Have you ever realized that you kind of interrupt people while they are on their go when you are trying to make a sale? Obviously you must have! As we are all the same! At times you interrupt and at times some sales people interrupt you! After all it is sales that the businesses throughout the world are based on. But how about we dump the interruption marketing into the garbage bin and adopt a kind of marketing wherein you make sales without even bothering your customers at wrong times.
Its possible! Trust me! With the advent of internet marketing a lot of things are possible that might have sounded like a dream some one or two decades ago. You needn’t push interruptive marketing messages to the customers and irritate them anymore. Instead! You can do some inbound marketing that includes generating need for your product among the target audiences through smart online marketing tactics.
And! My dear sales & marketing friends how can you forget the big sharp sword of achieving the sales targets hanging over your head that forced you at times to visits door to doors, make continuous calls, attending several unproductive meetings to make even a single sale. Don’t to think it was more frustrating for you than your customers. It indeed was or is as still there are a few marketers who practice these old & interruptive ways of marketing that we call outbound marketing very often, where in you at times end up turning your brand advocators into your brands antagonist! However, a lot smart marketers have already shifted their budget towards inbound marketing and are getting immensely benefited by it.
So, let’s start with the simple definition of inbound marketing!
What is Inbound Marketing?
Inbound marketing is marketing your businesses through various forms of content marketing that serve to bring your target audience closer to your brand. It could be anything – blogs, podcasts, video, eBooks, e-newsletters, whitepapers, SEO, social media marketing etc. So, to make it more comprehensible, inbound marketing in simple words is producing & sharing of high quality valuable content with your target audience through various channels. It’s all online now and that if your business doesn’t exist in the virtual world it doesn’t exist at all! And, the idea is inbound marketing tactics helps make your business easy to found on the internet, earn the attention of your target audiences, bring them to your web outlet-your website, move them smoothly throughout the conversion cycle towards sales.How it works: The Inbound marketing Process!
Like we discussed earlier inbound marketing not just helps you convert anonymous consumers into your customers but even your brand advocators. It involves 6 steps that are:- Attract – attracting the right customer or potential customer who have buying intent to your website through various means or tactics that include blogging, social media, search engine optimization and so on
- Exchange – exchanging an offer that may be some valuable and educational content such as an eBook, a tip-sheet or whitepapers with the potential customer visiting your site in return for the information that they provide such as their email address, phone number etc.
- Nurture – nurturing your relationship with the potential customer through various methods that include email marketing, calling etc.
- Convert – converting potential leads to customer
- Measure – measuring what parts your effort or marketing campaigns are giving results and optimizing your marketing for that part.
- Retaining – Retaining your customers by various marketing tactics and get repeat business and new customers through word of mouth marketing.
The Bottom-line!
Never try to interrupt your customers while they are on their go instead help your target audiences with something they were looking for may be a piece of educative content with a solution to the issues they might be going through, like a gentleman would do! Build rapport with them and relax! They will themselves come to you! Never try to coerce them by obstinately trying to make a sale, rather connect with them and interact with them instead of bothering them with your interruptive stories. Try to add some delight to their lives in place of distracting them when they are busy with something else. In one simple sentences for hundreds–Integrate context with content and try to deliver a well heeled, applicable, and personalized experience to the people!
