The goal of inbound marketing is to attract, convert, and delight customers.
Several years ago, traditional marketing strategies gave way to more consumer-centered approaches aimed at creating meaningful relationships. One of these techniques is Inbound Marketing. While conventional marketing used to interrupt consumers with intrusive ads and mass campaigns, Inbound Marketing stands out by attracting, engaging, and delighting the target audience in an organic and authentic way.
In fact, we are talking about a phenomenon typical of the digital revolution, which emerged as a response to the ineffectiveness of traditional marketing, or "outbound marketing." Translated into Portuguese as "marketing de atração," the goal of Inbound Marketing is to regain the attention of consumers, who have less and less time (and interest) for mass media.
In summary, it uses strategic content combined with persuasive writing to attract the audience, guiding them throughout the buying journey. Here, the term "marketing funnel" comes into play. Introduced in 2009 by Brian Halligan, CEO of HubSpot, in the book Inbound Marketing: How to Attract, Engage, and Delight Customers, the term spread worldwide, becoming an important strategy to boost businesses.
Unveiling Inbound Marketing
Since its emergence in the United States to the present day, inbound marketing has undergone a series of transformations. Just like everything involving marketing, consumer behavior has also changed. Today, it is essential for companies that wish to increase their visibility on the internet to use techniques that make up this approach.
In other words, the solution relies on relevant content to attract the audience and convert them into customers. Thus, through various channels, such as website, blog, social media, email marketing, and campaigns on search engines, the consumer reaches the company. Moreover, this type of action can represent up to four times more visits and five times more leads for companies, regardless of size or industry.
How does inbound marketing work?
As we have seen, it is about attraction marketing. Thus, the one looking for the company is the customer themselves, not the other way around. Therefore, it is necessary to plan actions aimed precisely at attracting the audience to a website, blog, or even social media.
With the goal achieved, the company provides quality content to nurture its prospects. According to the Demand Generation Benchmarks and HubSpot, nurturing leads represents a 20% increase in sales opportunities. Forrester Research goes further, stating that companies that focus on nurturing their leads sell 50% more than those that do not use nurturing methods, at a cost 33% lower.
It is important to remember that the content must be original to establish the company as an authority in its field. Therefore, all market niches can invest in inbound marketing, as it is a strategy adaptable to all segments.
Also read: 4 digital marketing tips for custom furniture stores
Which companies can use it?
Inbound marketing is suitable for all types of companies that wish to increase visibility among their target audience. By using personalized strategies with relevant content, it helps attract the ideal consumer and, thus, reduce the cost of acquiring each customer. Additionally, the approach guides the consumer throughout their buying journey, optimizing the conversion and sales process.
Main advantages of inbound marketing
Besides reaching places that traditional marketing cannot, with inbound marketing, the company can personalize its content and target it to its ideal customer. But its advantages do not stop there. Unlike conventional marketing, inbound allows for measuring results. This is possible with the digital tools available, which reveal important metrics for a quality strategy.
All inbound marketing strategies can be evaluated based on reports generated by platforms such as Google Analytics, Google Ads, among others. With this, the company analyzes its view and conversion rates to then compare them with sales. This is a significant advancement, as it allows for optimizing campaigns and changing actions whenever necessary.
Cost per lead
In a survey by Eloqua, the average cost per lead drops by up to 80% after five months of an inbound marketing campaign. In other words, it provides the necessary tools for the company to achieve a return on investment (ROI) greater than if using outbound marketing techniques.
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Attraction marketing in interesting numbers
As we have discussed so far, inbound marketing uses strategies focused on bringing the customer to the brand or company. Just for that, it already differentiates itself from traditional marketing, but we have also seen its other advantages.
According to HubSpot (the company of Brian Halligan mentioned earlier), inbound marketing generates 54% more leads than traditional marketing. Furthermore, it states that companies using this methodology and having a defined Sales Level Agreement (SLA) can be up to five times more effective than others.
In this video, Tiago Flores Dias, CEO of Kaizen, explains how inbound marketing uses strategic content to transform unknown users into satisfied customers. Watch!
Pillars of inbound marketing
Since the focus of inbound marketing is on the relationship between the prospect and the brand or company, we can point out three pillars of the strategy.
1. Being found
Inbound marketing arises with the desire for a brand to be found by its target audience. In particular, it wants to be seen on its website, blog, or social media, right? However, for this to be effective, it is necessary to prepare the environments to receive the audience. It’s like tidying up your house for a visit. You wouldn’t want them to arrive and find everything messy, would you?
