Inbound marketing is like a magnet. With this marketing strategy you make sure that your target group comes to you, instead of approaching them yourself. By offering valuable content when and where they need it, you answer their burning questions. Especially in the B2B world, inbound marketing is very successful because it is an effective way to generate qualitative leads.
If inbound marketing is the magnet, then outbound marketing is the blunderbuss approach. Outbound marketing is a conventional marketing approach, in which the attention of the target group is drawn by means of advertisements and large-scale campaigns. The goal of outbound marketing is to get a commercial message across to as large an audience as possible, in the hope that it reaches the right people. Think of advertisements in newspapers, advertisements on television or billboards along the motorway. Outbound marketing is therefore about quantity rather than quality. This makes it a suitable way to, for example, increase brand awareness.
With inbound marketing it is the other way around: the customer is not overwhelmed by advertisements of a certain organization, but rather searches for information himself. This is all about quality: reaching a specific target group, with a specific message. Examples are offering a whitepaper, e-book, blogs or cases. Inbound marketing is therefore at the basis of lead generation and is a successful method to attract qualitative leads.
In order to develop a good inbound marketing strategy, four elements are needed:
This is a semi-fictional person who represents your target group. Not only the demographic but also the psychographic data of the persona are defined.
The persona makes a certain journey before he/she becomes a customer. By mapping this buyer journey, you know what contact moments the persona has with your organization and you can determine how you anticipate on that.
Once you've identified the persona and buyer journey, you can start creating content. Based on your persona's interest in a particular subject and the channels they use, you will develop content accordingly.
In order to offer the right content through the right channel at the right time, marketing automation is indispensable. Read more about the possibilities of marketing automation here.
Together, these elements provide insight into the target group, the problem this target group is facing, the solution you offer them and how best to communicate this solution to them, at the right time and via the right channel. By offering the target group relevant information of high quality - just the answer they are looking for - you build a trusted and sustainable relationship. In this way, you generate high-quality leads and position yourself as a thought leader in your field with the aid of inbound marketing.
An inbound marketing strategy is often part of the lead generation plan that we deliver, depending on the needs of the organization. We look at what content and channels fit the persona and buyer journey and what role marketing automation can play in this. We then deliver a document that explains exactly how we will implement the inbound marketing strategy.
Would you like to know more about how we can apply inbound marketing for your organization? Then contact one of our experts!
