strategic partnerships can also be created when utilizing others as key note speakers.
4. Write and produce effective collateral that is consistent with your website
a. Before you real the leads in, you want to be prepared with collateral that is consistent and professional. So, before launching any marketing activities, you want to plan ahead. I can help you lay out your strategic plans for the year and what strategies will be used for each campaign. Only when the plan is complete, can I begin writing and implementing your collateral, including coupons, flyers, newsletters, banners, and sales packets. Remember, consistency is important for branding your company. Inbound and outbound marketing will work together.
b. Newsletters & e-newsletters are a great way to communicate, educate and add value for your prospects and/or customers. You can write about your awards, customer success stories, and drive leads to surveys, websites and videos. Newsletters can help with strategic partnerships, raise money, advertise events, and provide great value to your audience. I can help you design and write an effective newsletter, and help you build a database of ‘opt in’ leads through the many tools available on-line.
5. Develop Customer Surveys
a. Today's competitive marketplace requires every organization to listen to the voice of their customers and learn about their needs and wants. A customer service survey can provide management with valuable input on both short-term and long-term decision-making. It can offer critical operational and strategic advantages over the competition. I can help you design a survey that will help you retain customers and attract new ones. There are so many great things you can do with the results of a good survey.

With so many great tools available today to help us get our lead generation work done, including the social media sites, e-mail and tracking programs, the only problem for most people is the time to get it done. This is where investing in a good marketing consultant comes in. All business owners need is some help in utilizing everything that is out there to their best advantage. It’s all very time consuming, but well worth it if you can find someone with experience to do it for you. Helping business owners improve their business gives them confidence. It makes them feel good about how their company is being represented. It gets them excited about the opportunities. That’s why I enjoying doing what I do, to help them achieve their goals.

For more information, please visit http://www.dreamweavermarketing.com/ or call Debra Ward at (775) 530-3556 to schedule a complimentary consultation.