Every day the average person is bombarded with marketing messages. This happens from the time they wake up and turn on the radio or television, look at their smartphone…and then later as they drive by huge billboards, buses with ads on the side, and so on. There are marketing messages that seemingly come from everywhere.

There is absolutely still a need for these types of marketing efforts.

But more than ever before, companies must expand how they attempt to attract interest into their products and services. This can be done with inbound marketing.

With inbound marketing, you don’t have to bombard your audience with your marketing message. You don’t have to grab their attention with a 15 second radio ad, or a catchy slogan on a direct mail piece. Inbound marketing is all about getting your audience to willingly come to you.

The Key: Your Website

Your website is really an integral part of your inbound marketing strategy. If you want people to come to you, you need to have a place for them to visit, right? And it shouldn’t just be some web page slapped together for the purpose of providing some contact information.

Your website should be a resource that anticipates your audience’s needs and then fills them.

Need a visual? Think of a funnel.

• At the wide end of that funnel is your website.
• As you get those visitors to your website, you want to send them down that funnel, converting them into leads.
• And these leads are typically warm, as your visitors should already be made aware of your extreme awesomeness by all the cool content on your website.
• And, as you continue to address the needs of your leads, they will transform from leads into customers.
• (Score!)

Getting People to Your Website

Of course, to get those visitors, your website needs to be optimized for the keywords and phrases that your audience will search for.

This means that the information on your site should have these keywords and be found by search engines.

Search engine optimization (SEO) should certainly be given proper attention by your marketing team, but it shouldn’t be about trying to outwit the search engines and their crazy ever-changing algorithms. If you provide the content and make sure you use the correct keywords and phrases, and add fresh content on a consistent basis, you will be able to rank high in those keyword searches.

Using Content to Generate Leads

A regularly updated blog is a great way to work your inbound marketing plan. Blog posts don’t have to be long or arduous. They can be short and to the point.

They can be fun or witty. They can display personality as well as expertise. And they can provide valuable links to other information that you provide on your website. If your website doesn’t currently include a blog, ask yourself “why?”

A blog is really a great (and low cost) way to show off and also invite interaction via comments.

An important part of converting those visitors into leads is by providing them something they want. Your audience has questions and problems.

What can you provide for free that they would easily “trade” their contact information for? A white paper? Some worksheets? The idea is to offer something of value for free. All you ask in return is perhaps a name and an email address.

Integrate Social Networks into your Website

One great way to make your website engaging and interactive today is by integrating it with your social networking profiles.

You should have clearly marked buttons on your web pages that link to your profiles on everything from Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and so on.

Also, make it easy for your visitors to share the wealth. Make it a one-click proposition for a visitor to share that really cool blog post on their Facebook page, or to share that funny office video via Twitter.

Final Thoughts

Remember, inbound marketing is a lot like hanging out, being your ultra-helpful (and smart) self and having people come to you.

If you do that, prospects and customers will come to you via search engine results, social media and other incoming links.

As you build your website and create great content, you will find that the time and effort is well spent. You don’t have to bend over backwards to convince anyone of your expertise and know-how…it’s all there on display and your audience can see it for themselves.

P.S. For more tips like these, download our free Inbound Marketing White Paper!

The whole point of inbound marketing is lead generation. You are taking website visitors and hoping that they lead to eventual sales. But you can’t take gigantic steps to get there. You need to take one step at a time in order to lay the proper groundwork.

Here are a few points when it comes to inbound marketing and lead generation:

• You need to create terrific offers. You have to offer something that your visitors want. It’s like dating. What do you have to offer your date? Do you have a tip sheet? A white paper? Some worksheets?
• The value of your offer should be more than the cost to the internet visitor. Now you’re thinking, “Wait. He just said to give free offers. So how is it costing the website visitor anything?” The point here is that your offer should be something of value. And the website visitor should not be thinking about the “cost” of providing a name and email address.
• It’s easy to get in the rut of providing information. But you cannot forget your calls to action. You can’t assume your website visitor will click on a certain link or indiscriminately cough up that email address. You have to make a call to action. Tell your visitors what to do. And tell them what they will get when they do it. Never let them guess and never let them wonder.
• Make it simple. Do not make your visitors jump through hoops of fire to get information from you. That’s a huge turn off. If you ask for their name and email address, then leave it at that. If you mention a short survey, keep it short. Don’t sneak in a twenty question and answer session.
• Don’t give them a quick out. While you’re creating that form for your visitors to become leads, don’t build in back buttons or clear and cancel buttons. Your form should be above the “fold” so that the visitor does not need to scroll down to enter anything. And there shouldn’t be buttons that cancel out the lead form – either on accident or on purpose.

Not all leads are created equal. Remember, long term generation is the goal. You are not in this for a quick and easy turnaround. Inbound marketing typically results in a slower, but more organic way of filling the sales funnel. You are providing information and being the resource that your leads need in order to convert into customers.

