Inbound marketing, it’s a paradigm shift –

 As a business owner, you may have noticed how the tried-and-true methods of marketing are slowly losing their luster. Most businesses, including our own agency, have had to face these challenges.    

We haven’t always been an Internet marketing agency. Personally, I garnered my marketing and advertising experience with traditional marketing agencies – so I too have seen the erosion of (what’s commonly referred to as) outbound marketing. You know the tactics: direct mail, print advertising, radio and television, even cold calling and telemarketing. Shrinking attention spans, more choices and excessive marketing noise have most people tuning out. It’s simply harder today than ever before to find ‘and keep’ new customers.

It’s a paradigm shift –
The emergence of digital channels and internet-based social media has created a new world of communications. What is clear is that technology is changing the game, but this offers a huge ‘plus side’ to businesses that embrace it. Remember, what destroys the old creates opportunity for something brand new – new execution, new thinking and new strategy for those businesses that have the drive and creativity. It’s something that our agency has embraced and we love the results.

What may be changing is really just the medium. A lot of the principles of marketing remain – it’s being creative with your approach and strategizing and leveraging these new platforms that are critical for business success today. Inbound marketing strategies and methodologies have transformed many businesses and continue to move the needle for our own agency.

Here’s our Inbound marketing ’10-Step’ program that I highly recommend – 
1.) Provide a strategic roadmap – develop a plan with goals and objectives. For example: define primary target group with the goal to drive traffic, produce qualified leads and convert those leads into customers.

2.) Develop keywords – develop a collection of keywords that you can start ranking for. 

3.) Develop keyword rich content – content is king. Start using those keywords in your content and improve your site ranking with relevant, useful industry-related optimized content. 

4.) More content, more often – blog often, one-industry relevant blog post minimum 3 times per week, become a thought leader in your industry.

5.) Improve SEO – (search engine optimization) this includes on-page optimization, internal linking and optimizing calls-to-action and landing pages for high performing SEO.

6.) Calls-to-action – Every page is an opportunity to market your business. Include compelling offers with landing pages to capture qualified leads.

7.) Social media marketing – Broadcast your message to a wider audience. Create a strategy that ties your business into popular channels like: LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube.

8.) E-Mail – email newsletters to subscribers and stay with them regardless of their timeframe to purchase. 

9.) Analyze – SEO, traffic, sources and leads using research tools (like Google and HubSpot)

10.) Adjust – content, social, SEO and lead strategy constantly to improve

Use this ’10 Step’ program to leverage the power of the digital marketplace. A well developed Inbound marketing strategy will drive traffic, increase lead generation and ultimately grow your business.