Marketing can be separated into two forms — inbound marketing and outbound marketing. The most traditional method is outbound marketing, which involves reaching out to potential customers who may be interested in your business. Inbound marketing instead involves targeting customers who are already looking for your product or service.
Whereas outbound marketing often involves interrupting people with adverts or calls, inbound marketing simply involves attracting people with interesting and unique content. Because it targets customers who are already interested in your business, its purpose is to inform rather than to persuade. It can be seen as a less forceful form of marketing and one that has become much simpler thanks to the internet — allowing consumers to more easily search for what they want. There are many different inbound marketing strategies that you can try. We walk you through 5 of the most effective methods.
By Team Savant
Image: Inna Safa
Target the Right Keywords On Your Website
SEO is the most essential inbound marketing strategy that any company can invest in. It involves making your company web pages easier to find through search engines. A key part of SEO is targeting the right keywords. By using keywords on web pages that match the type of words and phrases customers are searching for, you can help your web pages to rank more highly whenever someone searches these terms.
Choosing the right keywords isn’t just a case of finding the most popular search terms. In fact, sometimes it’s better to target more niche keywords that other companies aren’t targeting. It is worth using an SEO agency to help you target the right keywords. An SEO agency can also help you implement these keywords appropriately.
Answer Customer Questions With an FAQs Page
A FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions) section or page is worth setting up on your site to help directly answer common questions customers may have. Not only is this a great way to directly target keywords, but it can make you come across as a helpful company that customers are more likely to trust.
Think about the types of questions you commonly get from customers. Adding in a few more unusual questions could actually help your FAQs page to stand out and get you more visitors.
Deep-Dive Into Subjects with Blog Posts (Or an E-Book!)
Before spending money — especially a lot of money — many customers want to be as well-informed as possible so that they know they’re making the right choice. On top of providing detailed product descriptions and service plan descriptions, some customers may want to understand some of the finer details.
Deep-diving into niche industry subjects with detailed blog posts can help satisfy these customers’ curiosity. It can also be a way to show off your expertise and win over trust. While blog posts are the easiest way to do this, it’s possible to go one step further and publish your own ebook. Being able to say you have published a book on a subject is certain to gain people’s trust that you are an expert, while also helping to inform those who want that extra information.
Visualise Information with an Explainer Video
Written content isn’t the only way to help inform customers. In fact, videos can sometimes be a convenient and more effective medium. ‘Explainer videos’ are videos that explain concepts — often using animations or live demos. They can be embedded on your website, shared on social media or simply published on YouTube.
It’s worth working with a professional video production company when making an explainer video. This will ensure that your video is high quality.
Collect Lots of Positive Reviews
When searching for a company to use, many customers will now look up online reviews. Having lots of positive reviews will help you to attract customers.
You can encourage positive reviews simply by asking past happy customers to leave a review. Reach out via email or text and share a link to where they can leave a review to make it easy for them. Avoid reaching out to unhappy customers to reduce negative reviews.