Setting up a business is both exciting and daunting in equal measure. You want your startup to pick up as quickly as possible and attract many customers fast. However, an increasingly competitive and crowded landscape means that the need to get your message out there and promote your new business is as critical as ever.
Marketing is often a challenge for new businesses looking to get their products, services, or brand known because they have no established customer base, loyalty, or community around them. Unfortunately, many businesses turn to outbound (traditional) marketing to get their message to prospective customers and overlook inbound marketing.
However, interruptive marketing techniques like advertising, cold calling, or email blasts have been losing their effectiveness for years now. You risk wasting money and time on creating a buzz that people have learned to ignore.
If you are willing to invest in low-cost marketing with the potential for a high return on your investment, then inbound marketing can help.
Inbound Marketing vs. Outbound Marketing
Inbound marketing focuses on reasons why your customers should come to you, instead of merely broadcasting out messages to them using traditional (outbound) marketing.
Outbound marketing includes things like mass emails, advertising, and cold calling. These types of push marketing techniques focus on getting your message out to a broader audience quickly. Although it is not redundant since there is a time and place for it, outbound marketing may turn off prospects and target audiences because it seems like an interruption.
On the other hand, inbound marketing aims to provide valuable content to specific customers already searching for services, products, and solutions you are offering. Content provided includes videos, blog posts, eBooks, informative articles, whitepapers, and tip sheets. As a result, inbound marketing draws in both leads that are apt to convert and ready, willing buyers.
How Inbound Marketing Can Help
At its core, inbound marketing provides authoritative and informative content that entices customers. They could be looking for DIY instructions, answers to their questions, or interesting content. Your target audience already has an interest in your content, product, or service. Thus, they are more inclined to become customers if your marketing and conversion efforts provide them with helpful information.
Inbounding marketing is effective because it concerns itself with providing a human touch to business interactions. It encourages new businesses to broadcast cost-effectively and evolves the relationship with target audiences who opt-in and end up on your website to continue the communication and provide more valuable information.
However, while it is cheaper than traditional marketing tactics, inbound marketing takes a lot of time, effort, and commitment. Just remember that content is king. It’s the key to getting regular traffic to your website to sell them on your brilliant products.
Blogging vs. Social Platforms
Your business blog should ideally become the central point for your inbound marketing efforts, mainly because you own this space. Just ensure that you post original, rich, well-researched, and informative content regularly.
On the other hand, social networks are great for reaching a wider audience, but since you don’t own these channels, you only ever rent them. So the aim should be to use these rented “digital real estate spaces” to bring people to your website.
The target for blogging and social media marketing is to create original content that people will love and share widely, and keep returning for more. Eventually, you will build your social networking and online community to, directly and indirectly, help you market your business.
Audience-Focused SEO
Finally, do not forget to create audience-focused SEO. Search is how people find things online, and along with email and social media, it’s among the most popular online activities. Aim to make your content search engine optimized to bring in qualified, targeted traffic to your site. At first, you can concentrate on building your organic search results, and then combine that with paid ads – pay-per-clicks (PPCs).
Reach out to us at UmeWorks for more information on implementing inbound marketing strategies with your business website.
