What is Inbound Marketing

Inbound Marketing (English: inbound = "incoming") is an acquisition strategy where your "dream clients" voluntarily come to you via social media, search engines, or blogs. The idea is to delight the customer. You succeed by engaging potential customers at the right moment with valuable information. Various marketing channels and methods are available that, if cleverly combined, can be very successful.

Learn how to build sustainable customer relationships, acquire existing customers, and turn customers into promoters of your brand in this article.

Fig.1: Inbound Marketing Wordle

Benefits of Inbound Marketing over Outbound Marketing

In inbound marketing, customers are provided with useful information about a product or service for which there is already a need or interest. A brand should be developed with which the user likes to interact. In contrast, outbound marketing often uses advertising to make a brand or product known to a user who has not been interested in it before. Both inbound and outbound marketing are used in online and offline marketing for customer acquisition and retention. CRM tools help integrate inbound and outbound campaigns.

Outbound marketing uses measures to address many people directly (push marketing). Radio and TV advertising, flyers, mail drops, mass emails, and telemarketing are used to broadcast messages widely to reach as many potential customers as possible.

Television advertising, for example, tries to draw a customer's attention to a product. In theory, a small percentage respond to the interruptions and convert into customers. The chances of a reaction are increased through constant data analysis, good ad placement, and A/B testing. However, purely advertising approaches and one-sided communication by advertisers are being rejected and ignored by more people.

This is partly due to the disruptive nature and volume of advertising to which everyone is exposed. Many everyday examples show that people react negatively to direct marketing:

• They change the channel during TV commercials

• Ad mail goes unopened into the trash

• Websites are left due to intrusive advertising

• Promotional emails end up in the spam folder

  

Fig.2: Direct Marketing

Purchase decisions are made differently today than they were a few years ago. Customers are much more informed about the products they are interested in. The internet makes gathering information easier than ever. Even in B2B, choices are made through internet research before asking for a price. Those who succeed in providing customers with the information they search for are better found. The chance that the customer will approach the company themselves increases.

High-quality content like white papers, e-books, podcasts, case studies, or infographics can enhance the image of products and services. To cater to users' individual search behavior, the content is distributed. You can share your content on social media platforms, through blog articles, and other methods. The aim is to attract potential customers through relevant content and meet them at the right time with the right products in the right place. Choose topics that persuade the customer through problem-solving. You can showcase your knowledge and simultaneously create added value for your customers. This lays the foundation for ongoing exchange and can turn potential customers into new customers, building a long-term customer relationship.

Inbound marketing strategies create long-term value for your potential customers. Once created, content belongs to you. In outbound marketing, potential customers are only addressed as long as advertising budgets flow.

Distinction: Inbound Marketing vs. Content Marketing

Inbound and content marketing are similar in terms of content aspects. However, inbound marketing focuses on generating closings in the form of leads/contacts and orders. Moreover, inbound marketing describes a process that spans several phases. Inbound marketing is planned and implemented in campaigns. In contrast, content marketing aims at long-term goals like brand building and visibility in search engines. The high-quality production of texts in content marketing is an integral part of an inbound marketing campaign.

The Inbound Marketing Strategy in Four Phases

The inbound marketing process can be mapped into four stages of the customer journey: generate traffic, generate leads, generate closings, and delight customers. In each of these phases, the user interacts differently with your company as they increasingly trust your product or service. From phases one to four, you gather knowledge about your customers. This allows you to tailor your marketing tools to your customers' specific needs and address them at the right time. Depending on the target audience, those channels are suitable for addressing them, where your customers like to communicate.

Phase 1: Generate Traffic

First, the attention of potential customers is piqued through high-quality content. The focus on a target audience is essential here. This advantage allows the content to be perfectly adapted to the target audience's needs and problems. Next, it’s about distributing the content, so the customer finds it during their research process. For example, you could write an interesting technical article and publish it in a renowned online magazine or on your blog. If a user searches this topic in the online magazine's database or on Google and finds your article, they will notice you. Search engine optimization helps ensure your article achieves a good ranking. You can leave content wherever potential customers seek it, online or offline.

