Inbound Marketing Strategies One Should Not Avoid In 2022

As a budding entrepreneur, you probably do have a vague idea about marketing. It usually includes a set of strategies to help you reach a broader consumer base in no time. However, when you delve deeper into this topic, you will find two unique aspects of advertising – outbound and inbound marketing.

Each of these two forms is distinctive in its own accord. Therefore, you have to give your attention to them separately. 

For example, outbound advertising is all about reaching your consumers on your own to sell your products or services. Nonetheless, inbound marketing focuses more on drawing your potential customers to your website. So, in short, it is a passive form of promoting your business.

Usually, the topic of inbound strategies comes with several layers. Hence, if your conceptual knowledge isn’t clear about it, you may end up getting confused while creating a purposeful plan. 

Nevertheless, there’s no need to be afraid. By going through this article, you can learn about – 

• What is inbound marketing?
• Why is it important for your business? 
• What is the difference between inbound and outbound marketing?
• The Best Inbound Marketing Strategies You Must Follow 
• The stages of setting up an inbound promotional strategy  

So, without making any further delay, let’s begin!

What Is Inbound Marketing?

Inbound marketing is all about creating a promotional strategy to attract your clients and customers to your brand. It is usually done by creating valuable content and spreading it throughout the website. 

For instance, if we are working on the segment of graphic designing, we’ll need to create blogs on topics related to it. Thus, whoever’s interested in creating a website or refurbishing an existing one will visit us for help. 

According to various providers of brand marketing services, an ideal inbound strategy should include-

• Creating an informational video
• Writing a how-to guide
• Shading light upon a specific problem and offering solutions
• Working on a niche-specific newsletter

Most consumers prefer organizations that offer value through different interactions instead of only during the buying period. So, the primary focus of your inbound marketing plan would be to engage your readers first. Nevertheless, it will be easier to convert the readers as your customers if you can do it successfully.

Why Is Inbound Marketing Important For Your Business?

Before explaining the best inbound marketing strategies, let us share why they’re so crucial for your business. 

• • It helps in generating a high amount of traffic on your website. The more web traffic your site generates, the higher it will rank on relevant search engine results. 
  • With thorough inbound planning, you can get qualified leads and boost your sales massively. 
  • These strategies primarily work upon your brand website. So, the already-published content will help you in generating results even in the furthest future.

• Inbound marketing can help you in creating a wall of trust amongst your users. Hence, naturally, whenever they think about buying something, they’ll visit your website first. 
• As you are not bombarding your consumers with advertisements, it will prompt them to come to you on their own terms. 
• This form of marketing offers a lot of information on your niche audience. Therefore, with such details, you can build better outbound advertising strategies more efficiently.
• It is probably the only marketing segment where you can personalize everything in your way. So, there will not be any limitations for you.  
• It helps you initiate a proper sales funnel. Therefore, it becomes easier for you to move all of your leads through it sublimely. 
• This type of promotional content can offer plenty of benefits to your online marketing strategies.

Inbound Marketing And Outbound Marketing – The Differences

If you have been reading since the beginning of this article, you probably already know the core difference between these two marketing strategies. However, here, we will tell you more about their features so that you can create distinctions between them by yourself. 

The Best Inbound Marketing Strategies That You Must Follow

Theoretically, inbound marketing is much better than traditional outbound strategies. However, if you want to make them work, you have to strategize everything beforehand. Hopefully, the following tips can help you to some extent in this regard – 

1. Audit Your Content

Before you start developing your marketing strategy, you must understand what drives traffic to your website. Hence, you should always start planning by creating an inbound content audit and evaluating your site’s KPIs or key performance indicators. 

