Let’s face it—small-business owners, in particular, don’t have a ton of money to allot to marketing initiatives. If you’re working with a small budget, the thought of sending direct mailers, placing a print ad or running a TV commercial probably makes you feel like the “weary-face” emoji, but not to worry—there’s a more effective and less expensive way to attract new customers.
Enter inbound marketing, which basically attracts customers through engaging content, e.g. white papers, ebooks, podcasts. Inbound marketing is an effective strategy in a world where customers no longer seem keen on outbound marketing. According to a 2011 article from Mashable, 44% of direct mail is left unopened, and 86% of people fast forward TV commercials. The research also showed that the cost per lead in outbound marketing was higher than inbound.
So what are some successful elements of an inbound marketing campaign? Let’s take a look:
1. Content Offers
You launch your campaign by creating a content offer, which is generally something like an ebook, white paper, or podcast for your readers. This content will teach them something, rather than sell them a product or service (a.k.a. more middle of the funnel sales tactics as opposed to bottom of the funnel).
2. Blog Posts
Once you have a content offer, use blogs to promote it. During the course of your campaign (each one should generally run for one month, totaling 12 different campaigns per year), aim to write at least five blog posts, suggests an article from Savvy Panda. And although you want to create content that relates to the offer, avoid acting super salesy in your blogs.
3. Content Creators
It’s beneficial to gather a team of content creators including guest bloggers, freelancers and staff members. After all, you will probably run out of ideas, not to mention work through the wee hours of the night if you try to handle everything solo. Here at Modern Intelligence, we suggest developing content guidelines internally such as target keywords and headlines, then building a fantastic content team through either UpWork or services like Scripted.
4. Effective Social Media
So many social media sites, so little time. How do you choose which ones will most effectively promote your campaign? Spark Evolution suggests looking at your marketing analytics and historical performance among social media networks. From that data, pick the three sites that showed the best results. And to produce a steady stream of interesting social media posts, consider creating an “idea log,” says Inbound Now. You can save all your ideas in the log as you think of them so you have something to turn to in a pinch.
5. Reflection and Analysis
It’s impossible to improve anything without reflection, so don’t leave out this important step in your campaign. SmartBug suggests asking questions such as, “Were the leads I received qualified?” or “How did my blogs perform?” Think about what was successful and what you could do better next time. Remember: If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again!