Fig.3: Generate Traffic

Definition of the Target Audience

The term "target audience" encompasses all people you want to reach with your marketing campaign. In the target audience analysis, you can select a portion of the overall market through segmentation. Three different selection models are suitable for this:

• Socio-Demographic

  • B2C: Occupation, Age, Gender, Family Size, Income, Residence, Education Level

  • B2B: Company Size, Location, Industry, Revenue

• Purchase-Behavior Related:

  • B2C: Brand and Store Choice

  • B2B: Purchase Quantity, First-Time Buyer, Repeat Buyer

• Psychographic:

  • e.g., Lifestyle, Social Class, and Product Perception

Fig.4: Target Audience Segmentation

Another option for segmentation is buyer personas, which represent a customer. These personas are assigned personality traits. Based on this person’s perspective, you can develop rules of thumb reflecting the behavior of the entire segment. For instance, you can determine whether a customer group values quality or fast availability more.

This allows marketing efforts to be adapted to the customer's needs. Existing landing pages can be optimized with this information, and appropriate content can be created.

Fig.5: Definition of Buyer Personas

Content Creation

Once the target audience is defined, a content plan is created as the second step. Topic clusters are developed, geared towards the target audience. Text topics can be identified through keyword research. Additionally, addressing individual problems holds great potential for target groups. The collected ideas are organized and prioritized based on relevance. Finally, content is produced in white papers, videos, landing pages, blogs, case studies, or podcasts.

Fig.6: Content Creation

Content Distribution

Once the topics are found and the content is written, it must be distributed. In marketing jargon, the spreading of content is referred to as seeding. Influencer marketing and guest posts are particularly suitable for this purpose, as they ensure content spreads through word-of-mouth. It can also be published in blog posts, articles, books, or journals. Enthusiasm ensures users share content on social media platforms or publish it on your blog.

Furthermore, optimizing content for search engines is critical, so it is more easily found. Use your top keywords in headlines, structure the text, and ensure optimal internal linking. Additionally, you should ensure the correct implementation of the source code and provide the page with an appropriate title and description.

Phase 2: Generate Leads

The goal of the second phase is to obtain the user’s contact data. Measures are taken to promote interaction with the visitor. Storytelling is particularly important here. By building content, a story is told that excites the customer. Step by step, the customer is guided toward conversion with the correct marketing messages. In exchange for contact details, you can offer your customer useful content, such as e-books or white papers. If they agree, you can assume the user has a fundamental interest in your offer. Only potential customers truly interested in the offer are willing to provide their contact details voluntarily.

Fig.7: Generate Leads

A number of measures are available to prompt the visitor to exchange leads:

• Call to Actions are buttons or links that prompt a user to take a specific action (e.g., Buy, Read, Download). A good call to action is imperative, stands out, contrasts sharply with the background, and is prominently placed.

  • A landing page is a web page the user is directed to after clicking a call-to-action button, an ad, or a search engine result. It can dynamically adjust to (purchase) interest and direct the user to the goal - like a newsletter signup - along the shortest path.

  • Newsletters allow you to target users with relevant information. Showcase those products and services where there is already interest

  • Call buttons enable direct communication with the customer. You can cater individually to the customer's needs and offer suitable options.

  • Forms make it easier for you to tailor an offer to the customer. This is especially advantageous for advisory-intensive services.

Fig.8: Lead Generation Measures

Phase 3: Generate Closings

The focus in the fourth phase is on verifying generated leads and turning them into orders. A concrete request implies interest and possibly the potential customer's trust. The closing phase is the only stage in inbound marketing where you should actively engage with the potential customer. The closing can be achieved across several touchpoints. Various marketing tools help convert leads into closings step by step.

Fig.9: Generate Closings

Measures for Sales Generation

• Email Marketing: With helpful content series, you can continue building potential customer trust and prompt them into purchasing. The same strategic approach is required when creating email copy as with content planning.

• Display Advertising: You can address the customers who signed up for your newsletter or filled out a contact form through ad banners, provided they don't use an adblocker. Conversion tracking must be implemented for this.

• Phone: If your customer has sent you an inquiry and provided their phone number, you can call them. This way, you can address the customer's query and advise them on your products. The advantage is these are "warm contacts" already familiar with your brand.

• Print: If you have the prospective customer's address data, you can send them print advertising. You can provide your potential customer with further valuable information and promote offers.

