Last week, we wrote about the benefits of inbound marketing. Here, we’ll elaborate on some of these concepts by answering common questions people ask us. We’ll also explain how to develop good content for inbound marketing.
Q. I just don’t understand how inbound marketing brings people to my website.
Perhaps the easiest way to grasp inbound marketing is to pretend you are at a party.
Let’s say it’s a birthday party for a guy you work with so you only know four people who will be attending. You scan the room when you arrive and don’t see anyone you know. However, you notice a few people surrounding a woman who has everyone laughing and talking about David and Moira making enchiladas on Schitt’s Creek, one of your favorite shows.
There are two other smaller groups of people. You hear one group discussing riding mowers (you live in a condo, never think about yard work). The other group is on a rant about the political party you do not support.
Which group do you join?
If you say the group laughing about a show you could binge-watch every weekend, you understand inbound marketing. By having the type of content on your website that a visitor is interested in, they will choose to come to your website.
Q. How do I create content that people will find valuable?
Think of our party analogy again. Let’s say you mention to a man at the party that you will be vacationing soon in Myrtle Beach. He proceeds to talk non-stop about the time he got a hole in one, and since you do not golf, you try to sneak away.
On the other hand, if he asks if you like mint mojitos and then tells you about a bar in Myrtle Beach that gives away free mint mojitos on Mondays, you’ll probably stay and ask him more questions.
Inbound marketing is successful when your content is in sync with what potential customers are searching for online. You need to create content that appeals to a need that person is searching for.
Q. How do I know what my potential customers want to know?
First, build a robust profile of your potential customer. Called a buyer persona, this paints a picture of their needs, frustrations, motivations and demographics. If possible, interview a few customers and ask questions about their challenges, goals and the roadblocks that stand in the way of achieving their goals.
Next, ask customer service and sales what common questions they hear. Remember to consider the different questions a person would wonder. A beginner is looking for one type of information. Someone who’s been clicking around the web to educate themselves about a topic and is ready to make a purchase, needs totally different information.
Then, write content that shows how you can help your customers. Don’t talk about what you offer. Instead, talk about how that person benefits from your product or service.
Q. I’m not an SEO guru, so how can I do inbound marketing?
Inbound marketing does help you rank higher on search engines. But, that doesn’t necessarily mean you need SEO guru status; you just need some basic SEO skills. All of the content that you create needs to be optimized with specific keywords and phrases.
An SEO strategy will help your content to appear on the search engine result page when your potential customer is searching for that content.
Like anything in marketing, SEO has changed over the last few years. If you feel you don’t have the time to stay up to date on the newest SEO strategies and tactics, we’re here to help!
Q. How does inbound marketing connect to our sales team?
That’s the ultimate goal, right? Marketing and sales go together like birthday parties and cake. Once your inbound marketing brings prospects to your website, the next step is to stay engaged with your prospects.
As a HubSpot Platinum Partner, we can help you set up an account in HubSpot that enables you to automate key marketing and sales touchpoints. This can save time and increase the number of leads who become customers. Which is as sweet as a big slice of a burnt almond torte!
