What is inbound marketing and how can it help your business?
Inbound marketing is all about creating and sharing content that will specifically appeal to your ideal customer. By aligning the content you publish with the interests or pain points of your customer you will attract traffic to your website. Then you can use the four stages of Inbound to turn this once potential customer into a loyal customer!
The four stages are inbound marketing are - Attract, Convert, Close and Delight.
Let's look at each stage and see what they really mean...
Stage One: Attract
The amount of visits your website receives means nothing if the people visiting your website are not the right people, the people who are likely to be interested in your services or products.
You need to attract your ideal customer to your website. How? By using content marketing methods such as, blogging, social media, keywords and landing pages that will catch the eye of your preferred customer!
Inbound Methodology: Attract Website Strangers - Blog & Social Media.
Stage Two: Convert
Now that you have attracted that ideal customer - or prospect - you need to convert them into a lead. That means gathering all the information on that person that you can through forms!
However, you can't expect them to just hand their contact information over to you with nothing in return, you need to offer them something that they want - something that will help them. This could be in the form of ebooks, checklists, whitepapers or tip sheets.
Tip: Your leads will only download content that seems worthwhile for the amount of information they're giving over.
Inbound Methodology: How To Convert Website Visitors With Landing Pages and Calls-to-Actions.
Stage Three: Close
So, now you have attracted that ideal customer and converted them into a lead you need to turn them into a customer. If only it was as easy as that, to turn that lead into a sale you should be creating workflows, emails and CRM (Customer Relationship Management) to nurture your lead and turn them into a sale.
Ask about our automation software that can help manage the conversion stages and provide you - or your boss - with tangible feedback about the success rates of your various marketing campaigns.
Inbound Methodology: How To Close Leads Into Customers With Workflows and Emails.
Stage Four: Delight
It isn't always about attracting new people and it isn't over once you've nurtured a lead into a customer.
Your business should be creating content and engaging with your existing customers after they have purchased your service or product, by using surveys, smart calls-to-action and social monitoring.
Keeping that relationship in tact, will help turn these customers into fans of your company who are happy to promote the business and its service / product offering to new strangers.
Inbound Methodology: How To Delight Customers With Social Media, Emails & Smart Calls-to-Action
Conclusion
Find out more about the four stages of inbound marketing via our in depth blog series.
If you want to find out more about the whole cycle; attract; convert, close or delight, just choose the relevant word and be redirected to the appropriate stage.
