Continued from ‘What Is the Difference Between Inbound Marketing and Outbound Marketing?’ The inbound methodology described by HubSpot is designed to obtain visitors and generate customers through the following four steps: Attract, Convert, Close and Delight. Let's review each of these steps and see how you can use them as part of your inbound marketing strategy.
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Attract
By creating and publishing useful and targeted content, you can attract the right type of visitors to your website. Today, most people begin their buying process using a search engine to gather necessary information in order to make a purchasing decision. You can attract such prospects to your website by providing easy access to this information through search engines. By sharing the same content on social media, you can also make it more personable, and you can engage strangers to turn them into visitors to your website. You can also optimize your website to appeal to buyer personas or visitors who represent your ideal customers.
Convert
Once you have visitors on your website, you need to convert them into leads. One effective method is to ask for their contact information in exchange for something of value. You can think of contact information as a currency. To have a lead offer this detail willingly, you have to give them something in return: a useful article, an eBook, a whitepaper, etc. With the help of landing pages, calls-to-actions and forms, you can collect contact information and build a centralized marketing database that can be used further for lead nurturing.
Close
The next step is transforming leads into customers through lead nurturing. At this point, you have built a database of leads who appreciate the useful information you provided but are not quite ready to become customers. Using a series of e-mails focused on useful, relevant content, you can continue building trust while extending a helpful hand every time. With the help of marketing automation software, you can personalize messages and information to every lead's specific needs. By integrating your marketing activities with your Customer Relationship Management (CRM) solution, your marketing and sales teams will work together like never before.
Delight
Current customers should not be taken for granted. In fact, inbound marketing is as much about nurturing your existing customer base as acquiring new customers. Existing customers are the lowest hanging fruit that is often overlooked. They can and should be a source of recurring sales, but unfortunately, companies frequently take them for granted and ignore their needs. Engaging (or delighting) your existing customers through e-mail and social media will allow you to up-sell additional products and services as new needs emerge. You can also turn your happy customers into promoters and brand ambassadors for your company.
