Inbound marketing is when you market to the people that are specifically looking for your goods and services by pushing content through social media networks and automated marketing programs specific to your brand. Your customers, fans, or members are looking for this content so you push it to them and they come “in” to your website and store to learn more. Inbound marketing shows why content is king because people volunteer their email address to collect the content. The more content you have that’s engaging and shared, the more likely you are to appear as a top result. The fact of the matter is no one likes to be sold, but everybody is buying. Everybody. So how does the consumer buy? They buy from people and brands that they trust. How do they gain that trust? They do research online. They look for content. The more content specific about the subject matter the higher Google ranks the website. Google calls it Authority and together with the number of followers and links to your website the higher you rank. You are the Authority on the subject so you get the sale. Thus content is king literally. Through your social media posts you brand the message, connect with your audience, and convert them to customers. The actual chain is:
1. blog post generated
2. content pushed through social accounts
3. posts linked back to website
4. email ‘opt in’ generated
5. email address collected
6. customer engaged
7. customer purchases
8. customer rewarded
9. customer shares their passion for your brand
10. email’s are generated by referral
Inbound marketing is targeted towards the people actually looking or in need of your product or service. It’s a novel concept that’s turning traditional marketing and advertising on its head and one that we first posted in February of 2014.
