Tradition marketing strategies are out and inbound marketing is in according to expert consultant on the subject Dharmesh Shah, the founder Hubspot. The CTO of the software marketing company states that most home-owners are less likely to answer their phone nowadays if they don’t recognise the number, and the same goes for post. According to Shah, the average American household will receive 40 pounds of direct mail per year, the sad reality being that 41% of it is never getting opened.
A term coined by Hubspot CEO Brian Halligan in 2005, ‘inbound marketing’ refers to the concept that businesses ought to earn consumer’s attention instead of buying it. The notion was founded on the premise that 86% of viewers skip television and are becoming increasingly immune to paid advertisements, press releases, and commissioned sales persons.
Here are 3 tips to build an audience with inbound marketing
- Test the premise: Companies that are hesitant to cut their paid search budget should consider shifting a small percentage of that monthly spend toward inbound marketing for starters. At this point it may seem unthinkable to lose the rented attention of visible ad space for a low-profile blog post. But if you write and publish an interesting and informative blog post today, you’ll soon see that it’s an asset that carries on delivering traffic – even if you stop writing tomorrow.
- Master the content: According to Shah, one of the most common mistakes a business can make is to concentrate their entire marketing strategy on self-promotion. A tactic that completely loses sight of the customer’s interests, concerns, and queries, obvious advertising that makes pricing and branding its sole focus is more and more likely to backfire. You can master content creation by applying the marketing without inbound marketing model, placing the attention of your target market above your primary agenda.
- Find your medium: Different social media networks work for different companies depending on their industry. It is important to identify the medium that will attract the right attention to your content. Experiment and play around with the inbound marketing tools at your disposal, from Pinterest to YouTube, as long as your posts and video are intelligent, accessible, and relevant to your company – you’ll be winning all the way from the bank right down to the undeniable results.
One of the main criticisms of the ‘get found, convert and analyze’ model is that it is time consuming and competitive to create engaging content. Dharmesh Shah describes inbound marketing as “the type of marketing you’d want done for you.” His belief is that company blogs and relevant content formation that attracts website traffic is the bulls-eye means of long-term success – and worth every minute of the time spent creating it.
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Bella Gray is a corporate blogger from her Melbourne serviced office. A maestro of tips and strategies for navigating the workplace, Gray is the perfect go-to-gal for all your business solutions.