Inbound Marketing - The new form of brand marketing

Print advertisements, TV commercials, brochures and email promotions are the different methods of marketing we are familiar with. These methods don’t involve creating personal relationships, loyalty or brand equity instead makes use of every opportunity to spam, cold call and cram consumer minds with their sales stunts. These are the very reasons why these classic marketing methods have been under-performing in the digital age.

Inbound marketing on the other hand, understands people’s ability to ignore and filter out traditional marketing efforts. It realizes that the best way to earn people’s attention is by delivering personal and relevant content to those who actually need it. This attention earned, gradually becomes consent to engage and remains a key asset to inbound marketers.

Regular marketing which we call outbound marketing, is not only is ineffective due the shifts in buyer behavior but also damages your brand when you continue to irritate your way into people’s spaces. Inbound marketing transforms your marketing strategy to match the way people buy and the general consumer behavior.

So how do we employ this new form of marketing? How do we pull people towards our brand?

The answer to this has three dimensions.

Undoubtedly number one is content. To be recognized and heard in today’s digital world, you need to create and deliver ample amount of content. Content in any of it forms – blog posts, webinars, e-books, videos or podcasts need to reach people constantly and consistently. The more you turn yourself into a content publishing engine, the more leads and customers you attract towards yourself.

Two, you need to optimize this content in the best way possible so that it reaches your potential customer on the other side of the World Wide Web. While people are slowly getting familiar with Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Social Media Optimization is also very relevant. Your customers are no longer “Googling stuff” off their desktops; they are active and reactive on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Pinterest and all the different social media channels.

Number three is deploying the right kind of promotion for this content. Content needs to be shared through the right channels reaching the right people at the right time. An inbound marketer is like a smart farmer and content is like the seed. Relating this to the parable of the sower, it is likely that some content falls on rocky ground, among thorns and on the path. An inbound marketer needs to ensure that he sows his content in the right web channels to receive an abundant yield of leads.

Inbound marketing makes you a popular hub on the internet helping you invest lesser in traditional marketing and creating a leverage of impulse. It is a blend of content and context marketing which tries to understand people through their online behavior and establishes a relationship of mutual interest.

In simpler terms, inbound marketing is a four-step process which begins with attracting potential customers towards your website, generating leads, closing sales and retaining customers as future promoters of your business. While the first, second and the fourth steps are managed by delivering creative and useful content, the third step is managed by context marketing.

Context marketing is the most personalized form of marketing based on the specific interests and behavioral inclination of your customer. The more time a customer spends on your website, the more information you have about his/her choices and that helps you customize the content you deliver to him or her. This may be enabled through smart call to actions and customer monitoring. Online shopping websites such as Flipkart and Snapdeal are best known to make use of this kind of marketing to sell, cross-sell and up-sell products of our interest.

Alongside being your best marketing option, inbound marketing sets very high entry barriers for your potential competitors. Every time you publish new content, it is optimized for search and also simultaneously reaches thousands of customers who have subscribed to your email, liked, followed and connected with you on social media. This can never be matched by a relatively new competitor.

Inbound marketing makes maximum utilization of the internet to generate better leads at a much lower cost making your brand lovable and indomitable. This is the new marketing.