Inbound marketing is a way to attract new customers to your brand without using intrusive practices that anger or annoy them. Content marketing itself is a variant of inbound marketing, but while content marketing seeks to convert the traffic it brings in whenever possible, inbound marketing is happy just to attract traffic and create brand awareness.
A lack of forceful marketing tactics ensures that potential customers don’t perceive inbound marketing the same way as many other forms of marketing. It adds value to their online experience and makes them consider your business. Here are five reasons why this gentle kind of marketing strategy is beneficial to your business.
Inbound Marketing is Unintrusive
Traditional marketing methods that use frequent and pervasive call-to-actions, sales copy, and direct advertising are seen as intrusive. More than that though, if these methods don’t annoy your potential customer it’s likely because they’ve simply gone unnoticed. Internet users are particularly skilled at tuning out obvious advertisements these days, and it’s not the most effective strategy to use.
Inbound marketing isn’t unrelated to the content your customers are reading–it is the content they’re reading. For this reason, they’re more engaged and receptive because they’re receiving something of value without being harassed by predatory sales copy.
Attracts Customers Directly
Inbound marketing also attracts customers directly, similarly to typical content marketing strategies, but it can attract this traffic from a wide range of different channels including various social media channels, referrals from other websites, and directly. This is because it provides your customers with content that they actually want.
You can make use of this strategy by following trends on social media and organic search within your niche and creating content that answers the questions that your potential customers have. Beautiful, concise multimedia and video content can also help to add additional value for your customers and is highly shareable.
Improves Brand Authority
The authority of your brand marks you as a leader within your industry or niche, and this can result in people preferring your business automatically for the service you provide. Just existing or advertising that you’re an authority doesn’t make it so, however.
To become an authority, your brand needs to actively demonstrate that it has a comprehensive and insightful understanding of your industry. This shows your customers that you can be trusted and depended on because you understand their needs fully. Inbound marketing is one of the most effective ways to increase your brand authority and awareness as it actively demonstrates your knowledge and experience to a wide audience that is receptive to listening.
Adds Value to Your Website
A website should be more than just landing pages and a sales checkout. Customers who can get added value from your website are more apt to stay longer and consider making a purchase. Inbound marketing is an ideal way to add this value.
This can be achieved through blogging, helpful seminars that teach your customers about your industry, or even through the use of a free ebook. Measures like these increase the perception of the value your customers receive from your brand with minimal investment on your part.
Creates Leads
Finally, while inbound marketing isn’t aimed at creating conversions, it is an excellent source of leads. The visitors you acquire through your strategy tend to keep your business in mind if they need your services. This makes them more likely to come to you for a purchase when they do require it because they’ve already been introduced to your brand and you’ve built it up as an industry leader.
As people become more dismissive of direct advertising and strong sales copy, strategies like inbound marketing will become increasingly important for businesses. If you incorporate it into your strategy right now, you can stay ahead of your competitors and gain some unique benefits for your business.
