Inbound marketing starts with your presence in places where your target market hangs out.
Social Media
- Social media activity, such as your Facebook, Blog and Twitter posts
- LinkedIn: company and sales staff pages and posts
- Your YouTube channel
- Instagram gallery
- Articles in high-traffic publications and websites
- Placements in directories
- Blog article dissemination
- Backlink propagation
Your presence in selected Social Media hang-outs puts you in front of the people you want to reach – as does having your website and/or digital ad in front of the people in your target market who are searching for the products or services you offer.
Self-qualified visitors, dropping into the top of your sales funnel, are your most important visitors.
Studies consistently show significantly higher R.O.I. for Inbound rather than Outbound (traditional) Marketing and advertising. Many campaigns benefit from both.
Zero in on your target demographic with click-through ads in Google, LinkedIn, and Social Media.
Aggressive lead capturing – Pros and Cons
The classic Inbound lead capturing technique offers visitors inside knowledge – upon submitting their name and email address. Only then do they receive that tantalizing E?Book or PDF.
Ads for E-Books geared to your target market can be an excellent starting point. Demonstrate your company’s expertise, give your visitors information of real value to them, and get their contact info while you’re at it. An “E-Book” is usually a PDF packed with inside information.
- Prospect clicks on your ad for an E-Book
- Arrives at landing page, and is intrigued by the insights and benefits of E-Book info
- Fills in their name, email address… often company name and phone number
- Gets a link to the E-Book, which they then download
- Their contact info goes into your Sales Funnel as a Motivated, Qualified Lead
- Scheduled emails can then follow with offers of more valuable info, limited time discounts, etc. until they reach out and make that purchase.
E-Book offers can immediately begin raising your profile while organic SEO takes effect.
This works well in some cases, particularly if you’re offering very specific product or service information that is of actual value to your prospects. In many cases, though, visitors are put off by this ploy knowing that it will be followed by a barrage of sales emails and/or phone calls.
Gathering such leads often works better if you present a special offer (i.e. “download this half-price coupon for your next oil change”) – that gives them tangible value, and for you, a new customer. Each situation must be valued on its merits.
In most cases, we favour empowering visitors with transparency, which is why you won’t find “gotcha” walls hiding content on our website.
If you like what you’re reading, just reach out to us. We’ll be happy to talk.
