Inbound Marketing Basics
​What is Inbound Marketing?
Have your marketing efforts sometimes felt like screaming into the void, or has your business struggled for visibility among a sea of other similar B2B companies? We understand and want to put forth inbound marketing as the solution you’ve been looking for.
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Inbound marketing is a strategy that uses valuable and personalized content to attract and retain consumers. In contrast to outbound marketing, which often interrupts and annoys consumers with generic or even unwanted information, inbound marketing draws in the people most likely to buy.
The Inbound Marketing Methodology
The inbound marketing methodology consists of four stages: Attract, Engage, Delight, and Retain. The core of inbound marketing is personalized messaging. Since the customers in each stage have different circumstances, each stage requires distinct content.
Image by Hubspot Academy
Attract: Drawing Eyes to Your Brand
You have two goals during the Attract stage. First, pull people to your business, and second, establish your business as a thought leader in your niche.
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Goal one, pulling people in, is audience-focused. Think of blogs, videos, and other posts as magnets that work to draw in your target audience. For example, a luxury marketing agency wants to attract luxury brands. To do so, it blogs about the basics of luxury branding. The individuals interested in these blog posts are the most likely to hire this agency to market their high-end products or services. Overall, your best bet is highlighting solutions to common or even little-known consumer problems.
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Goal two, establishing your business as a thought leader, is business-centric. Remember, at the moment, any consumer who stumbles upon your page is still a stranger to you and has no reason to trust your expertise over another’s. You build trust in your advice by showing the consumer your knowledge base.
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Examples:
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A cloud storage company publishes a comprehensive whitepaper on “Navigating Data Security in the Cloud Era” and promotes it through targeted LinkedIn ads.
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A tech consultancy firm hosts a webinar titled “Latest Digital Transformation Strategies” featuring industry experts and promotes it through email campaigns.
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An AI software provider creates a series of educational blog posts on the applications of AI in industries like healthcare and optimizes them for search engines to attract professionals searching for AI solutions.
In a nutshell, create practical and enjoyable content to draw in consumers. You can highlight common problems they weren’t even entirely aware of.
Engage: Providing Solutions to Your Prospects
Now that you’ve begun to convert strangers to prospects, it’s time to personalize. The goal is to continue to build the relationship between business and consumer. Your firm should provide answers to your prospects’ questions and (ideally unique) solutions to their problems. Additionally, work to minimize barriers. You should make it easy for consumers to contact your business or buy your product/service.
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While both the Attract and Engage phases focus on building trust between the business and audience, the difference is that the Engage phase is less focused on earning attention and more about fostering a relationship with prospects after you’ve interested them.
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Examples:
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A cybersecurity start-up develops a podcast where they interview Chief Technical Officers from Fortune 500 companies about cybersecurity challenges and solutions.
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Impact: The start-up positions itself as a thought leader by association and provides genuine insights to its audience.
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A project management software vendor hosts interactive live demos of their software twice a month, allowing potential customers to ask questions and see the software in action.
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Impact: These personalized demonstrations nurture leads and give the vendor a chance to engage with consumers.
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A marketing automation platform routinely sends personalized email newsletters with industry insights and case studies.
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Impact: the platform provides timely value and stays on the top of their audience’s mind.
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In summary, continue to foster a relationship with good content. Focus on opening the door to more interaction, not leaping to close a deal that may not be ready to close.
Delight: Converting Prospects into Customers
The goal of inbound marketing is to convert prospects into customers. In the Delight stage, your business should support prospects in solving their problems or achieving their goals. The key is to convince potential customers how and why a purchase is beneficial. To illustrate, highlight the benefits of your products and services and what differentiates you from your competitors.
Examples:
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A SaaS company launches a customer loyalty program that offers exclusive access to beta features, priority support, and quarterly strategy sessions.
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An IT services provider creates a forum where customers can share tips, best practices, and feedback to foster a sense of belonging.
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An HR software form sends personalized thank-you notes and holiday gifts to long-term customers.
Retain: Turning Customers into Loyal Advocates
Now that you’ve begun to convert strangers to prospects, it’s time to personalize. The goal is to continue to build the relationship between business and consumer. Your firm should provide answers to your prospects’ questions and (ideally unique) solutions to their problems. Additionally, work to minimize barriers. You should make it easy for consumers to contact your business or buy your product/service.
