The modern age of digital marketing has taken over. We’re officially a part of the future. Traditional marketing practices are no longer a practical option, or even a wise way to spend precious marketing dollars. Buyers have all the power. People begin their journey to your brand, product or company online. The doorway: Content. 
They may arrive via a social post, search or find your content through a carefully targeted email. But the simple truth is customers and consumers are focused on immediate results, getting the answers and information they want, and need, in the moment. And be realistic. Just because you post in digital channels does not mean success is guaranteed. Flashing ads are long gone. Thank goodness! Spammy e-mails won’t make someone choose your product or service over your competitor.
In fact, it is more than likely your competition is already publishing thoughtful, solution-based content to answer your, and their, targeted customers’ most pressing questions. Now a smarter approach is broadly taking hold–inbound marketing. And it’s making a huge difference for brands and companies that are keyed into driving results to the bottom line.
ROCKET MAN FULL DISCLOSURE: Inbound marketing is a results-driven digital marketing approach we’ve invested in, both financially and through our time learning, testing and driving results. And that’s even before we opened up our inbound program to clients.
Last fall, we became a HubSpot Inbound Partner agency. It’s more than a simple badge we’re proud of. It’s the culmination of hard work, and lots more down the road. Every member of our team is “Inbound Certified.” Why should you care? We have taken time to educate our team across the board to master all the tools and analytic levers the HubSpot engine provides so we can create world-class, inbound campaigns that drive measurable and impactful results for your business.
Inbound Marketing is the practice of reaching customers who are specifically looking for services or products you offer, at the time of their search. This type of campaign is all about empowering the potential customer through educational content and providing information to help them make informed decisions. The whole aim is to create content and visuals that customers actually want to see, not what you want them to see. It’s a customer-first approach. And who wouldn’t agree with that, no matter what business you’re in?
Inbound Marketing Campaigns include attracting potential consumers, converting them into leads, closing, and delivering complete delight. Through every step of an inbound campaign, you see what is working and what simply isn’t. By consistently studying the progress of your campaigns, you can turn potential consumers into real leads, and future customers. Here are the bare essentials to any successful Inbound Marketing Campaign you’ll want to make sure you think through, and deliver.
1. Create Buyer Personas
Before even planning or designing an inbound campaign, think strategy first. The very first step is understanding who you are trying to reach, and making sure you understand how to reach them. To do this, you need to create buyer personas. Buyer personas are just a fancy phrase for documenting your ideal, target customer. Do a good job with your buyer personas and everyone in your company will understand who your most coveted customer targets are and what drives their decision making along the buyers journey. Because there may be several targets that may be interested in your brand, product and company, it’s not unusual to have 3-5 targeted personas. By creating very specific personas, you’ll begin to fine tune what content gets served to each group, how it is written, and where they are most likely to find your content. It’s a strategy that will pay off with every piece of content or campaign created. To get started, you’ll have to consider investing time into these things:
RESEARCH. What do current customers say about you, your brand, products or company? Take time to reach out. Ask the right questions, from the right people. After all, who knows your company’s strengths and weaknesses better than your current customers? Be strong and ask them about the good and bad. Another critical part of persona research is understanding patterns and trends. What has and hasn’t been working so far for your company? Email? Print advertising? Video? Pinpoint what pages and content people have engaged with, what consumers are focusing on, and how they are coming to your digital content. Then, try to segment who is coming via what channels. This understanding may go beyond looking at Google Analytics. You should actually pick up the phone or make a personal visit to your client base and ask questions in a one-on-one conversation. They’ll respect that you care about their opinions. The most common feedback should be used in building personas. Odds are people with similar profiles have similar expectations, needs and drivers. Document them so they can be easily shared as your organization grows and evolves. And review frequently, yourself. Modify as things change.
PERSONA DEVELOPMENT. After you put time into research, it’s time to create buyer personas.
Questions to answer when creating a buyer persona:
- What position or title do they hold in their company?
- What is their background?
- What are some of their specific goals? (Both personally and professionally.)
- What are their daily challenges?
- What is their demographic? More importantly, what is the psychographic?
Answering these questions, and documenting them, helps create strong buyer personas, that assist you in targeting ideal customers. After the personas are created, designing successful, targeted campaigns becomes much easier.
2. Generate Remarkable Content
Every Inbound Campaign needs to produce relevant content that actually matters to your potential customers. Content comes in many forms, all useful in their own ways: blogs, articles, social media content, videos, offers, slideshares, just to name a few. In order for your campaign to become successful, content needs to be created consistently, with a focus on quality and value for the consumer. All content needs to be educational. Through posts and infographics, consumers learn that you know what you are talking about. You give them the information they are searching for while gaining their trust. That is why it is important to think through your content before you begin writing and creating. Think about the three things you’re delivering and how it matters to them.
To determine topics, all you need to do is look at your buyer personas. What challenges do they face? You have already answered this question in your profiles; now use it to write content. From here, you can create a whole series of blog posts or videos. Program them into a content calendar and you are off and running. Just make sure that every piece of content created is relevant and useful in one, or more, way.
3. Links and Pages
Now that your potential consumers are interested in your company, it’s time to show them what you’ve got. Add links to your content, leading to other articles and posts. Keep them invested in what your company has to share. If you’ve done your homework, your content plan should deliver lots of value to your key, targeted personas. In other words, these are the building blocks of your inbound success.You also need to create more in-depth content pieces, like ebooks, webinars, slideshares, and other downloadables that help generate leads. Creating Calls-to-Action for these pieces, added to the side or bottom of your content, will take viewers to Landing Pages. This is where they can sign up for your valuable content, in exchange for their contact information so you can keep sending them more of what they came for.
Landing Page tips:
- Keep it clear and concise
- Don’t ask for more info than what you need. Keep it simple and non-intrusive.
- Include a space for email – this is how you will stay in contact.
- Remove all navigation – keep them on that page
- Redirect to a Thank You page. This is where you deliver what they’ve signed up for, and a chance for you to add a personal, sincere thanks!
These Landing Pages, Calls-to-Action, and Thank You pages are just as important as your quality content. Keeping everything straightforward will make it easier to turn those potential customers into leads. After you have obtained these leads, it’s important to keep nurturing them. Make sure they remember you by reaching out with other valuable content offers to help your consumers and customers succeed. You can’t just hook them and leave it at that. Keep them interested, and pay attention to them.
Now that you have some best practices for your Inbound Marketing Campaign, it’s time to start strategizing. Use Inbound Marketing to your advantage, creating more leads and eventually, delighted customers.