While performing a content audit, you have to start by checking different assets of your website. Here are a few crucial data points that can help you begin auditing the technical SEO of your website – 

• Focus keywords 
• Images used or presented on your website 
• Title of the pages 
• Last updated date of your content 
• The bounce rate of your web pages 
• Availability of broken links 
• Meta description
• Overall visits on your website (last three months only)
• Average time spent by users on your web pages
• Quality of headings used in the pages 
• ALT tags of images 
• Entries and exits of your pages 

The following are some of the data points that you need to collect while improving your inbound marketing content – 

• Content-type (blogs, articles, informational pages, infographics, landing pages, etc.)
• Overall word count 
• Condition of the content (outdated or evergreen)
• Assigned categories or tags 
• Availability of general topics  
• Number of social shares and comments 
• Conversion data 
• Link building planning or strategy 
• Usage of CTAs (call to action)
• Accessibility on both mobiles and desktops 
• Associated sales during the funneling stage 
• Author and content owner 

Aside from regular auditing, you can also try doing the same for your campaigns. It would involve taking a strategic look at your previously-held events and their overall performance. Henceforth, you can improve your inbound marketing strategy even more and understand your long-term objectives clearly. 

2. Define Your Target Audience

The primary focus of inbound advertising should always be your consumers. So, you need to understand them thoroughly and note down the challenges they face. Thus it will be easier for you to create a bond with your audience. 

Besides, you also have to perceive the buying behavior of your audience. You can also determine the same by mapping your consumers’ – 

• Title and role of the person (for example, is this individual a father, mother, or teenager?)
• Motivators (the situation that is motivating a person to buy your products)
• Demographic (the location where the individual belongs to)
• Pain points (the challenges an individual is encountering)
• Level of knowledge or experience of your target audience 

These are some points that you need to keep in mind while curating your inbound marketing strategies. 

3. Create Mobile-friendly Pages

Whether you believe it or not, almost 62% of your users tend to make online purchases from their mobile. So, while creating your website, you have to ensure that it is suitable for shorter screen sizes. Additionally, a mobile-friendly website can lower friction and reduce the risk of crashing. 

Here are some tips for creating a mobile-friendly website – 

• Use a responsive web structure or framework. 
• Keep the design thumb or index finger-oriented. 
• Make sure the web design is straightforward, easily understandable, and simple. 
• Try using an icon. 
• Keep your content short and to the point. 
• Upload only well-optimized images.  
• Keep the mobile phone number or contact information of your organization in a findable place. 
• Do not create your website only by using JavaScript. 
• Be sure to create forms that can be filled or used on mobile. 
• Consider adding geolocation. 

Having small screen-friendly web pages can be beneficial for engaging most of your consumers and boosting your inbound marketing efficiencies.

4. Try Guest Posting

Guest posting is a fantastic way to get backlinks, especially from a high-quality website. But how does it work from a general perspective? 

So, as a guest post writer, you will write a blog for your niche audience. Then, you have to ask a blogger to publish it on their website. They will do the same and, instead of paying you, they’ll include a link to your website. It is known as a backlink. 

The more backlinks you have for your website, the higher your site authority will seem to Google. Therefore, your website will start ranking better on Google. And, if your online visibility keeps increasing, most visitors click on it first and consider it as a trustable option. 

5. Test Your Headlines

Inbound marketing is not only about writing informative content but also about making them seem engaging. And, the best way to do so is to use a stunning headline for your web pages. 

A good headline should – 

• Contain focus keyword 
• Be within 45-55 characters 
• Try adding negators, such as not, never, rather than using superlatives or positive words (refer to the title of this article to understand what we are trying to convey)

6. Be Active On Social Media

When discussing the best place to engage or influence your audience, nothing can offer you better opportunities than social media. A prominent social media presence can help you drive traffic to your website, get new readers, and increase your online presence even more.  

So, you can opt for social media marketing services and ask them to post about the products you offer. Try adding a little bit of information or providing knowledge about how your offerings can help them solve their problems. You can also add some humorous posts sometimes to engage your readers.

