If you’ve never seen Inbound Marketing in action, you may be wondering:
- What advantages does Inbound offer?
- How do businesses use Inbound to increase brand awareness?
- What can you expect in terms of conversion rates and website traffic?
Read on to find out the benefits Inbound can bring to your digital marketing strategy.
1 | Generating Buzz
If you can’t get people talking, you’re not taking full advantage of Inbound Marketing. A successful campaign inspires people to discuss your product or service on social media, to blog about it, and to share their experiences with their friends. Essentially, it’s a conversation starter that spreads as your market reach expands.
Cision, for example, describes how social media influenced the 2012 presidential elections in the United States. People didn’t just watch the debates on television; they live tweeted and socially shared their views via social media. Voters shared images of themselves at the polls and shared who they voted for.
Unlike outbound marketing techniques, such as television commercials and cold calling, Inbound Marketing attracts consumers and engages them in conversation. While outbound marketing can capture your audience’s attention, it “interrupts” their buying journey rather than engaging him/her and providing valuable content at the moment they want and need it.
2 | Increasing Inbound Links
Of course, conversations are just the start. Great Inbound Marketing also inspires people to link back to the source. Whether it’s a blog post or a white paper, content marketing is about generating Inbound links and increasing website traffic. Insightful content that connects with the audience on a more personal level allows your brand and employees to become a credible resource and thought leader on specific topics, linking to you because they find value in what you say.
Inbound links build brand awareness because your target consumers start seeing your business name within their network and searches. Your audience starts to associate your brand as a trusted source in the industry, which positions you as the ideal, and perhaps only, solution when someone needs a product or service you offer.
3 | Creating Engagement
An engaged audience is a surefire sign of a great Inbound Marketing campaign. It suggests that the business has worked hard to create a loyal base of followers and customers who are willing to serve as brand ambassadors and supporters. When people engage with brands, other consumers take note.
Consider Burberry, for instance. In 2015, the fashion company launched a wildly successful Twitter campaign. By tweeting #Tweetcam to the @Burberry Twitter account, users triggered a camera to take a live photograph from the best vantage point while the models walked the runway. Each picture was then personalized with the user’s Twitter handle, a time stamp of the moment the image was taken and then tweeted back to them.
Why do companies like Burberry use Inbound Marketing? Because it generates quality traffic, connects the brand with a human voice, and provides a more personalized connection with their audience at every stage of their buying journey. That leads to strong conversions and loyal customers. The projected ROI from an Inbound Marketing campaign depends on a variety of factors (such as the size of your company and your industry). However, one study found that companies that used Inbound Marketing for a two year period saw 3X more leads and 4X more web traffic. Nearly 75% also saw measurable sales increases within 12 months.
Inbound Marketing is one of the most powerful ways to leverage your company’s values, mission, goals, and assets for maximum market penetration.
If you’re realizing Inbound is something you want to learn more about, come learn from pbrand during our 2016 Lunch and Learn series. This series is designed to educate you on what Inbound Marketing is, the methodology behind it, and strategies that can be leveraged to generate more leads and more sales no matter the size of your business.