In my last article, I discussed the growing importance of understanding inbound marketing.  Yes, it is a popular topic in the worlds of business and communications today… but for good reason: an effective inbound marketing strategy can truly help your organization grow!

Today, I’d like to discuss a bit about how to move forward with building and executing an inbound marketing strategy.

At the Core is Your Website

You already know that the internet is a terrific playing field. It’s the great leveler in that any business can have a web presence and in many cases the internet reader would never know whether a business is a mom and pop shop or a million dollar company in a penthouse suite downtown.  Any business can and should have a good-looking, easy to navigate website that appeals to its target market. This website becomes the base for your inbound marketing strategy.

Reaching Your Audience

Of course, you need to decide how you will provide information to your target market. Blogging or regular article posts should be a given. If you don’t have a blogging platform built into your website, you should have that added. Then you can schedule your posts. Will they be weekly? Daily? You want consistency and timeliness. So you should establish a schedule that you know you can keep.

Creating Content

Then you need to create a list of blog topics. What kind of information do you want to provide? Think about what is relevant to your target market. What will they want to read? What will establish you as the expert?

Not a writer? Not to worry. You have several options. Look to someone within your company or perhaps a trusted colleague. You can also look into ghostwriters to write the content for you. You want someone to write for your company with a voice that fits. Not everyone is a wordsmith. And that’s okay. An outsider can write in your voice and your posts will still be relevant and authentic.

It’s tempting to buy a bunch of articles that are touted to be laden with key words and optimized for the search engines. But these articles can be found all over the net. And you’ll lose your authenticity if the internet reader figures out that your information is not yours.

The Multi-Channel Marketing Approach

Start thinking about how you can provide information that utilizes other mediums. How about some audio files that are chock full of tips? Or what about getting a guest spot on an internet radio show? An audio question and answer session can be provided as a downloadable link on your website or posted on your social media profiles. (Learn more about inbound marketing tools and techniques such as social media platforms here.)

Humanize Your Brand

Don’t forget that amidst all this information dissemination, you need to portray your business personality. It’s okay to have a post that isn’t all business. Want to post a shout out to a customer? Do it. Want to whip up a quick video clip showing a couple minutes of your employees hard at work? These sorts of things make you only that much more real to your target market. And it can give you a definite edge. So as you implement your inbound marketing plans, don’t forget to show your target market a bit of personality here and there.

Over the next few weeks, I’d like to share articles in a series that is  focused on one major theme: How companies in the printing industry can use inbound marketing to grow their business. Here is Part 1!

Every business dreams of those “easy” sales. The sales where customers virtually fall into your lap. Don’t we all want to find that customer who nods at everything we say, knowing that we are the experts and the best solution to their needs? The reality is you likely work hard for every customer you get to that point of the sale. But what if that hard work really involved laying the ground work so that over time, those customers really do fall into your lap?

With inbound marketing, you can lay that groundwork to establish your business as a resource, as a wealth of information and the right solution to your target market’s needs. And while it takes some work, it does not require the outlay of cash that many other marketing strategies take, such as massive ad campaigns.

In traditional marketing, you send your message out to the masses. And hopefully, it gets to your target market and that target market responds. With inbound marketing, you are still sending a message out, but it’s less intrusive and much more authentic. Think about it: when you go to a party, do you want to seek out all the cool kids and chat them up, hoping they will like you? Or would you like to be the cool kid and have everyone come to you?

Attracting Leads to Your Business

By providing relevant and interesting content, you become the cool kid. Your target market wants to get to know you. They want to read your articles. They want to download your audio tips. They want to watch your video clips. As you develop your content and make it accessible in various formats, you get your name and expertise in front of your target market in various ways.

Or course, you do have to make sure your content is optimized for the search engines. You want your informational pieces to be found via free searches. This doesn’t mean you stuff your content with fluff and keywords over and over again. In fact, doing so will turn a potential customer off. You have to find the right balance between using those keywords while providing relevant and readable information.

How Social Media Fits In

Inbound marketing also embraces the use of social media to get noticed. You should be sharing your information across multiple platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and so on. Your target market isn’t going to be hanging out in one place. They’re laughing at the latest tweet. Checking out the most recent status update. Sharing that video clip. By establishing your business identity via several social media platforms, you get the chance to seize the interest of many more potential customers, and continue to establish your business as a resource. Another benefit is the ability to interact with those in your target market on a more personal level. Social media invites dialogue and interaction. By being responsive as well as proactive with your information dissemination, you are becoming the friendly resource that your target market wants to work with.

Inbound marketing isn’t for the lazy business. It takes time. It takes knowledge. It takes dedication. You need to provide good, quality content. You need to be search engine friendly and keyword wise. And you need to establish your business identity across multiple social media platforms. But in the long run, inbound marketing can take your business sales to a whole other level.