Building a content strategy and content creation framework is just ONE of the things an inbound marketer does.
There is a sharp difference between telling the world you are great and letting your work speak for itself. The former is a great approach to register in the minds of people immediately but the drawback is being forgotten just as easily. The latter focuses on nurturing a relationship that leaves a lasting impression in the minds of people. It brings people to you naturally rather than forcefully.
Inbound Marketing is a classy version of marketing that works great for both fronts- the customers and the sellers. The customers are provided with information and quality content that enlightens them. Alongside this, the sellers build a brand image laid on the foundation of goodwill and customer loyalty.
Don’t get me wrong, outbound marketing is a tried and tested approach that has worked for millions of companies too. It depends on what your company goals are and which approach you think would set the tone for your business image.
Understanding the Inbound ideology, process and the role of an inbound marketer will help you make an informed decision. This blog post will cover the aspects of inbound and explain exactly what the marketer is here to do for you.
What is Inbound Marketing
The inbound methodology focuses primarily on creating a positive impact on your customers. This will, in turn, create opportunities for your business. The inbound ideology is placing your customers at the highest priority.
How do you achieve this?
Your customer service and support should be trained efficiently in making the process of buying from you smooth and easy. Doubts and queries should be addressed quickly. Customers should find information related to your company or products/services easily.
Content marketing plays a huge role in inbound marketing. It accounts for more than half the activities done by an inbound marketer. The core idea of an inbound strategy is to create content across different platforms to answer the questions asked by the audience. SEO, email marketing, blogging, and social media are used as tools for disseminating information.
The inbound marketing strategy works like this:
This is just a brief, we have a full-page blog post on what is inbound marketing. If you want to know from scratch, read it here.
How To Develop an Inbound Strategy
Developing a strategy will first require you to set your organizational goal: immediate profits, long term growth or expansion and so on. Once you have decided on that then you can begin to formulate your inbound strategy.
- Define Buyer Personas- When you are able to outline a fictional representation of your targeted customer that would visit your site, you will be able to modify your content better. We have detailed content about buyer personas that you might want to read. Find it here.
- Keyword Research- This is the crux of your content strategy and planning. Thorough keyword research will help you understand what the customers want and what is it exactly that they are looking for. Your content can then be around answering their questions.
- Outline Your Content Strategy- Once you have your personas and keywords in place, you create a strategy that involves the channels of communication, time of communication and content that you want to communicate.
- Design Lead Nurturing Process- Lead nurturing is growing a relationship with your buyer at every stage of your marketing and even after the purchase. You could design a well-defined process of how you will approach them for example- a downloadable “how-to” guide.
- Optimize Website- Your website can be optimized with SEO content and design so people arrive at your page sooner.
- Align Infrastructure and Business Process- Your business processes and technology should be coordinated and work in alignment.
Also, Read- How To Combine The Funnel & The Marketing Flywheel?
What Does An Inbound Marketer Do For You
Let us peek into the life of an inbound marketer and see how their project goes by:
Builds persona
What sets an inbound marketer apart from traditional marketers is the inquisitive and analytical nature. An inbound marketer will study the market and more importantly study your customers thoroughly to conjure an exact image of how your customers are and what they like.
Buyer personas are fictional characters that resemble your ideal customers and help you target your marketing activities more efficiently.
Read– Buyer Persona Development and Why You Should Do It
Conducts Keyword Research
Now that the buyer personas are defined, the inbound marketer conducts thorough keyword research. It shows what people are searching for and where could your company have a chance to rank top on search engines. The inbound marketer will tap ranking potential as well as build a strategy around keywords so your audience can reach you organically.
In most cases, Google Ads is a great platform to find out keywords, what is their search volume, what is the competition and other statistics.
Formulates Strategy and Workflows
Attract Stage involves writing maximum quality content through blogging, ads, social media, and other channels. This is where your spark interest in your buyer and essentially tell them about your existence.
Quick Read: Why Social Media Is Important For Inbound Marketing
Once your buyer reaches you, your company needs to ensure they are engaged with your content and website processes. You keep them involved by providing helpful material and email marketing.
The last stage of conversion is usually your customer support and service that will be available for them after the purchase has happened and even during the purchase if required.
An inbound marketer looks after this for you by managing each stage and each campaign formulated. The workflow and strategy are put together by the marketer.
Content Audit and Analysis
Once the strategy is in place, the inbound marketer can now revisit older content and analyze what worked and what didn’t. The performance of the website can be assessed by tracking how many clicks the landing page received, number of conversions with Call To Action buttons etc. Existing content can be improved upon and presented in a manner to suit the tone of the company.
What Skills Should You Look For In Your Inbound Marketer
Thorough Market Research
This isn’t applicable for just an inbound marketer but for every kind of marketer you want to hire, knowing how to conduct market research and analyze it well is a skill you must ensure.
Basic Graphic Design Skills
When you are an inbound marketer, along with content you should have a basic knowledge of graphic design because you have to put together the best content in terms of design as well.
Knack For Anticipating Marketing Trends
An inbound marketer should be alert to market and industry news and have the ability to tap the potential of a favorable marketing situation.
Networking
Contacts are everything to an inbound marketer. The whole ideology of inbound is based on letting the audience come to you and well, being a good referral. The inbound marketer should be able to use his contacts for getting leads.
Video Management Skills
As the digital revolution has increased the value of video content, an inbound marketer must have basic video management skills. This will attract and keep an audience engaged.
Promotional Flair
While inbound is subtle marketing, it is still a promotion. An inbound marketer should understand how to promote the content in the right sphere.
Cultural Fluency
This may seem unnecessary but it is very important. An inbound marketer should be aware of cultural trends so content can be specific to a region.
Educational Aptitude
Inbound marketing is a lot of research and a lot of writing. The marketer should have a decent educational aptitude so he/she can learn more about your company and present educational content.
To conclude…
If you are still wondering about getting an inbound marketer, it is understandable. You need to define your organizational ideology and see if inbound fits into your way of doing things. You’ll be surprised to see that inbound marketing will most definitely fit your plan. And, an inbound marketer will scale your business upwards with a dignified method.
Interesting Read: Why You Should Hire A Marketing Agency