Inbound marketing: Attract customers through relevant and useful content

In the early days (10 years ago), it was in front of the TV, radio or newspaper that companies had the best chance of capturing the attention of potential consumers. Today, few people watch streaming TV in the traditional sense and with a myriad of streaming services, we have become much more selective about where we put our attention.

We're no longer interested in meaningless and generic advertising - we want personalised content that speaks to our interests. That's where inbound marketing comes in. Inbound marketing is a method that focuses on creating meaningful and long-lasting relationships with consumers through content that is valuable to the individual.

At the same time, users have become much more active and seek out information themselves, as they are more confident in their own information findings as well as recommendations from friends and colleagues. You can think of it this way: if your product provides value to the customer, they are more likely to share their excitement with their loved ones, which can generate even more potential leads. It's therefore about creating value for your customers at every stage of the buying journey - because when your customers succeed, you succeed.

With that short introduction, inbound marketing sounds reasonable compared to outbound marketing. But how do the two strategies really differ? Let's take a look at it here.

Outbound marketing
Outbound marketing is what most people would associate with traditional marketing. Here, it will always be the company that initiates the conversation with the consumer. Push marketing is widely used in the sense that the company pushes messages out to potential customers. Examples of outbound marketing include:

• TV and radio commercials
• Banner advertising
• Print advertising - newspapers, flyers, brochures, catalogue ads
• Outsourced telemarketing (cold calls)

However, the effectiveness of outbound marketing has declined in recent years, partly due to users' declining interest in traditional advertising. When outbound marketing is no longer as effective, how do companies capture the user? Inbound marketing.

Inbound marketing requires a completely different approach to communication than the traditional push method of outbound marketing. It is more about tailoring content to the individual consumer so that it appears valuable.

In many ways, outbound marketing is advertising that the audience is not necessarily interested in and can therefore be disruptive. Inbound marketing, on the other hand, is an effective way to engage a group of consumers who could potentially become a lead.

Read our blog post on outbound marketing.

In general, there are four steps you can follow when using inbound marketing:

Inbound marketing is all about making your audience aware that you exist and that you are relevant to them. The goal at this level is simply to get consumers to visit your website. You can do this by using content marketing, whereby you create valuable content that speaks to users' interests and positions you as a trusted advisor.

Tools to attract users include:

• SEO
• Social media
• Blog post
• Videos
• Events.

Blog posts are useful for positioning yourself as a trusted source, while social media content works well for creating brand awareness with customers who don't yet know your brand. When you work with SEO and copywriting, you increase the likelihood that your website will rank higher on Google and thus become visible to your target audience.

If users have already shown interest in your business, it's time to convert them into leads. Contact information is all the rage in inbound marketing, and your mission is to offer something valuable enough that they'll pay with it.
You can do this, for example, by giving them insights into your business or introducing them to solutions that can solve what they're looking for.

Tools to engage users include:

• E-books
• How-to guides
• Tips and tricks
• Newsletters.

Once your users have converted into leads, it's time to turn them into paying customers - and with their contact information, you already have great insight into them. However, today's software also allows you to have insights into users' behaviour on your website, making it possible to tailor offers and thus close sales via segmented and newsletters, for example.

Once your users have made a purchase, it's important that their journey doesn't end there. The purpose of inbound marketing also involves creating an ongoing relationship - so it's a good idea to provide support and assistance for them before, during and after the purchase. Satisfied customers are the best ambassadors a business can have.

Tools to keep your leads warm include:

• Chatbots
• Surveys seeking feedback.

Inbound marketing has become an important strategy to create purchase interest among today's modern and selective consumers. If you are still green in the work with this form of marketing, or if you could use a sparring partner in the development of valuable content for your target audience, do not hesitate to contact us. Webamp is an ambitious and data-driven digital marketing agency that specialises in creating online success. We can help with both SEO, Google Ads advertising, social media marketing and much more!

If you need help with inbound marketing or are just curious about this strategy, contact Webamp on 70 60 50 28 or info@webamp.dk.