I have a lot of clients call me up and say, “I’ve heard a lot about inbound marketing, but what exactly is it that you DO?” The answer isn’t always an easy one. Sure, I tell them that inbound marketing will ignite their online marketing campaign and make them more money, but many businesses and companies are completely clueless as to how we do that.
To help companies and businesses out with this question, I’ve decided to write up a blog post so that you can get a good idea of what you can expect from an inbound marketing agency and just how a service like ours can help you.
Be sure to check out our FREE eBook, “25 Simple Ways to Generate More Customers” for more insight on how inbound marketing can help you generate business.
The Five Basic Inbound Marketing Disciplines
No matter what inbound marketing agency you contact, you can expect the following five disciplines to be at the core of everything that they do:
- Objective setting and strategy formation
- Content marketing and management (this includes blogs, videos, eBooks, whitepapers, web pages, presentations, and more)
- SEO (search engine optimization)
- Social media marketing (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.)
- Lead conversion and lead analysis
The Inbound Marketing Process
Each inbound marketing firm may have a slightly different strategy, but all of them basically consist of the same sort of processes. I’ll take my own strategy as the basis for this blog since I’ve found that it’s the best and most proven inbound marketing strategy out there.
Check out our FREE eBook, “What it’s Like to Work With IMPACT” for more on what you can expect from an inbound marketing agency.
Step 1: Developing a Successful Marketing Strategy
This all begins with an inbound marketing firm meeting up with you, the business owner, and discussing your goals and where you’d like your online marketing endeavors to take your website. Some questions I often ask are:
- What marketing challenges have you faced?
- Who is your ideal customer? What do you think will attract them?
- How much are you willing to invest in a marketing program?
- What are your goals and objectives?
Step 2: Create & Maintain a Great Website
This is where the inbound marketing process truly begins. When you hire on a professional firm, you should expect the following things from the website they create:
- It should have a professional appearance
- It should be easy to navigate
- It should be search engine friendly
- It should be mobile-friendly
- It should be easy for you, the business owner, to update without the need of an inbound marketing firm
Step 3: Generate Traffic
There are a number of ways in which an inbound marketing firm will help bring a crowd in to your website. They’ll do this through a number of different methods:
- Blogging
- Social media
- Pay per click (PPC)
Step 4: Convert Traffic to Leads
Once you know how to attract customers to your site, then you have to know how to convert them into leads. Not sure how? An inbound marketing firm can set this all up for you. Something that inbound marketing firms are pros at are calls-to-action. They know how to hook your leads so that they turn into customers.
Another service that they’ll offer you are landing pages. The more landing pages you have, the better the odds you have at either building a great email marketing base or selling your products or services. To help keep your leads engaged, an inbound marketing firm should also set you up with a great CRM system that will allow you to automate a lot of the email marketing process.
Step 5: Convert Leads to Customers
Here’s the part where businesses usually get stumped: how do you turn a lead into a customer? Inbound marketing firms have the tools and the know-how to do this, and will be able to help through:
- Lead nurturing
- Email marketing and CRM integration
- Lead segmentation
- Lead intelligence
Step 6: Learning to Analyze
If nothing else, you should hire on an inbound marketing firm to hook you up with the best analytical tools out there for your internet marketing campaign. Not only will you get access to top-notch tools, but a quality firm will also sit down with you and show you exactly how the tools work and how you should analyze the data that you gather.
Key Takeaways:
The goal of an inbound marketing firm isn’t to take over your online marketing efforts and run your internet business. The goal of a quality inbound marketing firm is to get your business to a place where it is profitable and bringing in a high return on your investment.
Need Help?
If inbound marketing is something you are interested in but are having trouble getting started, contact us today to schedule your free marketing analysis.
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