Inbound Marketing: Attracting clients and opportunities
There is a lot of talk about the practice of Digital Marketing today, however, the term tends to be confused with the use of social networks since there is no methodology or steps to follow on how to implement an effective marketing strategy within ecosystems. digital, which really allows to generate concrete sales and the analysis of a return on investment.
Social networks allow us to communicate in a more personalized way with our clients and target segments, bringing us closer and closer to generating business opportunities. The good use of these digital spaces allows us to gradually generate a link between company and consumer.
Where is the problem?
Although the panorama offered by social networks sounds promising, the problem lies when our objective goes beyond making ourselves known and seeking to sell.
Defining Digital Marketing
How we will learn how to establish an effective online marketing methodology is highly dependent on our business goals. It is worth mentioning that these objectives are not only directed towards the sale of products and / or services, but also in the way of how we will be able to position ourselves above our competitors.
Let’s start by defining “Marketing” or “Marketing”. According to Phillip Kotler, economist and marketing specialist,
Marketing is the science and art of exploring, creating, and delivering value to meet the needs of a profitable target market. Marketing identifies unmet needs and wants. It defines, measures and quantifies the size of the identified market and the potential profit (Kotler, 1999).
The Marketing concept basically establishes the creation of value (of a company, service and product), and how we are going to transmit it to our target market and then measure its effectiveness. It is there where the tools of the digital ecosystem allow us to quantify the result of our actions.
Digital ecosystems have that great virtue: measurement. Therefore, Digital Marketing is the way to market (a product, services, company, organizations and ideas) through digital technologies, mainly within the internet, mobile devices and any other digital communication medium.
Digital Marketing uses different digital media to spread information. One of these media includes social media. Now, how can we really sell through this digital ecosystem?
Based on our experience, we have used a methodology that is effective, as long as it is implemented correctly.
Inbound Marketing
This methodology combines non-intrusive marketing and advertising techniques with the aim of connecting the user from the beginning of the purchase process (consideration) and accompanying him to the final transaction.
Our Inbound Marketing methodology mixes Integrated Marketing Communications practices, which ensure the achievement of our clients’ business objectives.
The establishment of a digital strategic north.
Positioning within digital ecosystems.
The definition of clear and measurable business objectives.
Attraction and conversion.
Marketing Automation.
Retention and loyalty.
Each of these stages we develop with our clients to establish a comprehensive strategy that enables them to meet their business objectives.
The digital strategic north
This will be the concept with which we will define the value proposition, that is, the way in which our company or organization will transmit the benefits or advantages of the products and / or services offered within the market. This will allow us to develop a digital brand personality with which we will know how to speak to our audience effectively, defining the structure and pillars of the content and the selection of the ideal digital communication channels.
Positioning within the digital ecosystem
Once we have defined our strategic north, it is time to position ourselves in search engines (Google, Yahoo and Bing), social networks, among other means of the digital ecosystem. This part involves technological development, since the best way to position yourself is through a web identity, that is, a website, platform or application.
As they say, “for tastes the colors”
Depending on your business goals, this part is a must. The ideal way to position yourself is through a website that serves as a cover letter from our company or organization. With this medium our audience can inform themselves more accurately than on a social network. The website as such should be optimized for search engines and different placement tools. This digital identity applies to any type of technological development, since, if the company or organization has its own software, platform or web application, it will need to present it and position it in the same way in the digital ecosystem.
Another way to position yourself is through the landing pages or “Landing Page”, which, like a website, its function will be to position ourselves and capture “leads” or potential clients.
Whichever way your brand seeks to position itself in the market, we can advise you on choosing the best option.
The definition of clear and measurable business objectives
Once we have defined the strategic north and the positioning of our company or organization in the digital ecosystems, it is time to attract and sell.
The initial process is the definition of the commercial objectives for the digital ecosystem. We will select the different suitable digital media to expose our company or organization. Once defined, we will develop the identity or “Look & Feel” of each medium, that is, we will develop the content pillars that we defined previously in the strategic north.
