Would not you love to grow your traffic organically every month without paying for advertisements or making cold calls? If yes, then Inbound Content Marketing is the right option. By mastering a few inbound content marketing tips, you can create evergreen content that will help you to attract more customers with time. In this article, we are covering everything about inbound content marketing including its comparison with outbound marketing, best inbound content marketing tips, and many more. So, first, let us find out what “inbound content marketing” means.
What is Inbound Content Marketing?
A few decades back when life was still black and white, small businesses functioned differently. If a company wanted new customers, they would take out the advertisements in phone books, stop the dinners with cold calls, and pop by your home unannounced just as your children were going down for a small nap.
Then the world of the internet came, and life turned to color.
Businesses could now use email marketing, chat messaging, banner ads, and all other online marketing tools that we have come to know and like. But even more than that, companies were able to share huge amounts of information with their customers. Also, they could stay in contact with clients throughout each step of their journey. In short, with the arrival of the internet, companies were able to add value to their client’s lives. And this is what inbound marketing does best.
If you have ever found yourself Googling the phrase, “what is inbound marketing”. You are not the only one. Google gets that question a bit. Fortunately, inbound content marketing has a simple definition:
Inbound content marketing is the procedure of gradually attracting and building relationships with people by offering education, help, and value to their lives. Now, you might be thinking, “Isn’t that same a content marketing?”
It is close, but not the same. Here is why:
When we compare both inbound content marketing and content marketing, the two are quite similar. But they are not the same.
Content marketing focuses on the concept and distribution of content. And yes, the objective is to assist, educate, and empower the user. But inbound marketing moves a step further.
Inbound content marketing is a strategy that relies on content marketing to operate but also needs various other tools, including data-driven decision making, technical SEO, web design, lead generation, and many more. These tools have nothing to do with creating content and its distribution. As an alternative, they add value to the client’s experience in some or another way.
Chatbots are the best example. Once a visitor comes to your website, chatbots invite the client to engage with the company and start a relationship. They let you solve a client’s issues more easily by opening another communication line. Consequently, that visitor probably will return to your website in the future.
Inbound Content Marketing Tips for Businesses
Set Inbound Marketing Objectives- It might seem obvious, but this gets missed every time. Before you start creating incredible inbound content and attracting leads, you must define your actual objectives. Or else, it means you are shooting in the dark. Always be specific. Use numbers to the number of organic page views, new leads, and PDF downloads that you want to see. If you are not sure where to start, there is little that smart and thoughtful ideas cannot handle. Once created, review, revisit, and realistically revise as you should. Be vigilant without being unfair.
Define your brand consistently- The significance of your brand to inbound marketing is mostly neglected. One of the core principles of inbound is the user coming to you just because they trust you. If your brand does not have a consistent voice and your current pieces are simply a mix of font and color choices, you would be hard-pressed to come across as a professional, regardless of your experience.
Similarly, another thing that is overlooked is the advantage a powerful employer brand can have on your inbound marketing strategy. Your employer brand is how your firm explains itself to candidates and employees and is key to recruitment and retention. The way you treat your job seekers and employees have a direct effect on whether a target audience will buy from you. If your employer brand is uncertain, with subpar employment and retention, you are fighting a battle to convert the leads that you bring in through inbound marketing.
Do SEO Keyword Research and optimize your content!- A lot of inbound content marketing depends on enticing users to you as well as your website. Potent SEO brings people to your site, and it does not happen without proper keyword research. Take enough time to uncover the semantic and basic search terms that your audiences are using, optimize your content according to that, and build a strong SEO base for your website. This will create a positive effect on every inbound content marketing tactic you implement.
Knowing the topics, you target are searching for is significant, but knowing how those targets discuss what they look for can be just as important to effective inbound. If you are not speaking about a similar industry or market language as your competitors, it will be hard to move them through the funnel.
Research about the competition- You have taken the time to describe your personas and map their journeys. You assume that your competitors have done a similar thing. Keep a record and evaluate the kinds of content they provide, how it is delivered, and what type of personas it appeals to. Take inspiration from, copy, or enhance what is successful. Be prepared to surpass their level- do not bring your checkers to the chess match. Completing those steps should give you a proper base for building your inbound strategy. You will understand your prospects better, your competition, and how to efficiently communicate with them.
Short-form articles- Old fashioned- blogs still work wonders. Strategies that include blogging drive around 67% more leads than those who do not. Choose a topic that is valuable to your personas and post daily. Appropriate users will find you. And, if the content answers a pain point or requirement they have, they will move a bit closer to a sale.
Long-form articles- One of the significant inbound content marketing tips that should be followed for increasing ROI is to use long-form content. The most useful long-form articles generally have more than 2000 words, are evergreen in the topic, and are full of high-value content. This includes case studies, e-books, and things like that.
Guest Posts for Inbound content marketing- While it may be enticing to throng all your creative blog content for yourself, getting your blogs posted to any other influential websites in your industry is quite effective. Not just your brand, content, and your solutions will reach new users, all the backlinks you get can help improve your SEO.
Host a webinar- Hosting a webinar lets you share your knowledge in direct interaction with your customers. Low-cost and simple to create, you also benefit from email marketing once the users sign up.
Facebook Live- If a webinar is too scary, or if a less formal one-on-one experience is better for your personalities, try to use Facebook Live. It is effective and easy to use. Facebook users spend 3x as much time watching live videos instead of the pre-recorded ones.
Ask questions, provide answers, and before you know it, your audience will become your permanent customers.