If you’re a small business owner, you know marketing is important for brand awareness and business success. But traditional marketing is tricky and expensive, especially for small businesses. That’s why many small businesses use inbound marketing to achieve their goals.
Not sure what inbounding marketing is, or how to use inbound marketing strategies? In this article, we’re covering 5 top inbound marketing strategies to use for your business.
What is Inbound Marketing?
Inbound marketing is a holistic, data-focused marketing approach. While traditional marketing involves things like interruptive ads and cold calls, inbound uses techniques like SEO and blogging to attract customers.
Inbound marketing consists of 4 stages: attract, convert, close, and delight.
Attract
Attract is all about driving customers to your website. Search engine optimization and social media marketing are important parts of the attract stage.
Convert
Convert is about converting potential customers into leads once they’ve arrived on your website. You can do this by providing them valuable content like whitepapers, blog posts, and webinars. This will make them more willing to offer up their contact information.
Close
In the close stage, you convert leads into actual customers. Since this goal is consumer-focused it requires marketing and sales to work together.
Delight
When it comes to inbound marketing, it isn’t enough for customers to just convert. You want them to delight customers so they keep coming back. You can do this by remaining engaged with customers, and giving them reasons to come back to your site.
Top 5 Inbound Marketing Strategies for Business Owners
Now that you know what inbound marketing is, you’re probably wondering how to best use it. Here are 5 great inbound marketing strategies to use for your business.
Write Educational Blogs
Creating valuable content for potential customers essential to inbound marketing. Content like educational blogs and resources shows leads more of your expertise. It also helps you earn their trust, so you can convince them to keep coming back.
Develop a Loyalty Program
Loyalty programs are a great way to encourage customers to keep coming back. Give customers special discounts for referring other people to your business, and offer props on social media to people who frequently engage with your brand. Keeping customers is much cheaper than attracting new ones, so customer loyalty should always be top of mind.
Offer Free Trials & Consultations
Showing is better than telling when it comes to attracting new customers. Offering customers free product trials or consultations will help them quickly decide if they like your product or service. It’ll also make them more likely to recommend others if they do.
Film Testimonial Videos
Testimonials are a great way to boost the credibility of your business. They show potential customers they can trust your brand. There’s no better way to convince people how great your brand is than having customers speak about it on your behalf.
Blog for Other Sites
Sharing your business expertise is a great way to attract new customers. Opinion pieces and guest blogs help you reach a bigger audience and build your brand up. They also offer powerful linkback opportunities so you can drive traffic back to your business.
Final Thoughts on Inbound Marketing Strategies
Don’t let the cost of marketing keep you from growing your business. By trying out the inbound marketing strategies outlined in this article, you can attract quality customers and keep them coming back for more.
In need of better digital marketing solutions but not sure where to start? We’re here to help! Schedule a 15-minute no-obligation assessment to find out how we can help you with your customer acquisition strategy.
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