Inbound marketing: the path to customer loyalty

In our last blog post we talked about street marketing, a way of advertising on the street that goes almost unnoticed. Today we’re looking at another form of advertising that clients rarely recognise as such: SEO, contenidos, redes sociales y automatización.">inbound marketing.

What you need to know about inbound marketing

What is inbound marketing?

Inbound marketing is an online advertising technique that aims to draw consumers to a brand by creating interesting content. Through branded content on blogs or social media, the brand reaches the user and, with any luck, if the content interests them, turns them into a potential lead.

In recent years, companies have been looking for ways to reach consumers while setting aside traditional marketing campaigns (also known as outbound marketing). The roles have changed: it’s no longer about the company looking for consumers, but about consumers finding their way to the company.

The stages of classic inbound marketing

This marketing technique is complex, yet very flexible and varied, and can be adapted to different clients, needs, channels and so on. Even so, it can be divided into four main stages: attract, convert, sell and retain.

1. Attract

This is the moment to capture users, and where the whole process begins. At this point, users may be completely unknown to the brand, so it’s important to offer them a hook that brings them to our website, which is the ultimate goal.

How? Through different strategies and/or tools for generating and capturing quality traffic. Careful: traffic matters, but for its quality, not its quantity, because if users don’t have a genuine interest from the start, they’ll never convert. That’s why it’s important to work on both SEO and SEM, paid and organic.

2. Convert

By this stage, the brand already has quality traffic with potentially interested users who are perfect candidates to become customers. So the second goal must be to turn those visits into leads, or directly into sales.

How? By getting to know your users. Just as you would in a physical shop, attention and personalisation are important for building a relationship between user and brand. So we offer them attractive content and material that interests them (for example, downloadable ebooks or webinars) in exchange for some relevant information, such as their name and/or email address. Once we have that, we’ve gone from a website visit to a lead.

3. Sell

We’ve got a new lead, so how do we make a sale? As Professor David Tomás explains in this article (in Spanish), two different processes come into play here: lead scoring and lead nurturing.

Lead nurturing is essential because it’s how we mature the lead and move it down the sales funnel until it’s ready to buy. To do this, we create a personalised content strategy for each consumer, building their interest in our company.

How? For example, with a good email marketing strategy using automated emails to pre-qualify leads before passing them on to the sales team.

This is where lead scoring comes in. Based on their profile (demographic and personal data) and their interest (actions and interactions), we assign each lead a “score” using automated inbound marketing software. Depending on that score, the brand can decide whether to move the lead further down the conversion funnel until, ideally, it becomes an SQL (Sales Qualified Lead).

4. Retain

Sale made! Now, how do we get them to buy again? Do we have to start the whole process over? No, that’s what retention strategies are for. We want them to declare themselves a “fan” and recommend us to others. To encourage this, content such as a newsletter, a loyalty club with perks or product promotions can help.

Examples of inbound marketing techniques

The theory doesn’t seem complicated, but there’s nothing like examples to start planning inbound marketing for your company. Here are a few:

Starting a blog

Blogs are a great tool for creating content and bringing traffic to your website. But writing for the sake of it isn’t easy. You need to know your business’s keywords and what people are talking about. That way, when you write your blog, you start with an advantage for Google to rank you for those topics. That’s nothing more than SEO (search engine optimisation) work.

Email marketing

How can we promote a product by email? Through mailing lists.

Running an email marketing campaign isn’t about sending a few emails and hoping for results. You need to create a strategy, build different contact lists based on interests and customer segments, design an attractive email with quality content and, finally, send it at a specific time. It’s also important to measure the results (emails opened, number of clicks, etc.).

Mailing is one of our services, so if all this is getting away from you, don’t worry, we’ll help you!

Social media

Like it or not, social media is a new gateway for attracting, converting and retaining. The key to success will depend on how you try to sell your products or services: generating interest without being intrusive. Remember that social media should be one more tool for showing what you do.

Infographics

Our audience has less and less time to stop and read all the content we have. We need to communicate our product in as little time as possible.

How? With infographics, for example. A way of showing the key information about a product or service in a very short time. But if design isn’t your thing… il n’y a pas de problème!

At Belve we have a team of designers ready to create the best infographic for your business.

Podcasts

The new way of reaching consumers in audio format. Through talks, monologues, stories… companies get closer to their customers by offering interesting content. The goal isn’t to sell a product, but for users to see you not as just another brand but as someone they know, who’s interesting and entertaining. So relax and put on “El Rincón de Belvedere”.

Taken notes? We know inbound marketing is a complicated concept with lots of steps and stages. We’ll soon be explaining more about this technique so you can become inbound marketing experts.

Can’t wait and want to start now? At Belve we’re ready to help. Tell us how we can help you!