Inbound marketing is a digital marketing methodology that aims to attract users in a non-intrusive way by using the right content at the right time.
We all know that from time to time it's important to reassess your overall strategy and look at how you can give it an extra boost. To help you with this, we'll look at 10 techniques you can use to improve your inbound marketing performance. Let’s get started!
Inbound Marketing is based on attracting the prospect to you, not seeking them out. We've compiled 10 attraction techniques to help boost your inbound marketing strategy.
Your blog is one of the most important channels - or even main channel - for your content strategy. Do not ignore this essential inbound tool! Having a blog is one of the best bases of any inbound strategy because it organically attracts traffic and leads. Make sure that your content is high quality, that you post regularly, and that you are addressing topics of interest to your audience.
The conversion funnel should serve as a guiding source when planning your inbound marketing strategy. With this in mind, use customization to personalize your content for every stage of the funnel. The more relevant your content is to the user, the more appreciated and connected they feel to the brand. Here are some personalization ideas based on each phase.
Are you using all of the lead magnets at your disposal? Lead magnets, or Inbound Marketing tools, are techniques and elements that help to organically attract users. They provide value, are based on the Buyer Persona and the customer journey. These special inbound marketing tools are the very things that help move your lead down the conversion funnel. Ensure that you are using all them correctly and in the most optimal way.
The most important lead magnets are:
There are many types of lead magnets and many different ways you can use them. A classic example is a CTA within a blog post (in fact, there are two in this very blog post! Can you spot them?).
Call to actions are elements that serve to get your users to perform a specific action. Many people think that putting CTAs here and there is good enough, but this is far from the truth. Instead of placing your CTAs wherever, develop a strong strategy that will encourage users to move along the conversion funnel and get your better results.
Use these techniques when developing your CTAs:
Landing pages and forms turn anonymous visitors into leads.
Take a look at your current landing pages and ask yourself two questions: Is the content on this landing page in line with what the user needs, and Does the UX and design encourage the user to stay on the landing page? These two factors will play a very important role in conversion rates.
Here are two tips for creating a good landing page:
Don’t forget about your forms! Take a long hard look at what you're asking leads to fill out. Are you asking for too much? Including too many questions in a form can lower the conversion rate. Remember, the answers should only help you define whether the person is a marketing qualified lead (MQL) or not. Consider which questions are relevant and absolutely necessary.
I recommend using progressive forms. This means every time leads return to your website, new questions appear on the form. This allows you to get more information about the prospect, while also not annoying them with the same questions.
There is a time and place to use long forms, but only when the value content you offer is equivalent to what you’re asking for. Basically, make your content worthy of filling out a longer form.
Email marketing is an essential strategy within inbound marketing. To this day it remains a key tool for lead nurturing.
Take a look at your workflow and see if you are utilizing their full potential. Working workflows properly will allow you to nurture your leads and accompany them in the different phases of the conversion funnel. For example, if a user downloads an ebook or whitepaper, set up a workflow that continues to send them more relevant content. If they respond well to these emails (opens the emails, clicks the links, etc.) you can consider reaching out personally after determining if they are a SQL.
While SEO and inbound marketing are not exactly the same things, they do have very similar goals. SEO is a crucial tool for your inbound marketing strategy. Using SEO techniques helps attract visitors to your website, so optimizing it will help boost your inbound marketing processes and turn visitors into leads and then customers.
Link building is the strategy of placing incoming links from your website onto other relevant, high-quality websites. To be effective, the following parameters must be taken into account:
Don’t forget about social media in your inbound marketing plan. Apart from spreading your content, social media can also help you with lead recruitment, branding, and brand awareness. Links from social networks, although dofollow, are also taken into account by Google at the SEO level. So keep your social networks active with a lot of content.
A good inbound marketing strategy combines the paid and organic parts intelligently. Using paid ads, like Google Ads or Social Ads will reinforce your Inbound strategy. For example, the keyword study that you did for your SEO blog articles can also help you for your SEM campaign.
In general, PPC ads is good for quick, short-term results, while pure SEO Inbound is more of a medium-to-long-term strategy, but with very good results when you start to pull. If you find your inbound marketing plan is off to a slow start, consider strengthening it with SEM.