How to make inbound marketing work for your business?
Inbound marketing has proven to be one of the most successful ways to grow a healthy and sustainable client base for many different types of businesses.
The basic idea behind this type of promotion is that you create unique and valuable content that relates to your field of expertise or industry.
If the content is high enough quality, you will organically grow an audience of people interested in that field or service through search engines and promotion with social media.
Here is what makes great content:
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- It has to be unique. Do not rehash content from other websites.
- Your content has to be better than what is already out there. Look for similar content and make yours better.
- Great content comes in many forms. You can start with text content, but think video, audio, and images too.
- The best content is evergreen which means that it remains relevant for a long time.
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That audience is then naturally predisposed to become consumers of your particular product. Often these types of sites will offer premium content to registered users who provide their contact information, which allows them to target their customers more directly and effectively through email marketing and other strategies. This is much more efficient than traditional advertising methods because it ensures that you are aiming your message towards those most likely to be receptive to it.
This seems pretty simple and straightforward, but many companies have been struggling with adapting to this technique. That is because the biggest mistake that business owners make with inbound marketing is not being patient enough to see its real benefits develop over time.
The only drawback to inbound marketing is that it takes time.
Traditional paid advertisements online can reach an audience much more quickly and start showing results within a day or two. The problem with these is that they do not create the same self sustaining, loyal customer base that you can develop with inbound marketing.
As long as you are paying for each click from a search engine, you will have their attention. As soon as you stop, that interest will evaporate. Despite the benefits of inbound marketing, it is easy to see why it is difficult to get off the ground. Your boss wants to see immediate results he can quantify. If you tell him that he needs to invest 6-12 months of effort into a new marketing technique where you create free content, that is going to sound like a significant risk. In this economy, we are becoming more and more risk averse.
Why put your job on the line to do something innovative?
The truth is that your business should only attempt to use inbound marketing if you are 100% committed to seeing it through. It is a long process that will take at least a year before you can reap real economic benefits.
It also requires that your effort is consistent and your content high quality.
Creating a new blog post once a week that analyzes or comments on a relevant issue in your field should be your minimum goal.
Active engagement on a variety of social media platforms is also a major component to building an audience. If you can avoid giving up your content creation after not seeing immediate results, than you will evade the biggest mistake that business owners make with inbound marketing. Remember that nothing good in life comes easily. You must be able to put in the hard work and sacrifice in order to establish yourself as a leader in your field.