The digital age has changed marketing. Old-school tactics, like cold calling and direct mailing, are no longer effective as a means of increasing sales. Consumers have more control over what advertising they encounter, and most mass marketing campaigns are an exercise in futility. To grow leads and sales, you must attract prospective customers through thoughtful, insightful, informative, and entertaining content. In other words, you need a winning inbound marketing strategy.
The idea behind inbound marketing is relatively simple: align your communications with your target audience’s interests. This includes your content marketing, social media marketing, search engine optimization, and branding. Focus on better understanding your buyer personas so you meet consumers’ needs with solutions offered through strategic, targeted messages.
By creating content that naturally attracts inbound traffic, you appeal to people who are most likely to become customers. And unlike paid forms of advertising, because you own your inbound marketing content, you can use it any way you’d like — for as long as you want — without any added expense. Best of all, an effective inbound marketing strategy ensures your customers become loyal fans of your brand, returning to you over and over again and telling others about you.
Inbound marketing is about improving the customer experience through blogging, social media, newsletters, webinars, e-books, and other types of content. There are four stages to the inbound marketing process: attract, convert, close, and delight. Each stage builds upon the last and guides consumers along the buyer’s journey to ultimately becoming your customer.
By using inbound marketing, your company will build meaningful, lasting relationships with customers. You can learn more about how to implement inbound marketing at your company with Axia Public Relations’ e-book “Inbound Marketing: Your Guide to Increasing Online Traffic, Attracting Leads, and Converting Customers Effectively.”
Editor’s Note: Jason Mudd originally wrote “Implement a winning strategy with inbound marketing” for the American City Business Journals.
Clients love Jason’s passion, candor, and commitment as well as the team he has formed at Axia Public Relations. He's advised some of America’s most admired brands, including American Airlines, Dave & Buster’s, Hilton, HP, Pizza Hut, and Verizon. He is an Emmy Award-winning, accredited public relations practitioner, speaker, author, and entrepreneur and earned his certification in inbound marketing. He founded the PR firm in July 2002. Learn more about Jason.
Topics: digital PR, PR tips, inbound marketing
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