How Do You Draw In High-Quality Buyer Prospects?
You shouldn’t answer this question in the internet/social media age the same way you would have in the 20th century.
Pre-digital marketing occurred over limited media channels with strategies that were interruptive and unsubtle. Marketers would force messaging on as many people as possible and hope to convert enough people into customers to justify the expense.
The internet, of course, has blown up the traditional media landscape and enabled marketers a new approach, inbound marketing.
Inbound marketing is a strategy that plays to the strengths of the internet.
But what is inbound marketing exactly?
Inbound marketing provides potential customers with answers to their questions and solutions to their problems in the form of valuable, relevant content. These answers and solutions organically attract prospects to your business and convert them into quality leads.
If you’re interested in implementing an inbound marketing approach for your business, here are five questions and answers to guide you towards a successful inbound marketing campaign.
1) Who Are Your Buyers?
Knowing about your ideal customers, and creating a written profile about them, will jumpstart your effort to produce valuable content for them.
Layout all the key demographic info: age, gender, geography, income. Also, think in terms of your ideal buyer’s career and personal goals. A descriptive, precise buyer profile – or profiles (you will likely find that your business caters to more than one type of buyer) – underpins every successful inbound marketing campaign.
2) What Do They Need?
Some of your buyers may be just coming around to the idea that they have an issue that needs solving. Others may be well aware of their problem and are actively researching solutions. In Inbound marketing terms, this is referred to as the “buyer’s journey.”
When you are creating content – blog posts, social media posts, helpful resources such as a frequently-asked-questions sheet or webinar – keep your buyer’s journey in mind. Create content that is relevant to where they are in their decision-making process.
3) What Is Relevant Content?
Inbound marketing is about building trust, building relationships, and positioning your company as a helpful authority in your industry.
Content that speaks to the questions your potential buyers are grappling with will attract them to your product or solution.
Blog posts that compare products on the market, webinars that educate people on an industry topic, videos that explain complex industry concepts – these are all examples of valuable content aimed at potential customers.
When creating and distributing these content offers, keep your customer in mind, rather than your bottom line.
4) How Do You Convert Prospects Into Qualified Leads?
Attracting potential customers to your website with relevant content is the first step along the sales pipeline.
Converting site visitors into actionable leads is the next level of inbound marketing success.
Find Out How Inbound Marketing Can Help Your Business
You can accomplish this with “gated” content – offers that are given to people who submit a form on your site that includes at least their email address.
If you’ve attracted them to your site via a valuable blog post and they are interested in hearing more, they’ll gladly submit their email address. And for that, they’ll receive your gated content.
Once you have their contact information, you can continue your campaign to educate and enlighten them knowing they are a qualified lead. This is someone who wants to hear from you, so tailor content to someone who is at the decision-making stage of their buyer’s journey. This content is typically distributed via a targeted email or a newsletter.
5) Were You Successful?
Website and mailing list software can help you track what people are clicking on and downloading. This data allows you to parse which content people are connecting with and discontinue content ideas that are falling flat.
Use this knowledge to fine-tune your efforts. Double down on the strongest elements of your campaign to optimize your future efforts.
Understanding the answers to these questions and committing to a long-term, consistent inbound marketing program will pay off in quality leads and new clients.
Thanks for stopping by,
Laura
Breezy Hill Marketing is a Vermont web design company serving clients in Vermont and throughout the United States. We specialize in marketing strategy and social media marketing. We build beautiful, optimized and mobile responsive websites.