Consequently, we will define an investment budget in digital guidelines. You can download this free tool to evaluate the guideline amounts according to the medium you will use.
We will have to invest to win, as in any advertising medium, the digital ecosystem will encompass the audience we want proportionally to the investment we make. This aspect is usually taboo, since digital media are new and not yet have the same confidence as traditional media. It is important to emphasize that the advantage of digital media is measurement.
With the selection of digital media, the establishment of an advertising guideline amount, and the optimization of web search engines, it only remains to define why and what we will use them for.
The definition of our objectives will depend on the expected results. Perhaps our objective is to sell a specific product or service, capture a database, achieve subscriptions to a platform, increase transactions on a payment gateway, among others.
The most important thing is to be clear about the means, the investment and the way in which we will measure the results.
Attraction and conversion
Inbound begins to develop.
At this stage, the key is to develop the points of contact with the users at the moment they start the purchase or acquisition process (remember the positioning). This process is reflected since a user performs a certain action in our digital ecosystem, for example: a registration, a request (quote, question, etc.), a behavior (repeated visits to the website), among others that go according to our digital ecosystem.
We put in place processes and techniques to convert visitors to a web page into records for the company’s database. For this, relevant and personalized content is offered to the user who can download in exchange for filling out a form with their data.
From this point on, the user is accompanied by the appropriate content for each of the phases of the purchase process that we have defined in our strategy, up to a final action or transaction.
EL Inbound Marketing establishes the creation of digital assets. At this stage, if we have a website, we must reinforce it with a collection channel. This can be a registration form, a landing page, among others, in order to start the purchase process. Another of the digital assets that we will be developing during the process is the creation of a database.
Finally, the entire cycle is accompanied by content generation. This content will be with which our audience will interact and will be motivated to carry out an action.
How can we control all this interaction, strategies, digital media, guidelines and databases? We need tools.
Marketing Automation
Already at this point we have developed a comprehensive strategy that has involved different digital media, positioning, setting guidelines and more, now we need different tools that can help us control the growing and constant flow of clients that we are obtaining.
The behavior-based process of contacting prospects on the way to conversion is very complex and requires automation for the implementation of which you must have the appropriate technology.
A company that wants to implement an Inbound Marketing methodology must, first of all, know its potential customers well and know what steps they go through during the process of consideration towards the purchase, to define in each one of them the most appropriate actions that allow them attract customers.
Then they must implement this process in a suitable tool that automates the actions based on the results obtained, that measures partial and total success and that allows improving the strategy.
In the market there are solutions that use technology to implement this process. At Indevii we use and recommend the following: SalesForce, Hubspot, Marketo, GetResponse and Sharpspring.
Salesforce, Hubspot, and Marketo are robust solutions targeting high-volume businesses, while GetResponse and Sharpspring are flexible mid-sized solutions.
Inbound Marketing presents two types of methodologies to perform Marketing automation:
Lead Scoring
This practice refers to the assessment of the level of qualification of the Leads (that is, to what extent it is possible to know which contacts are closest to formalizing a purchase). It is about measuring on a scale that represents the perceived value that each potential customer represents for the organization.
Lead Nurturing
It is an automation technique that aims to convert users interested in valuable information that we publish to customers, as well as qualify when a “Lead” is ready to buy.
In addition to these Marketing automation strategies, at this stage you can also apply retargeting strategies and personalization strategies for the content and elements of a website.
Thanks to the new information and communication technologies (and “cookies”) we can keep track of what the user has visited and where he is, which allows us to guide the type of content, offers and actions to which each person is exposed. who visits our website. In this way, we are developing content with which you will find to continue advancing in your purchasing process.
It sounds complex, but do not worry, we are here to advise you.
Retention and loyalty
We reach the final stage of the process. It is time to keep customers satisfied with their purchase, offer them useful information and take care of those who still have an interest in our content and digital ecosystems.
