What is Inbound Marketing?

Marketing is vast and can be done in various ways.

You would have seen a lot of TV advertisements, received a lot of cold calls and even SPAM emails. That’s not the end.

You would have also seen salesmen visiting you and trying to sell you products. Obviously, this is done for making more sales.

This is known as Outbound Marketing. Outbound Marketing is also known as Push Marketing.

Outbound marketing aims at outreaching to masses. Brands use outbound marketing to bring their products/services in front of the customers. You are driving a car and you see a big hoarding with the advertisement for a product that you might not even interested in buying.

But, the brand reached out to you by bringing their product in front of you. This is outbound marketing. Businesses push their products to the consumers.

That was Outbound Marketing/Push Marketing in simple terms.

But, what is Inbound Marketing?

Keep reading. This article will help you understand Inbound Marketing in detail. You do not have to be an Marketing Expert to understand these concepts.

I introduced outbound marketing in the very beginning of the article in order to make you aware of what is not inbound marketing. You have seen both inbound and outbound marketing around you and you will understand things better as we proceed.

What is Inbound Marketing?

Whenever someone talks about Inbound Marketing, the first thing that comes in mind is HubSpot. Yes, you read it right. If you don’t know what HubSpot is, you would know it after reading this article.

The term “Inbound Marketing” was coined in 2005 by HubSpot’s co-founder and CEO, Brian Halligan.

HubSpot is known for Inbound Marketing and it is they who taught it to the world. The methodology that they gave, their tools, their blog & the free courses they provide on HubSpot Academy are used widely across the world.

If you want to excel in Inbound Marketing, then HubSpot’s Free Inbound Marketing Certification is a good course to begin with.

But, what exactly is this Inbound Marketing all about?

It is exactly opposite to Outbound or Push Marketing. I hope you read properly about Outbound Marketing above.

As per HubSpot, “Inbound marketing is a business methodology that attracts customers by creating valuable content and experiences tailored to them.”

In simple words, Inbound marketing is all about bringing customers to the business and not going to them. Yes, a brand that follows inbound marketing does not bombard customers with unwanted advertisements or sales calls. They do not push products to the customers, but they pull the customers to the products.

Hence, Inbound Marketing is also known as Pull Marketing.

How is this pull marketing possible?

By following the simple Inbound Methodology that HubSpot has given to the world.

Understanding the Inbound Methodology

While doing Inbound Marketing, you are not focusing on immediate sales. A brand does not forcefully try to sell something to the customer that the customer doesn’t require.

It’s about understanding customers, helping them, making a long-lasting relationship with them and giving the product that best suits their requirements.

It’s about adding value in your customer’s lives and helping them reach their goals.

This can be done with the help of HubSpot’s Attract-Engage-Delight framework.

1. Attract

The most important part if to attract the customers, not by reaching out aggressively to them but by creating valuable content and relationship with them.

Identify the right audience, help them and develop trust. Because when they will trust you, they will come to you for help & even purchase from you.

2. Engage

After attracting and connecting with the right audience, you will understand their pain points and their goals. Do not try to SELL them your products directly.

Engage with them, solve their problems, consult them and bring them closer to their goals. When you do so, they are confident about you and won’t hesitate from buying your products or services.

3. Delight

Your relationship with customers is not restricted till they PURCHASE. It’s way beyond it.

Once they purchase, delight them with your service and let them never feel regret about their decision to purchase from you. Serve them so well that they become your brand advocates.

If you follow this Inbound Methodology, you will create life-long relations with customers.

Benefits of Inbound Marketing

You might have understood by now that Inbound Marketing is important. It can help you and your customers grow.

But, let me list down a few benefits of Inbound Marketing for you.

• Inbound marketing is a boom in this digital world. Brands can educate prospects very easily in a targeted manner
• Inbound marketing helps in developing trust. Trust is a key ingredient for long term profitable relationship
• It is cost-effective as you are targeting your message to a set of audience using the internet marketing tools
• Inbound marketing is a good way to create brand awareness
• The leads generated by Inbound Methodology are easier to convert

A Few Inbound Marketing Strategies

Inbound Marketing is vast too. The Attract-Engage-Delight framework looks simple when you read about it but it’s difficult to implement.

One has to draft a proper plan and strategize the entire marketing efforts.

You will find a lot of strategies on the internet. But, a single business (especially when it’s small) cannot implement all of them and needs to select the most relevant ones.

Yes, you cannot do everything. You need to select strategies that are beneficial to you and your customers.

I am mentioning a few of the most useful Inbound Marketing strategies below.

Content Marketing

Content plays a key role in today’s world. Content not necessarily means the website/blog content. It can be any content that your business is circulating in this digital world.

Content can be in the form of text, audio, video, ebook, email, etc.

Content is the voice of your organization. The more precise it is, the easier it will be for people to know your organization well.

I always say that create content that helps. Content that helps, wins. Educate people, help them and become a trusted source of information for them.

Let me give you a small example. Whenever someone asks me where can they do free online marketing courses, I suggest to them the free courses that are offered by Google, HubSpot Academy, Facebook Blueprint, Moz, etc. Why? Because, I have tried these courses and the content is helpful and of high quality.

SEO (Search Engine Optimization)

People are searching on the internet. Are they able to discover your business on the internet? or are they discovering your competitors business?

SEO helps you increase the visibility of your website by making it rank higher on the search engine results pages.

Having a website is just one part of the story. But, making the website reach to the right set of audience when they are searching on the internet is the crucial part.

Many businesses (including small businesses and general stores) are investing money in developing the website. A few of them even go to the extent of selling things through their websites or developing a small e-commerce platform for their business.

But all these efforts are not enough. Unless the website ranks in the top results on the first page of SERP, it will hardly create a difference.

It is one of the most important inbound marketing strategy. The consumers are searching on the internet and discovering you if you have optimized your website. Ain’t this an effective pull marketing strategy?

Social Media Marketing

Social media marketing is not just about making pages or profiles on social media platforms.

Social media is a place where brands can connect with the right set of audience. People talk about their problems and experiences openly. Such problems are meant to be solved. Their experiences are to be improved.

If you are able to use social listening, you get much more qualitative results than market research or some other form of survey.

The key goal of inbound marketing is build trust and relationships. What can be a better place than social media platforms for this?

Listen to them and try to help them out. Reach out to them and have quality conversations.

I feel that the above 3 strategies can be followed by even small businesses and are important. There are a lot of other things that brands can do like Influencer Marketing, Email Marketing, Video Marketing, etc.

But, it is essential to begin somewhere and a small business can begin with content marketing and use social media to disseminate the content. If they are at a stage of affording a website, then SEO and content again plays a key role.

So as per me, SEO, SMM and Content Marketing are 3 effective inbound marketing strategies that one can adopt in this digital world.

Conclusion

I hope this article gave you an overview of what inbound marketing is and how can a brand begin with inbound marketing.

The age of digital marketing makes it easier for marketers to adopt the inbound methodology in a much effective and efficient manner.

I will recommend you to adopt Inbound Marketing in combination with the tools that HubSpot provides. As no one understands inbound the way HubSpot does, it will be an added advantage for any organization to use HubSpot tools to succeed in Inbound.

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