Fig.10: Sales Generation Measures

Marketing Automation

Automated processes can streamline and optimize the effort for customer acquisition/retention. For instance, autoresponders can be created that automatically send emails with relevant content after a purchase or based on user activity after a specified number of days.

Information from all marketing campaigns and your customer relationship management tools can be combined in marketing automation software. The program informs how far a customer is in the purchase process and what they are interested in. You have the exact information needed to further qualify your leads. This shortens the customer's buying process, improves the conversion rate, and your marketing ROI.

Phase 4: Delight Customers

Once a user becomes a customer, the final phase of an inbound marketing strategy focuses on delighting customers. This is achieved by regularly providing customers with engaging content and offers. A long-term commitment to your product or service can develop, prompting the customer to make repeat purchases. Loyal customers can be offered high-value products as they trust your quality. But discounts also act as reinforcing purchasing triggers. Up-selling and cross-selling increase revenue per customer. If you consistently delight your customers with your products and services, the likelihood of them recommending you increases. A loyal customer can become a promoter of your brand, generating new prospects. These go through phases two to four, and the process starts again.

Fig.11: Delight Customers

The following tools help you build high interaction with your customers:

• Call-to-actions that offer products specifically tailored to your customers or refer them to content providing added value.

• Social Media allows you to provide customers with real-time information. You can inform your customers about ongoing activities or developments of new products. Through shares, likes, and comments, your customers can interact with you and express their enthusiasm. High interaction benefits your brand image and reinforces your social proof. Social media buttons can show on your website how many enthusiastic fans you have. This convinces potential customers.

• In email campaigns, you can engage your existing customers with relevant content and offer individual support. You might even support your customers in achieving their goals. If appropriate, you can also work with personalization.

• Integrating an RSS feed into your website can notify your customers of updates. For instance, they can be alerted of a new blog article, podcast episode, or video file.

• Surveys can be used to get qualitative feedback, which can then be used to optimize your existing campaigns. It also signals that you care about your customers. You should also consider feedback from phone conversations and social media activities.

Fig.12: Delight Customers Measures

Milestones for the Four Phases of Inbound Marketing

Before you start driving traffic to your website, you should set measurable interim goals. For new visitors, indicators like long session duration, many page views per session, low bounce rate, a link, lead, or share show some visitor excitement. Determine how many inquiries via forms or newsletters you want to receive and how many closings you want to generate. Comparing your goals with the actual data will help you better assess campaign success. This allows you to respond quickly to incoming data and make decisions based on your target goals.

New Challenges for Marketers

To successfully implement an inbound marketing campaign, marketers need various skills. An integral part of a successful inbound marketing campaign is understanding a customer's buying and commissioning process. Additionally, it's about developing a content strategy and producing and distributing high-quality content. Besides the online marketing channels: email, social media, SEA, SEO, and content marketing, web analytics, lead management, and customer relation management are required for a successful inbound marketing campaign. All channels should be viewed holistically, and projects realized based on them.

A significant challenge is the increasing technologization of marketing. Marketing automation is a big asset for a sophisticated inbound marketing strategy. Signals can be recognized in real-time, and offers tailored to user behavior can be sent. For example, if a user comes through a search engine to a product detail page, you can send them an email with a free consultation offer. Also, all user information can be collected, such as which PDFs have been downloaded and what categories a user is browsing. Determining which marketing messages work best at what time requires testing or data analysis.

A good strategy always considers the goals of inbound and outbound marketing.

Conclusion

Marketing is changing with the development of the internet. New user behaviors impact user research, purchasing behavior, and interaction with your brand. At the same time, technological progress offers many advantages. For example, you can personalize your marketing campaigns and dynamically tailor your websites and emails to the customer's individual needs.

Inbound marketing earns customer attention by creating added value. In the long term, inbound marketing is profitable because it turns customers into brand ambassadors with high brand loyalty. Enthusiastic customers have a much higher customer lifetime value and also bring in new prospects by recommending a product to friends. However, creating and maintaining requires a certain budget and much creativity. Moreover, ensuring content is placed in a search-friendly way is crucial. The fact is, your marketing strategy will only succeed with top-notch content—only with it can you earn your target audience's attention.

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