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Just because your business has successfully closed a sale doesn’t mean it’s time to pack up your marketing efforts and leave. The final stage is about turning customers into loyal advocates for your brand and continuing to delight them. It’s easier to keep current consumers satisfied than to find new ones.
Four Components of Inbound Marketing
To move prospects through the four stages, you’ll need to take advantage of four tools that should be in the toolbox of every inbound marketer.
Contacts: Your Most Valuable Resource
Think of the contacts in your phone. They are the link to your inner circle and acquaintances. It’s the same scenario in inbound marketing. Your contacts can include both current customers and prospects (of course, you’ll want to differentiate between them). By creating and maintaining strong relationships through the four stages of inbound marketing, your business can turn contacts into loyal customers and advocates.
Buyer Personas: Helping You Visualize Your Target Audience
One thing implicitly suggested within the four stages of inbound marketing is the importance of knowing your target audience. It’s a waste of advertising dollars to attract a customer who would never need or want your solution.
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A tool to help your business understand your target audience is buyer personas, which are semi-fictional representations of your ideal customers. They help acquaint your marketing and sales teams with the people or organizations that can benefit from your business. Personas should help identify your desired customer’s background, needs, goals, challenges, etc. Descriptions of these personas might also include business titles and their roles and/or likely concerns about a purchase decision.
For a B2B international cloud computing company, the buyer personas might look something like this: Stakeholder Persona: Sarah Thompson Job Title: Chief Operations Officer at an international IT services company Age: 45 Background: Sarah has a background in operations management and strategic planning. She’s been with her company for 12 years and has seen it grow from a mid-sized firm to a global player. Goals: Ensuring smooth operations through improving efficiency and driving growth to meet broader company goals. Challenges: Balancing budget constraints with the need for innovative solutions. Sarah must also manage stakeholder expectations and ensure that tech investments deliver quantifiable results. Values: Strong return on investment (ROI), easy integration with existing systems, and solutions that drive efficiency. She also values detailed reporting and data that can help justify investments to other stakeholders. Buying Motivation: Sarah is motivated by solutions that offer operational improvements, streamline processes, and provide measurable outcomes. She values vendor reliability and post-sale support. User Persona: Tom Edwards Job Title: Senior Information Technology (IT) Specialist Age: 32 Background: Tom has a degree in Computer Science and over 8 years of experience in IT, with experience with numerous platforms. He specializes in managing and optimizing IT infrastructure. Goals: Improving system performance, ensuring seamless user experiences, and staying ahead of emerging technology trends. He aims to minimize downtime and enhance IT efficiency. Challenges: Navigating complex tech systems, managing the integration of new tools with existing infrastructure, and dealing with legacy software. Similarly, staying updated with rapid technological advancements. Values: Usability, reliability, and ease of integration. He looks for tech solutions that reduce manual tasks. Documentation and technical support are crucial for him. Buying Motivation: Tom is motivated by user-friendly, reliable products with strong technical support. He often tests new tools and will advocate for satisfactory products.
Buyer’s Journey: Guiding Prospects to Become Customers
While the four stages of inbound marketing are from the business’s point of view, the buyer's journey model keeps the customer's viewpoint first and foremost. This model outlines the actions a prospect goes through to become a customer. Understanding this path and how it interacts with the stages of inbound marketing allows your business to tailor your content to whatever stage the buyer is in.
Goals: Measuring Your Success
Clear marketing goals, beyond “attract more leads” or “engage more customers,” are essential. The goal could be to gain X number of prospects, increase website traffic by Y visitors, or generate Z sales. Quantifying success is necessary to demonstrate that your marketing efforts are paying off. If they aren’t, you’ll know you must make adjustments. Read more about best practices for goal-setting here.
Download Our Infographic Here
Ready to take your business’s marketing to the next level? Armed with these four tools and the four stages in mind, you’ll be well on your way to creating a successful and effective inbound marketing strategy. A summary of the inbound marketing fundamentals is in the infographic below. Don't miss out on this valuable resource — download it now!
