What is inbound marketing and what can it do for your business?

Inbound marketing is the practice of attracting prospects to you rather than going to them. Unlike traditional marketing, which uses advertising to try to seduce its target audience, inbound marketing allows companies, through various strategies, to naturally attract customers to a space (website or other platform) that leads them to consider purchasing a product or service.

Why is it effective?

As opposed to traditional marketing, inbound marketing is more effective, since it allows you to attract prospects who already have a basic interest in the product or service you are selling. Indeed, since they are the ones who come to you, you are more likely to make a sale than if you try to convince them or force them to buy. Not only is inbound marketing more effective, but it is also less expensive than traditional marketing and makes it easier to build customer loyalty.

What are the main techniques of inbound marketing?

There are several ways to naturally attract prospects to you, without soliciting them directly or trying to sell them a product through an advertisement.Use content to become news media

One of those ways is to use content to become a thought leader in your industry. The principle is simple: to attract visitors to your platforms, you just need to send them quality informative content related to your area of expertise.

This content can take the form of advice or free ebooks. It can also take the form of blogs, infographics or video clips. As long as your content is useful, informative, and tailored to the interests and needs of your target audience, it will get you seen and increase your chances of attracting more leads to you.

Take the example of a shoe store. By sharing articles on shoe fashions, shoe manufacturing processes, the stars’ favorite shoes or how to choose the right pair of shoes, you transmit useful and relevant information to your prospects (shoe buyers), who will be likely to click on your links to read your content. By doing so, they will be redirected to your website, where they can see your products, without feeling forced to buy, since the maneuver comes from them. If they like what they see and buy your shoes, you will have made sales without soliciting your prospects directly.

Social media

Once you have created or unearthed your content, you need to share it with your potential customers. There are several ways to do this, but the main ones are through the newsletter or social media. Indeed, social media are important platforms that should not be overlooked as part of an inbound marketing strategy. You can use social media to share your blog posts, but also to share funny quotes, photos and infographics that you find related to your field of activity.

Drive engagement to generate more sales

If the content you share on your social networks is original, impactful and useful, your followers will like it, comment on it and share it with their friends. Ultimately, this commitment will allow you to improve your visibility and your traffic on your website and thus increase your turnover in a natural way.