What is inbound marketing and how can I use it for my organization?

Image by Michael Giuffrida about marketingWith the number of options available to consumers today, many of the traditional marketing techniques get filtered out as “white noise”.  Because of this and the importance of the web, many businesses are using newer techniques called “inbound marketing” to achieve their lead generation goals.

The basic concept behind inbound marketing is that you draw your prospects in to look for you when they have a need verses your sales team needing to go out and find them with cold calling and other traditional lead generation methods.  You do this by filling your website with relevant content about your expertise.  This content comes in the form of case studies, whitepapers, numbered lists, and other relevant downloadable information.  You then promote this content in places where your audience might be “hanging out”.  To download your whitepaper, they need to provide you some basic information such as a name, company and email address.  You now have a lead and you know what they are interested in based upon what they downloaded.  Let’s walk through an example.

Let’s say that you are in the accounting business.  You can write downloadable content called “5 Things to Consider When Choosing an Accountant for your Business”.  The 5 things that you list should be relevant to the question about finding a new accountant, but should also draw out the things that differentiate your organization as an accounting firm.  Think about why your customers choose you and make sure to emphasize those points.

The next step requires that your website is setup properly to put this content behind a form that requires the visitor to input a little information about them selves to get to the download.  There are services such as Hubspot that you can employ or any professional web firm can set your site up for this.  Once your content is setup online, you would then promote it in places where people might be looking for an accountant.  This could be in a LinkedIn group for entrepreneurs, or by commenting on a blog post somewhere that is discussing the same topic.  You would insert a link to the download form so that when someone is interested, they come to your website, input their info and download the list.  You then have their information for the future so if you create another download that you think might be relevant to them, you can send it along.

The key is that you make sure that your content and emails are not “salesy”, but simply provide expert information.  When the prospect gets to a place when they are ready to consider a new accountant, you will likely be in the list of potential firms.  Inbound marketing can be very powerful and should be part of your marketing strategy if you are looking to generate new leads for your business.


Michael Giuffrida from Southington CT has been operating businesses since 1997.  He is an experienced entrepreneur in business management, profitable growth, business valuation, mergers and acquisitions, and information technology managed services

 

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