Businesses all over the world prioritize inbound marketing. Inbound marketing effectively attracts traffic to your website and then converts that traffic into customers.

The virtual marketplace is full of companies trying to get shoppers’ attention. However, if you have an effective inbound marketing solution, you can help your business stand out from the crowd, speak directly to your target market, and bring them into your sales funnel. Here are some reasons why you should use inbound marketing for your business.

Inbound Versus Outbound Marketing

If inbound marketing and outbound marketing were forced to go toe to toe, inbound marketing would win more times than not. Make no mistake, outbound marketing has its place. Billboards, direct mail, advertisements, and posters will provide your business with exposure. But this is an old-fashioned way of advertising. You are shouting your message into the crowd and hoping that one or two people will hear the message and then act on it.

On the other hand, inbound marketing is a powerful tool to direct people to your digital marketing funnel. One of the reasons people shy away from inbound marketing is that simply hearing the term “marketing funnel” makes them nervous. It seems like a term used only by marketing gurus. However, with the proper inbound marketing, marketing funnels need not be complicated.

A successful marketing funnel using inbound marketing can be as simple as providing prospects a value packed lead magnet in exchange for their email address. You send them value-rich content regularly. When your product or program launches, you send them a value-packed offer.

The beauty of inbound marketing is that it is not annoying or intrusive. The goal is to get customers to come to you by first giving them something educational or solving a problem. Outbound marketing is like shouting through a megaphone. Inbound marketing is like gently pulling people toward you with a magnet. The result is more authentic and human.

Inbound Services Let You Target Customers Where They Are on the Buyer’s Journey

The buyer’s journey can be divided into three stages.

1. Awareness

2. Consideration

3. Decision

During the awareness stage, the prospect is dealing with a problem for which they need a solution. They are doing their research to understand the situation clearly, frame the problem, and give it a name.

During the consideration stage, the prospect clearly defines the problem and commits themselves to understand all of the approaches or possible solutions to fix the problem.

During the decision stage, the prospect has to choose which solution or strategy they will use. They compile all of the vendors and products that could provide a solution and then use that information to make their final purchasing decision.

Inbound marketing allows you to target prospects where they are along the journey. You help them understand their problem, and you guide them in considering options to solve said problem. Since you create helpful content for every stage of your customer’s journey, you repeatedly encourage them to visit your website. Your team creates more valuable content that directly answers your users’ questions and continually encourages them to move through their buying journey.

Use Inbound Marketing to Build Your Visibility and Audience

Inbound marketing has four objectives or stages. They are:

1. Attract

2. Convert

3. Close

4. Delight

The goal is to take strangers and turn them into happy customers who promote your products to others. During the attract phase, you may use blogs or SEO ads. During the convert phase, calls to action, landing pages, and forms are used. During the closing stage, CRM integration, workflows, progress profiling, and emails can be used. Finally, you turn your customers into promoters during the delight phase by using innovative content, referral programs, and social monitoring.

The Wrap Up

Inbound marketing relies on you having the right combination of tactics and employing those tactics at the right time to attract and engage visitors. You turn visitors into customers and customers into promoters who will attract more people to your marketing funnel. When done correctly, inbound marketing allows you to build your audience continually. At the end of the day, this is precisely what you want.