10 Reasons to Use Inbound Marketing Services

Inbound Marketing is More Effective

Outbound marketing has been around for a long time, and chances are, it always will be. It can still be a useful tool in your marketing arsenal. But, it's no longer your only option, and it certainly isn't the most effective.

Outbound marketing relies on you throwing your message at the wider public with advertisements, billboards, posters, direct mail, which at some point, we've all been annoyed by. It's easy to overdo it, and you are as likely to put someone off your brand than convert them into a customer.

Inbound marketing isn't annoying. Quite the opposite, inbound-marketing is helpful. You bring customers in with informative content and great SEO, helping them to learn something new or solving a problem that they have been struggling with. We're all more likely to buy from someone who helps us than we are from someone who repeatedly shouts a brand name or tagline at us.

Customer Targeting

There are three stages to every buyer's journey; awareness, consideration, and decision. An inbound-marketing strategy allows you to target customers at each stage of their journey and not just the start of it.

First, you create useful content, encouraging them to visit your website, and share their information. Then, you share more helpful material, answering their questions, or presenting them with possible ideas as they move through the buyer's journey.

Inbound Marketing Gives You Chance to Continuously Build Your Audience

Inbound marketing has four key stages; attract, convert, close, and delight. This four-part strategy aims to pull people in, before delighting them, eventually even turning them into promoters. Your helpful content appeals to a broad audience over a long period, and the four-part methodology ensures both their return and the spread of your message.

Human Experience

The whole point of inbound marketing is to help people. This creates a very human experience and one that people are more likely to respond to and remember. Of course, the success and growth of your business are at the forefront of your efforts, but inbound marketing is very much a win-win. You win, by drawing customers in and increasing conversion. Your customers win by gaining free additional content. This reciprocal element helps you to build trusting and lasting relationships.

Not All Leads are Equal

You could waste endless time and money, attempting to advertise to everyone. It's much more beneficial, in terms of time, budget, and conversion, to instead focus on the worthwhile leads. Inbound marketing gives you a way to attract leads that are interested in your business.

The content that you offer should be aligned with the products and services that your business focuses on. They should always compliment each other, giving you an opportunity to attract prospects who are more likely to become leads, customers, and promoters.

Time-Saving

It's a cliche, but in business, time really is money. Wasting time on outdated marketing campaigns and advertising efforts that won't convert will cost your business. Inbound marketing is more worthy of your time, but it will also help you to save time through automation.

When you use an inbound marketing strategy, you can automate emails, social media posts, email workflows, analytics, and reporting. This gives you more time to spend nurturing relationships and means that there's far less time between a prospect becoming a lead because they already know they are interested when they arrive.

Inbound Marketing Could Save Your Business Money

Time is money, but money is money too, and inbound marketing can help here directly. Traditional advertising campaigns can be very costly, and with conversion rates minimal ROI can be very low. Inbound marketing uses largely digital techniques that are much cheaper to implement, and they'll have a far higher ROI. This can be a much more affordable option for small and medium-sized businesses that might not have a vast advertising budget.

Integrated Campaigns

Inbound marketing campaigns tend to be a variety of different tactics, all working together to delight prospects. You'll promote your brand across various platforms; you'll use SEO to get noticed by search engines, you'll be able to focus on social media and blogging as well as pay per click. You can integrate all of these separate campaigns so that your brand message is the same, across all platforms, and for all readers.

Integrating your campaigns gives separate elements the chance to support and boost each other. It means that you can present a united and cohesive front, creating a recognizable brand, while increasing exposure and attracting the most valuable leads.

Easy Sharing of Information

When a prospect visits your website, your CRM records the data. This information and any subsequent communications are shared with your whole team, giving them the same data to work within their own interactions with the prospect. Anyone picking up a potential lead, at any stage of their journey, has the information that they need to offer a compelling experience.

Inbound Marketing is Measurable

Traditional marketing campaigns are hard to measure. It's hard to know how successful they are, what works, and what doesn't in any specific detail. You know people are coming to your business, but you don't know where they are coming from. When it comes to inbound marketing, there is a wealth of data at your disposal. You can use these analytics to see how well your content is performing, where revenue is coming from, click-through rates on emails and links, your demographics, and how landing pages are performing.

Having all this data to hand allows you to make changes when necessary, or focus on what is working. It gives you the chance to try new things, quickly and easily, without having to wait to see what is working. Data is a great time and money saver.