Have you ever heard someone say, “all these leads are coming from our website.”? When you heard that individual say that, did you ever wonder, “how I can do the same for my business?” This “secret” and the results that this individual is having can be most likely attributed to an Inbound strategy. What is inbound you say? Our friends at Hubspot could best describe it as, “a method of attracting, engaging, and delighting people to grow a business that provides value and builds trust.” There are many methods that you can use for an inbound strategy, such as:
- Written Blogs
- Educational Videos
- Guides
- E-Books
- Surveys
- Social Media Listening
For this article, we want to focus solely on a strategy we call Inbound Content Marketing. We now know what Inbound is, so let’s break down what content marketing is. According to the Content Marketing Institute, content marketing is described as, “a strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly defined audience — and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action.
Now that we know these two definitions (Inbound & Content Marketing), we can combine them to say that Inbound Content Marketing is, “attracting, engaging, and delighting our potential customers with valuable, relevant and consistent content.” There are 5 examples that we will cover in this article, which are:
- User Generated Video Content
- Infographics
- Special Sales/Offerings
- Thank You Content
- Engaging with Your Fans Online
#1 User Generated Video Content
It isn’t new, but video content has been dominating social media. If you have been absolutely clueless, here are some stats from Social Media Today:
- 7 out of 10 marketing professionals are optimizing video for SEO.
- Marketers who use video grow revenue 49% faster than non-video users.
- Marketers who use video receive 41% more web traffic from search than non-users.
- 52% of marketing professionals worldwide name video as the type of content with the best ROI.
If that doesn’t perk your interest or show just how rewarding video content can be, we don’t know what will. We suggest showing customer success testimonies with high quality of video. This can paint the picture of a customer transformation through their own words. Social proof can be used to make your potential customer curious if the same can be done for them. Sometimes videos don’t even have to be made by you, it can be user-generated-content (UGC) made by your own customer. There can be an incentivisation program put into place (think discounts, shoutouts, etc) where you can reward people for becoming ambassadors. Have your potential leads become believers.
#2 Infographics
Have you ever seen a graphic online that educated through an illustration? Chances are that this was an infographic. What is an infographic? Vengage, a great source on where to make infographics, describes infographics as, “ a collection of imagery, charts, minimal text that gives an easy-to-understand overview of a topic. Pictured here, is an example of what an infographic may look like. We highly suggest that you keep your audience educated about your service or product, with colorful illustrations. This can be stats, processes, successes, potential pains, etc. Educate your potential leads to generate interest on how your service/product could potentially solve their issues, especially if you are asking for a heavy premium.
#3 Special Sales/Offerings
This may seem like the most obvious topic, but one that is missed so much. Just because your customer converted, doesn’t mean they won’t do it again and/or tell a friend to do them same. This topic could be a whole article itself, because there are many method for post-purchase marketing. See that a certain client hasn’t bought for a while? Have Facebook Messenger send them a special discount code for being such a good customer. Is there an upcoming holiday that is relevant to your brand? Have a storewide sale and promote high quality content to target new customers.
#4 Thank you Content
We all have that generated message that we all receive once we purchase or download something online right? One way to stand out from the crowd is to be personal. Think about this, what if every time you had a client purchase you send them a personalized video and showing appreciation? This can be tactical and have a video going out, organically, the day that you know they will receive the package. This can be distributed in the form of an email, text, or a message on social media. Now lets think off the internet, when was the last time you received a thank you letter that was handwritten in the mail? Think about what other businesses are not doing so that your customer remembers that action you took to make them feel special.
#5 Engaging with Fans Online
This may sound like the easiest task to do, since we are all on some sort of platform where our customers hang out. But it is one of the most tedious and overlooked tasks to do. Inbound Content Marketing is a contact sport, build content through listening & engaging that will bring customers to your profile or website. Gary Vaynerchuck’s strategy of the $1.80 Rule, is a perfect example of how to contribute and engage to communities that matter to your business. His strategy consists of following 10 Hashtags (like Instagram) and contributing to the top 9 posts content every single day. This seems like a far reach, but even doing this at 50% gives you a great amount of communication. We suggest also being engaged with customers who have bought multiple times from you so that they continue to feel connected to your business and have them coming back to your profile/website.
Conclusion
In conclusion, there are many more methods you can include in your Inbound Content Marketing strategy. One reminder is to be authentic, organic, and native to the platform you are creating content on. Inbound Content Marketing is truly value-driven for your current and potential customers. Always create content with objectives and aim them towards certain customer segments. Creating within context will make your Inbound Content Marketing campaigns effective and generate results.
If you have more questions about Inbound Content Marketing and how to get started today, please visit us at surgedigitalconsultants.com or reach out to Cris at https://www.linkedin.com/in/crispachecobiz/