What is Inbound Marketing?
Inbound marketing is a strategic approach to creating valuable content that meets the needs of a specific target audience and thus inspiring long-term customer relationships. With the passing of time and the evolution of the business world, many business persons and entrepreneurs have come up with different definitions of what inbound marketing is. One such entrepreneur is Raphael Avraham Sternberg, an established business consultant with a lot of experience helping small businesses stabilize.
He describes inbound marketing as growing your organization by building meaningful, lasting relationships with customers, consumers, and prospective clients. He further states that this kind of marketing connects with an audience,by linking them with helpful content through organic means like the use of search engines and sharing links with friends, for example, a skillfully crafted post about a blogger’s favorite product will speak to a potential customer in a way a banner cannot.
Raphael gives steps involved in inbound marketing as follows;
Research
Having proper research is essential before venturing into this type of marketing. The accurate, in-depth analysis helps one understand the logistics and create a solid plan accompanied by informed decisions regarding addressing the target group.
Networking
It is essential to connect with other businesses and professionals for exchanges and open a learning sphere to create room for the optimization of new ideas and possible improvements.
Time management
Adopting a schedule compliant with this type of marketing regarding every activity you plan to carry out and at what specific time is essential. For success, one should avoid procrastination.
Know the target market
It will enable one to create the proper strategy fitting your audience in order to drive sales.
Raphael Avraham Sternberg outlines several techniques that can be extremely useful in inbound marketing. They include the following;
Use of guides and e-books that are directly related to the given business. They could even be free to increase the accessibility scope.
Building a personal brand and endeavoring to create an online footprint by this brand to make the brand accessible and familiar in the market
Ask and answer questions on social media to interact with the clients and prospects in a more extensive avenue and probably create an email popup among many other techniques.
He further outlines the following as the stages involved in inbound marketing:
Entice/Appease
It is always important to approach the prospect and target market with an attractive package that will capture their attention to what the marketer offers.
Convince
Once the prospect’s attention has been captured, one needs to ensure they present the business to the client and strongly convince them, thus converting them. Once you flip the client, ensure you close the deal.
Satisfy
Making the client happy is the aim of any business. Ensure the client is content with the products and services you offer.
There are several types of inbound marketing, including but not limited to Search Engine Optimization, which is a strategy that involves making improvements to a website to appear higher in search results and generate more online interest. The other type is the pay per click advertising which relies on the use of keywords.
Based on the above, Raphael conclusively outlines the benefits of Inbound Marketing as being cheaper, building higher trust and credibility, and offering an opportunity to learn and evolve as one attracts visitors and converts them into customers. Inbound marketing is thus a possible business growth method that society should tap into in the fast-growing digital world.
