Marketing is changing! Potential customers are increasingly ignoring classic advertising. You have gotten good at simply blocking out annoying advertisements. You no longer want to be constantly “harassed” and advertised but want real added value.

Figures also prove this fact:

• 26.7% of households in Germany refuse to post direct mail.
• 24% of internet users use an ad blocker.
• 87% of viewers switch to TV advertising.

As a result, entrepreneurs and marketers must rethink their approach to still reach their target groups. Why should the classic methodology be used for marketing if customers no longer pay any attention to it? A method must be used that offers the customer an additional benefit. For this reason, we are introducing you to inbound marketing today.

This is inbound marketing!

The term ” inbound marketing ” is far less known in Germany than in the USA. Therefore, many are wondering what inbound means. What are the advantages of this marketing strategy over other marketing methods? We would like to offer you answers to these questions in the following article.

Inbound Marketing is a digital marketing method that should lead to potential customers finding the company / the products on the Internet themselves and this should be done through high-quality content. It is a pull marketing strategy for generating leads.

So, it basically means nothing more than increasing lead generation. However, not as with typical outbound marketing through measures that explicitly aim to actively disseminate the advertising message, but through attractive content. Outbound marketing is a push marketing strategy. This figure illustrates the different possibilities of out- and inbound marketing:

Inbound vs. Outbound Marketing

Classic outbound marketing measures have delivered increasingly unsatisfactory results in recent years. Most customers are rather put off by the flood of advertising messages and switch to draft. In addition, the cost of advertising is blatantly high. Not all companies – especially not SMEs – can afford this in the long term to acquire new customers.

In contrast, inbound marketing relies on high-quality content. This offers solutions and answers to specific questions, specific problems, and clear wishes for clearly defined target groups. This content, with the articles and content it contains, forms the basic structure of every inbound marketing strategy. They are intended to attract the attention of visitors. In the best-case scenario, lots of leads are generated and thus potential customers.

Inbound therefore means that the customer approaches the seller. It is about creating demand pressure. In this sense, it is less about what your company offers than about what your target group is really looking for. In online marketing, one often speaks of the customer journey. “The buyer’s journey” – in which he goes through different phases. There is one sentence that you keep coming across:

The method of inbound marketing

In the first phase of “attracting” it is important to create interesting and usable content that gets the attention of the Internet user. They are published in the form of blog posts, newsletter marketing, social media posts, etc. Of course, this must be keyword optimized. You should use words that are searched for on Google and other search engines by the targeted buyer personas. In this way you bring as many visitors as possible to your website.

In the second phase, “converting”, it is important to convert the visitors to your content into leads. Leads can e.g., B. collected via forms, call-to-actions, and landing pages. So potential customers are z. For example, you are encouraged to leave your contact details to download a free e-book or white paper.

 The third phase, “Close”, is about converting leads into sales. For example, personalized newsletters can be used to achieve this.

In the last phase, “impress”, relationships must be cultivated, and customers must be emotionally attached to the company or product. “Impressed” customers can become ambassadors for the company.

Which advertising channels help me best with inbound marketing?

Of course, creating valuable content is not enough. You also need to market the content. That means they must be found. In the inbound area, this is best done via online marketing channels. In the following, we will introduce you to some of the instruments that you can use for your inbound marketing.

Content marketing / content strategy High quality content (articles, posts, guest articles, website, etc.) that stands out from the competition and offers the website visitor significant added value. Good and informative content is the best way to meet the needs of visitors.

Email Marketing / Lead Management

Once you have generated qualified leads, you can set up successful email marketing campaigns. But be careful: Don’t shower potential customers with flat, annoying advertising emails!

Social Media Marketing

The social media channels should be used in a targeted manner. Eventually, an experienced social media marketing manager can create a well-thought-out social media strategy and then put it into action.

Conversion Rate Optimization

If visitors do not become customers, the marketing strategy has failed. So, it is essential to pay attention to conversion optimization and the CRM system at an early stage.

Search engine optimization / ads (SEO Marketing / SEA Marketing)

Without SEO Marketing no ranking on Google or YouTube.  This is now the second largest search engine in the world. Means: Without SEO – no new customer acquisition.

Online PR / Blogger Relations

Find a good influencer who will help you to promote your goods using Word of Mouth Marketing. That is much more believable than intrusive advertising messages. This then places you, for example, in his own blog. Blog marketing is becoming more and more popular and important because it appears more authentic and can therefore also generate potentially more interested visitors.

Inbound marketing is a bit like a steamroller: it is hard to get started at first, but once it is up and running, it’s hard to stop.

5 tips for successful inbound marketing when acquiring new customers.

So how can good inbound marketing help you acquire new customers? We have put together a few answers for you. This know-how will help you to achieve maximum customer growth.

1. Attract visitors to your site with high-quality, relevant content. Plan this well before creating the content. Find the right target group and identify the buying personas.
2. A good target group analysis in advance will help you enormously. Just starting to write will not get you the result you want. If you have content written, you must give all the necessary information and instructions at the briefings. So, the writer can do a good job and create good content. A good article should summarize the main content of the topic and be interesting. It must make the visitor want more and lead him to your offers.
3. Motivate your visitors to subscribe to the newsletter, to register, to download a free e-book or PDF download in return for their contact details. This is the first impression the potential lead gets of you and your company. So really offer him something extraordinary that makes him want more. With this you can turn prospects into customers. Ideally, this phase is completed by a specific request.
4. You then can contact the customer, as he has given you the contact information voluntarily. In a sense, he expects a reaction, answer or email from you and your company. In addition, the advertising filter has been removed from the potential customer so that he is more receptive to advertising from you. But still be sensitive!
5. Turn your customers into promoters. Try to get satisfied customers to recommend your product to others (reviews, likes and re-posts in social media, etc.). Information spreads very efficiently, especially in social networks. This helps you to be more visible and therefore easier to find.

Conclusion and outlook

The big advantage in terms of new customer acquisition and customer growth with the help of an inbound marketing strategy is that the customers will come to you and your company. You do not push yourself like you do with push marketing. The potential customer was looking for you and found you. He now wants you to provide him with information about your goods, your company, or your service. You must not disappoint him now. It is important to keep him in line and to continue to provide him with high-quality content.

The potential of the inbound methodology is enormous. It could become the most widely used advertising strategy in the future. That means it could completely displace classic advertising strategies such as spam, flyers, and commercials in the future. There are opportunities, especially for small businesses.

This is because the adoption of advertising has decreased over the past few decades. Due to the increasing presence in everyday life, it hardly reaches people. Specifically, this means that many people distrust advertisements. As soon as they even remotely appear to be advertising, they will be blocked. This is where the greatest benefit of inbound marketing comes into play. The customer will find your product when he is specifically looking for it himself. So, it already has a direct reference and ideally belongs to your target group. As a result, he is more likely to be willing to buy your goods. It is precisely this advantage that could help in the future to replace the traditional Internet advertising strategies used so far.