Continued from: How Does Inbound Marketing Work? Content is essential to inbound marketing. The whole idea of inbound marketing is to nurture business relationships by providing relevant and useful information to visitors, leads, and customers. And this information typically takes the form of content. As HubSpot puts it, “By creating content designed to address the problems and needs of your ideal customers, inbound marketing attracts qualified prospects and builds trust and credibility for your business.” Here are 4 ways to use content effectively in your inbound marketing strategy:
1. Use Content to Drive People to Your Website
When people have a problem, they often look online for possible solutions first. You can tap into this potential traffic stream by offering solutions to the problems they are searching for through social media and blog posts. When people type in queries into a search box (either on a social media site or in Google), they will see your post in the search results. Prospects will then click on your link and arrive on your site, becoming visitors. Types of content to use: Social media updates and blog posts.
2. Use Content to Convert Visitors into Leads
Once visitors are on your website, they engage with your content and find useful information. You offer them more valuable content to complement the content they just engaged with. The new content is gated—it is only accessible by submitting contact information through a form. Visitors complete the form, receive additional content and convert into leads. Types of content to use: High-value offers, such as eBooks, whitepapers and marketing research.
3. Use Content to Nurture Your Leads into Customers
Once you have leads, you can provide them with personalized content designed to address their needs, build trust and close the sale. Providing specialized content at this stage allows you to build trust with prospects, better understand their perspective and tailor your offering to fit their needs. Types of content to use: Free trials, consultations and product demos.
4. Use Content to Delight Your Customers into Promoters
Having acquired new customers, you can continue to delight them with useful content that they enjoy and appreciate. Happy customers will then send new strangers to your website, starting the cycle again. Types of content to use: Thought leadership articles, special rewards and customer appreciation events. Honestly, if you want to make the most out of your website, you will have to start producing quality, original and relevant content. There is no better strategy for inbound marketing.