Fourth of a 4 part series discussing the four steps of inbound marketing.
Inbound marketing is now the most effective marketing method for doing business online. Instead of the old outbound marketing methods of buying ads, buying email lists, and praying for leads, inbound marketing focuses on creating quality content that brings the right people toward your company and product.
The final step to inbound marketing is delighting your users with remarkable content. They may be visitors, leads, or existing customers, but they all need to be continually persuaded to purchase. And just because someone has already written you a check doesn’t mean you can forget about them! Your business needs to continue to engage with, entertain, and (hopefully) upsell your customer base into happy promoters of your brand.
When you delight your customers you earn their trust. By providing excellent content, customers have a reason to come back to your page again and again, eventually making a purchase. You need to convince a potential customer that you are an expert in your field, and someone worth investing in. Optimizing your content is the best way to show that you are the best.
There are a few tools you can use to keep customers engaged and intrigued in your business. As usual, trial and error is your best friend. Not all techniques work for all companies, so evaluate what will be most successful for your brand. Give these a try:
SURVEYS
You won’t truly know what your customers want until you ask them! Surveys are the best way to get candid, real-time thoughts and input from your customers. Use feedback and surveys to ensure you’re providing customers with what they’re looking for. Surveys can be used to: gauge customer satisfaction, gather event or webinar feedback, collect market research, learn prospect pain points, rate an experience with support, get donor or fundraiser feedback, and so much more. Every company can benefit from a short survey. Ask yourself what you’d like to know more about, including Is there a community I interact with that I’d like more information on? Do I know everything I need to to makes strategic decisions? Am I in touch with what my customers think about my company?
SMART CALLS-TO-ACTION
These present different users with offers that change based on buyer persona and lifecycle stage. Smart CTAs allow you to design different messages based on an individual’s lifecycle stage. Early-stage CTA buttons can focus on top-of-the-funnel offers, and then evolve to direct the lead to demos or sales consultations down the line. Tailor messages by industry, marketing persona, interest level, geography or any other contact property. Talk to your developer to integrate smart CTAs into your site.
BLOGS
You’ve already started a blog in step one of Inbound Marketing, but now you need to keep it going. Using data from surveys, which calls to action people take, and more, you can figure out what content your customers are most interested in. Keep blogging frequent, quality articles that will keep customers coming back to your site.
SOCIAL MONITORING
Keep track of the social conversations you have with customers across platforms. Pay close attention to your customers’ questions, comments, likes, and dislikes. Make sure you have a system in place so no customer slips through the cracks. In this social age, studies have found that a customer may be motivated to turn to your competition if they are ignored on social media. Reach out to your customers with relevant content and keep the conversation going.
Above all, the key to great Inbound Marketing is to evaluate, tweak, and keep moving forward. Don’t get caught up in what’s not working – try something new! You never know what won’t work for your business until you try. And if you need help, contact GiraffeBuilder for assistance with SEO, web design, and of course marketing.
