Inbound marketing is critical for success

About 18 months ago we introduced you to the inbound marketing concept ”“ and have been deconstructing it into its elements for you ever since. Some elements of this rational approach to online marketing ”“ like SEO and social media ”“ have gotten a lot of buzz, which has caused some confusion.

There are a number of other pieces to the inbound marketing puzzle that are critical for success. When you learn how they fit together and the roles they play, the process makes great sense. Let”™s take a look.

Inbound marketing can be divided into three major pieces:

• Get found ”“ Build traffic to your website.
• Convert ”“ Convert the traffic to leads, nurture leads to convert to sales.
• Analyze ”“ Assess all actions related to the above two pieces in order to deploy resources/budget effectively and determine ROI.

Blog to get found

As we”™ve pointed out, maintaining and contributing regularly to a blog on your website is the most powerful way to attract traffic to your site ”“ 55 percent more traffic than to websites with no blog. Google and other search engines love this dynamic content, which will help your site rank high for your key search terms.

The supporting actors for blogging are SEO and social media. Optimize your site and your blog posts for the search terms your customers use, and they will come. Publicize your posts to the communities you”™re interacting with on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. They”™ll come, too.

Convert based on buying cycle phase

To convert traffic to leads and ultimately to customers, we use additional tactics ”“ creating compelling content or offers presented with calls to action on unique landing pages, and email. We choose these depending on where the prospect is in the purchase cycle.

The early ”“ or top-of-the-sales-funnel phase ”“ is generally an information-seeking period. A meaty whitepaper for free download in exchange for an email address is an appropriate early content transaction that showcases your expertise and begins the relationship.

Now you”™re in a position to nurture the lead with additional offers delivered via email. As trust builds and the buying cycle evolves, the prospect should be willing to share additional information and eventually buy from you.

Analyze at every step

Start with an analysis of your existing marketing, including your revenue goals, the value of a customer and your current prospect-to-sale conversion rate. You can then back into the amount of website traffic you need to generate to achieve objectives within a desired timeframe. If that number seems unrealistic you can adjust components of the analysis accordingly.

With planning metrics in place, you can select the tactics that you believe will lead to success. You”™ll need to regularly analyze progress. Which efforts are bearing fruit and what”™s withering on the vine? Then flex and deploy resources to the most productive tactics.

If you use customer relationship management (CRM) software to manage sales, tie lead-generation data into that system so that you can track conversion. Finally, use closed loop analytics to tie your online marketing efforts to the bottom line. ROI analysis is a realistic expectation using inbound marketing best practices.

You can put the pieces together using a number of individual applications, or opt for an automated online marketing system like Hubspot. However you do it, if you use a logical, goal-oriented process, inbound marketing will help you build your business.

Ellie Becker is president of E.R. Becker Company Inc. in Norwalk, Conn., a public relations and inbound marketing consultancy. She is an inbound marketing certified professional. Reach her at ellie@erbeckercompany.com or read her blog at www.erbeckercompany.com.

Bernadette Nelson is principal of Studio B/Visual Communication in Norwalk. She has more than 20 years of experience in graphic and web design. Reach her at b@studiob-ct.com or www.studiob-ct.com.