What is Inbound Marketing?

    If we asked you to describe all the different types of marketing, do you think you could do it? And no, you can’t use Google. All right, what if we were more specific and asked you to describe inbound marketing? Could you? Even if you said yes, read until the end because you might learn something new. Today, we’re looking at what inbound marketing is and what businesses can do to develop and adapt their own. 

     Let’s start by defining what inbound marketing is. HubSpot defines inbound marketing as a business methodology that attracts customers by creating valuable content and experiences tailored to them. You can do this through blogs, videos, e-newsletters, podcasts, eBooks, and social media marketing. This, what you’re looking at right now, is an example of inbound marketing meant to attract customers to our website and entertain those that visit. 

     Since these are just items listed, we’re going to look at each one closer and describe how businesses can use them. 

Blogs.

     This one should be an obvious one to you since you’re currently scrolling through this piece of inbound marketing. Company blogs can be a great tool for generating interest from customers about your business and connecting with prospects who might stumble across your blog and decide to learn more about your company.

     These blog articles don’t have to be broad or even micro-focused. They create valuable content that makes a customer want to stay and explore your website or keep coming back for new content. So the idea of doing blogs is to be creative and engaging.

Videos.

     This item might require some explaining because some people see video promotion and think of ads or a YouTube channel, which is an inbound marketing strategy, but we’ll talk about that later. Videos are designed and set up to be informative and helpful to customers, like a tutorial or introduction to the company or something silly to spark interest. Videos are pieces of creative content that customers can click on and engage with while being entertained by the material.

     Videos don’t have to be lengthy to be considered valuable. However, if you want them to be available on multiple platforms, make sure you’ve optimized the video to be recognized by search engines and social algorithms.

E-Newsletters.

     Newsletters are excellent tools for communicating the current state of a business and its efforts with existing customers and informing potential customers about the efficacy and transparency of your business. In e-newsletters, you can tease customers about an upcoming product or service release, let them know if you made a new partnership, include overview pieces of blogs or social posts, and encourage customers to check them out.

     Newsletters like these will often be sent out as an email, and you can direct them to specific audience members depending on their content or to whom it’s speaking. E-newsletters can also be used within the company to inform employees about upcoming events or to keep them in the loop if something happens.

Podcasts.

      This approach for inbound marketing has been gaining popularity in recent years, and it can be an amazing source of content and generating interest for your company. Podcasts are excellent because they can be about literally anything you want! No matter what idea you want to develop a podcast around, there’s already a category and an invested audience just waiting to hear what you talk about.

     Promoting your business through a podcast or as an ad on a popular podcast can be an effective method for getting customers interested in you and what you have to offer. Especially the larger audience that finds you appealing. 

eBooks.

   Using an online book as a means of promotion when you’re a business may sound strange, but it can pay off in unique ways when applied correctly. Ebooks are usually downloadable PDFs that discuss a particular industry or topic in-depth in which your company is the author or credited in some form as a contributing resource. These eBooks will typically come in a general format and break up into chapters to answer more specific customer questions.

    These scripts can range in length and can be as generic or specific as you want them. If you choose to use this type of inbound marketing technique, then make sure the promotion of your business is clear to the audience.

Social Media Marketing.

      This last option for inbound marketing may seem a bit vague, but it’s kept generic for a reason. It encompasses several platforms worth of promotion and content types. Posting content on any social platform to promote your business counts as social media marketing. For example, uploading promotional and creative content to Instagram, Facebook, Linkedin, Reddit, Twitter, and videos on a company YouTube channel. (Told you we’d come back to it.)

     With this approach, you have a lot of freedom in your content and decide which platforms you wish to promote. Of course, this will depend heavily on the kind of social content you want to upload and the social demographic of your target audience. 

 How Can You Use This?

      Your business can benefit greatly from employing any of these techniques, or if you already are, fine-tuning it based on how well audiences respond to it. Examine what your company is doing now for its inbound marketing strategy and see any gaps in effort and results that you think could benefit from a little tender loving care. Pay attention to areas of inbound marketing that work well and see if there are any overlaps in your efforts to transfer to other techniques or content types. 

     While you’re deciding which approach you want to use for new inbound marketing campaigns, take some time to research how things are promoted and created on different platforms. Learn the tricks of the trade for yourself, and see if you could do something better for your company’s promotions. 

    Remember: when doing social media marketing, the same content will not yield the same results on all platforms. So mix it up and make sure the tone of what you’re creating matches what will capture your audience’s attention on each platform.  

   Inbound marketing is not something one perfects overnight; it’s going to be a long process of trying different tactics and experimenting with your creativity. Or, if you feel like you may be in over your head, we can help you figure it out! Marketing is a community effort, and it requires more than one mind or company to make it happen.