Therefore, preparing virtual environments is essential. It is at this moment that one should stock up on quality and attractive content for the type of audience they intend to attract. In the case of a blog, original content focused on keywords related to your business. It’s worth checking out what the competition is doing.
2. Generating leads
The focus of any digital strategy is to convert visitors into leads. Next, the leads need to be nurtured to convert into sales. This is the ideal path. To do so, it is necessary for the company to offer rich content to visitors.
For example, sending an eBook, templates, and other materials. In summary, the content must solve some problem or pain point of the audience. If they see value in it, they will certainly provide the necessary information and become a lead for the business.
3. Evaluating results
Like any action on the internet, inbound marketing techniques allow for a deep analysis of results. Thus, it is possible to redo what is not working, add relevant information, or even stop and take a new path. With the measurement of results, the ROI of the campaign becomes more attractive, which is why inbound marketing generates so much result at a lower cost than traditional marketing.
Among the most important metrics that can be analyzed are website traffic: time spent on each page, lead conversion rate, engagement, and the ROI itself.
Inbound marketing process
It seems easy, but inbound marketing requires research and knowledge to create relevant content and achieve good results. An attraction marketing strategy consists of five steps: attract, convert, relate, sell, and analyze.
There are the right tools to ensure the success of the strategy.
Attraction
Customers can be attracted through a blog, sponsored links on Google, social media, SEO, among others.
Conversion
Conversion can occur by directing the prospect to a landing page with exclusive offers.
Relationship
Establishing a relationship with the audience occurs through email marketing, lead nurturing, and social media.
Sale
The lead qualification system can be used to identify real conversion opportunities and make sales.
Analysis
With analysis tools like Google Analytics, it is possible to observe the results of the campaign, with data such as: the number of people reached by ads, content opened through email marketing, and how many made purchases.
Sales funnel and the customer journey in inbound marketing
The sales funnel and the customer journey are two essential concepts in the realm of Inbound Marketing. They help understand the process by which a prospect becomes a customer. Thus, they allow companies to meet the needs and expectations of the target audience at each stage of the journey.
Top of the Funnel – Learning and Discovery
At the top of the funnel, consumers are in the learning and discovery phase. At this stage, they identify a problem or need and begin to seek information to better understand it.
Here, the role of Inbound Marketing is to provide educational and informative content, such as blogs, articles, and videos, helping prospects understand their challenges. The goal is to attract the attention of the target audience, spark their interest, and create awareness about your brand and solutions.
Middle of the Funnel – Consideration and Intent
In the second stage, the middle of the funnel, consumers are already aware of their need and are considering options to resolve it. At this stage, they are actively researching solutions and evaluating alternatives.
Here, Inbound Marketing should provide specific and solution-focused content, such as case studies, webinars, and product comparisons. The goal is to establish the brand as an authority on the subject. Additionally, create an emotional connection with the prospects.
Bottom of the Funnel – Evaluation and Decision
The bottom of the funnel is the stage where consumers are ready to make a decision. They have already researched, considered different solutions, and are determined to buy. Thus, Inbound Marketing should provide conversion-oriented content, such as product demonstrations, testimonials, and special offers. The goal is to facilitate the purchasing decision and ensure that the acquisition process is smooth and fluid.
In other words, in the context of Inbound Marketing, the sales funnel is a visual representation of the stages consumers go through from the moment they become aware of a problem until they make a purchasing decision.
Each of these stages requires a specific approach to meet the evolving needs of the target audience. Understanding and applying these stages is crucial for the success of an Inbound Marketing strategy.
Become a reference with quality content
Regarding the relevant content that is the key to inbound marketing, a survey by Demand Generation Report found that 95% of consumers prefer products or services from companies that provide this type of content, as it aids in the buying journey. In other words, it is decisive for closing a deal.
Instead of promoting a particular brand across various media hoping to reach the right audience, and then convincing them that it is the best option available in the market, inbound marketing attracts the audience through original and quality content. In this way, the brand becomes a true authority in the segment, making the audience trust it and want to acquire its products or services.
Thinking of creating an inbound marketing strategy for your company?
Kaizen is an agency specialized in digital marketing and has a qualified team to devise an intelligent inbound marketing strategy.
Now that you know a little more about how attraction marketing works, get in touch and let’s talk!