7. Try Influencer Strategies

Collaborating with an influencer can be pretty valuable, especially if you are trying to target a broader market. But why? With them, you can –

• Promote your product in an organic manner 
• Reach a new segment of the audience without spending too much money  
• Create a sense of trust amongst your consumers 
• Boost your content marketing strategy 
• Enhance your overall brand awareness
• Provide the best value to your consumer base 
• Build great partnerships with some of the marketing peers of your industry 

Inbound marketing is all about creating a feeling of assurance and confidence amongst your consumer base. So, taking the help of an influencer can be pretty beneficial for you!

What Are The Stages Of Inbound Marketing?

Only learning about the best inbound marketing techniques won’t help you execute them flawlessly. Additionally, you will also have to understand and follow through the stages properly. 

Usually, this form of marketing can be categorized into four different phases. These are – 

Stage – 1: Attract

So, while working on your inbound marketing strategy, you have to attract your audience first. However, there are a few considerations that you may need to make in this regard beforehand. For example – 

• How do you want your users to find you on the web? 
• Are you considering using targeted hashtags? 
• Do you want to go for keyword-based marketing or try to enhance your website SEO? 

Finding answers to all these questions can help you create a purposeful “audience attracting” plan for your business. 

Stage – 2: Convert

The primary aim of any marketing is to convert potential consumers into customers. So, we’ll consider this one as the second stage of inbound marketing.

But how can you convert users through marketing?

• Create a sign-up form on your website
• Try including as many CTAs (relevantly) as possible
• Incentivize the procedure of signing up for the newsletter

Pro Tip: Do not try to place the call-to-action phrases too forcefully. Just use them whenever you are describing one of your services or products.

Stage – 3: Close

In some aspects, converting a user by using a sign-up form will not be accessible at all. So, you have to find another way to close the negotiations – by using automation. 

For instance, you can send automated emails to some of your consumers to remind them about their purchases. Sometimes, it can also be used for updating everyone about a new product you have launched. 

According to a report, almost 45% of people open their “abandoned cart” emails. And, around 50% of them click on the internal link. So, try to go through the “close” stage of inbound marketing as thoroughly as possible. 

Stage – 4: Delight

The final stage of your inbound marketing strategy should be “delight.” In this segment, you should start rewarding consumers who have bought from your previously. It can include – 

• A simple “thank you” message 
• Offering discounts on popular products 
• Sending personalized emails 
• Providing seasonal gifts to the users 

The best way to offer “delight” consumers is to talk regularly and ask for their feedback. This way, you can cover up the loopholes of your business stratagem and build their trust in you.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

1. What Are The Examples Of Inbound Marketing?

   Some of the examples of inbound marketing may include – 

• Creating viral videos 
• Writing topical blogs 
• Working on social media campaigns (Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, etc.)
• SEO-optimized texts (headings, meta description, meta tags, etc.)
• Webinars or web-based seminars 
• Releasing e-books 

2. What Is Considered As Inbound Marketing?

Inbound marketing is a form of marketing, which attracts consumers by offering a tailored consumer experience through valuable content. Usually, it focuses on building trust amongst your consumers and solving their problems separately. 

3. Is Google Ads Inbound Or Outbound?

Google Adwords can only help you reach your audience when you are writing engaging content. So, most people usually consider it as an inbound marketing strategy.

4. What Are The Five Inbound Principles?

The five crucial Inbound principles are – 

• Standardize 
• Contextualize 
• Optimize 
• Personalize, and  
• Empathize 

Wrapping It Up

Let’s cut to the chase! In our opinion, inbound marketing is the best and most efficient way to increase your website visitors and create leads. 

However, while creating such a strategy, you have to work on various aspects, such as your social media profile, blogging, web design, etc. 

So, why don’t you give up all these marketing responsibilities to an expert organization like Viacon? This way, you can focus on your branding and improve the core of your business. 

But, how can we help you? 

We, at Viacon, can offer our expertise on –

• Social media marketing
• SEO services
• Website designing and development  
• Branding services
• Content marketing services

Thus, if you need any help in these contexts, do not forget to contact us here!

Read Also:

• The Ultimate Guide To Internet Marketing
• Lead Generation Mistakes You Should Avoid In 2021
• What Is Agile Marketing And How It Is Helpful For Brands