In the last twenty years, consumer behavior has radically changed. What worked to get customers in the eighties and nineties is not the same as what works today.
With the possibilities that technology offers us, you can attract new customers by offering them attractive content and accompanying them throughout the purchase process.
The marketing inbound, known in USA as marketing attraction is a strategy dedicated to creating relevant content and capable of creating added value.
Customer-focused marketing
The current business philosophy in force establishes that it is not enough to attract customers to your channels, but you must also help, guide, and retain them even after the sale has been closed.
In this way, you create valuable relationships that last over time.One of the pillars of inbound marketing is teamwork between the sales, marketing, and customer service departments.
By being aligned, you have the opportunity to cover all the client’s needs to offer them a personalized experience that invites them to stay with you and retain others.
Differences between inbound marketing and traditional marketing
The most important difference between inbound marketing and traditional marketing is in the way you attract customers.
Both strategies have value when it comes to increasing the sales of your company, however, they have different approaches in the way of approaching your potential customers.
Traditional marketing or outbound marketing has a unidirectional character where your brand emits the message and consumers are the recipients without there being a greater relationship with you.
Added value for your customers
For its part, the inbound marketing of a simple premise: s I create quality content for your ideal clients can attract qualified prospects at the same time generate trust and credibility for your brand.
Outbound marketing can be intrusive, especially when using techniques such as making phone calls or leaving information in the mailbox. While inbound marketing seeks to be as less invasive as possible.
A solid inbound marketing strategy allows you to make better use of your company’s resources to create stronger ties with each of your clients.
For example, you can receive their feedback in real-time on both what they like and what they don’t like about your products.
Sales increase
Phases of Inbound Marketing
Every inbound marketing strategy consists of providing information, support, and customer support at each stage of the marketing funnel.
This process in turn is divided into four different stages: attraction, recruitment, conversion, and loyalty.
1) Attraction
When creating content, you should do it by thinking about the type of customers you want to attract.
To do this, you need to know who your ideal customers are and what type of content can be useful to them.
You must offer them relevant information at the right time to connect with your audience.
One of the advantages of inbound marketing is that the content continues to generate visits and leads long after it is published.
2) Capture
In this second phase, the focus is on converting the users who come to your website into potential customers.
The idea is that you invite them through calls to action, to participate in the offers and promotions that you have available, or to leave their data so that they can be contacted in the future.
To achieve the objectives of this phase, you can design landing pages with forms to collect information, launch campaigns and offers on social networks, create a user database, and design strategies to increase interaction with your brand in the different channels.
3) Conversion
The hardest part of any marketing strategy is closing the sale.
In the case of inbound marketing, it is in this phase when you take advantage of all the information that you have previously collected to offer the customer the product they are looking for.
Ideally, use some type of CRM (Customer Relationship Manager) to connect with your potential customers in the database.
Here you can also use automated techniques that will allow you to know when is the right time to close the sale, depending on the point in the cycle where your client is.
Also, the objectives of this phase may vary depending on the scope and goals that you have set for the campaign.
In a business launch, you may be more interested in the customer signing up for the database or in a trial period of your service than the sale itself.
4) Loyalty
Each sale is an opportunity to build loyalty. The ultimate goal of inbound marketing is to retain customers and deliver memorable experiences.
It is a common mistake to neglect this stage and forget about the customer after the sale is finalized.
In this phase, you must delight the consumer: offer superior customer service.
Create content that meets your needs, use email marketing tools, and try to maintain communication with the customer to ensure that their next purchase is with you.
Inbound Marketing: The New Marketing Paradigm
In this way, you can make yourself known and attract the clients you are looking for at a lower cost than with traditional strategies.
At the core of inbound marketing is adding value to your target audience at every stage of the sales cycle to deliver memorable user experiences.
