Inbound Marketing – I have no time need for it.

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#17 Diya SelvaIf you think you have no time or need for inbound marketing, I’d say you’ll only have time on your hands soon because soon, you won’t have any business. I’m addressing this challenge today in my April Blog Challenge Day 17.

Until the late 90s outbound marketing worked well for businesses. Outbound marketing is mostly traditional marketing, digital or traditional. Advertising, direct mail campaigns, cold calls to find customers, posters in public places, are all outbound marketing techniques.

Change is the only constant factor in business. Or in everything else. Which means the way people do business and how people shop have changed. If you’re in business, inbound marketing is a must. Inbound marketing activities are those you take up to make it easier for customers to find your business on the Internet.

Needless to say your website is the corner stone for inbound marketing. It’s your one digital catalogue which people find , through search engine or from a business card or any directory listing. A website is a must, it’s cost-effective, long-term plan and a great asset.

Imagine sending out thousands of flyers after spending a lot of money on printing and distributing them. Once they’re distributed they’re gone, for the next month you reprint. But a website is for longer-term and a one time investment.

Once you send out flyers, you have no way of knowing how many people were interested in the flyer or what you had to offer. You would never know how many people clipped it on the fridge or threw it into their recycle bin.

But website clicks are trackable and click analytics will tell you how many people have been visiting over and over again. These regular visitors can be kept reminded of you through retargeting ads. These visitors are more likely to turn into customers in the long run.

Inbound marketing is much easier than you imagined. Let me put this into three simple steps.

  1. Create a marketing strategy.
  2. Outline your goals to clearly define your endpoint.
  3. Chop down the plan into tasks you can do schedule weekly and daily.

Experts might add more to this list, but in my opinion, if you have absolutely no time, you need to make time for these three main components of inbound marketing. Website and SEO with pay per click campaigns, Content Marketing and Social Media Marketing. Let’s talk a little more.

Website and SEO with pay per click campaigns

While we have established that having a website is a must, an optimized one is better. SEO is the process of optimizing your website’s structure and content to show up among the first few results when prospective clients search online. When your web content that has been written and optimized for search engines, search bots all over the web index your web pages, so they appear higher up the search results page. The higher you show up, the better.

Content Marketing

It’s information age. People are always hungry for information. Your content draws people to your website. Content could be in any form, blogs, white papers, eBooks, podcasts, videos, graphics, etc. Create content of value to people, offer unique ideas and thoughts. Create content for humans and optimize for bots. Create content that is easy to be found.

Social Media Marketing

Your prospective customers are on social media. Get on their platforms and communicate. Your social media is your portal to socializing with your customers, do not use these sites like billboards. Do not sell, sell, sell and offer deals like a clown with a megaphone. Listen to your audience and engage. Showcase and market your brand appropriately and customers will follow.

 

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