How Inbound Marketing Can Help Attract, Convert And Retain New Customers

Inbound marketing involves the creation of websites and online content that engage potential customers sufficiently to attract them to your business. 

In short, you don’t find them – they find you! 



This may sound easy, yet it involves a carefully planned strategy that must be managed to the last detail. 

Inbound Marketing – The Idea Behind!

Traditional Marketing on the internet, often referred to as Outbound Marketing, involved the use of advertising – e.g banner and video ads to reach out to potential customers. But experience showed that this form of marketing was often construed as intrusive by the viewers – who wanted pure content and nothing else. 

Marketers found an answer to this potential problem by turning content, that people want to see, into the advertisement. 

 Inbound Marketing, also referred to as Content Marketing, reverses the traditional Marketing Ideology. Instead of you finding customers, you create content – informative resources that potential customers actively seek. In effect your customer finds you through your content. 

With Inbound Marketing your content (Videos, Blogs, Social Media Posts) becomes your biggest Advertisement.    

There are five main principles of inbound marketing that must all be included in one, focused strategy aimed at attracting, converting and retaining new customers.


Content Marketing. 

Creating engaging, informative and entertaining content will act like a magnet to new customers. 

However, simply blowing your own trumpet is not going to work; you need to give your potential customers rewards. 

Rewarding visitors for coming to your website may involve useful tips and information that they can take away. The best rewards make the lives of customers easier, so content such as “how to” guides, video presentations and entertaining blogs will all deliver great results. 

It’s simple; create quality content that informs and entertains, and new customers will be drawn to your website like moths to a flame. 


Social Media. 

It is important that communication with potential customers is not just a one-way process. 

Social media platforms such as Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook are ideal for interacting with your customers, soliciting feedback and sharing new information and content. 

Of course, not all social platforms will be suitable for your particular customer base, but you should experiment with all of the social media sites in order to ascertain which ones work best for you. 

It is vital that you listen to your customers’ viewpoints; social media should not be used for ‘hard-sell’. 

This is also the perfect way to improve your business’s shortcomings, as customers will usually provide honest views and opinions on social media. 


Search Engine Optimisation (SEO).

There have been huge changes in the way search engines such as Google operate in recent years, and your site needs to take them into account if it is to feature at the top of search engine results pages for search terms relevant to your business.

Google loves original content that people find engaging, but low quality, copied or repetitive text which is stuffed with keywords will likely languish at the bottom of search results. 

Websites that are being commented on, linked to and shared will often be given priority over other related sites. 

Successful SEO campaigns never end; they merely continue to adjust to changing trends. 

The best way to ensure that your website is optimised for search engines is to employ the expertise of a digital marketing agency. The agency will often manage the process in its entirety, and digital marketing professionals can draw on many years of experience in the field.


Email. 

Your customers will only be persuaded to give you their email address if they are getting value from your site. Informative content with a promise of additional benefits in the future will enable your site to harvest thousands of email addresses – invaluable information for future marketing campaigns. 

In much the same way as social media, email can be used to communicate offers, new content and additional resources such as training videos.

Website Optimisation – Getting Visitors To Convert.

There is little to be gained by attracting thousands of new visitors if you can’t convert those new visitors into customers. 

Website optimisation involves design, content and interactive features that result in visitors ‘buying in’ to your products or services. 

Crafting an effective Call-To-Action can act as an effective tool to get visitors to convert. This may involve signing up to a free trial, the completion of a contact form or even making a purchase. 

This stage of inbound marketing takes time, as various design and content aspects must be experimented with to ascertain the best set-up for conversions.

Inbound marketing should always be looked upon as an ongoing process. That is why it may be a cost-effective decision to employ a specialist digital agency to manage your online presence. You might have the best products and services on the market, but there is no point in having a website if no one can find it! 

Thanks for your time. 

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