Inbound Marketing: The Keys to Attracting New Customers Online
17 de February de 2022
17 de February de 2022
They say that it takes only seven seconds to know whether we like something or someone. Attraction is forged without us realising it and at an amazing speed — before we can even blink! This, which applies to love and friendship, fits perfectly with our attitude towards surfing the internet.
When we go online, diverse stimuli compete to catch our attention, luring us towards a particular product or brand, trying to establish a sort of friendship with us. It’s not easy to catch someone’s attention in such a competitive environment and it’s also not a matter of screaming for attention. Each user is looking for something different and getting to each of them and offering them what they need is the task of digital marketing and its star strategy: inbound marketing.
Inbound marketing appeared in the early 21st century as an answer to the problems and opportunities that the digital environment was creating; a context in which every sale is done online —without the need for any direct contact between companies and customers— and where customers may begin their journey in platforms that are not merely commercial, such as search engines, social networks or blogs. How do you spark the interest of someone that’s just passing by? That’s what the art of inbound marketing —aka attraction marketing— is all about.
While traditional marketing focuses on direct sales based on presenting the advantages and superior qualities of products, the mission of inbound marketing is to place the client at the centre of the strategy: attracting, seducing and getting the interest of a user that is not necessarily known to the brand. It’s all about being there for them in every stage of the journey; from the initial awareness of the existence of the product/service, until the sale takes place… and even further on.
There are thousands of ways to lay out marketing strategies. It’s not a stationary knowledge, but rather experiential. Whatever works, works. However, the basic structure of inbound marketing has been sort of organised into four stages. Sometimes you’ll see it represented in a sequence and some other times as what is known as the conversion funnel or sales funnel.
These are the four stages:
Attraction:It’s the first contact with the client. It’s achieved through SEO positioning strategies in search engines and Google Ads or by taking advantage of social networks resources. Content is the pillar of this stage and what will set you apart will be your ability to generate interest in users through experiences, information or devices that will be helpful to them and call their attention.
Conversion: It starts once you’ve won users over; you’ve managed to get them to stop and give you their time. They are already —in some way— yours. And now you can actually tell them to stay with you for a bit longer: to visit a landing page, fill in a form, answer some questions or grant you their email address to stay in contact. This is known as remarketing.
Purchase/Closing: If users are still interested in your product, it’s time to close the deal. The ultimate step. Using remarketing strategies, with calls to action or, more directly, offering discounts and special offers to those we know are just one step away from closing their purchase. We formalise the conversion. We’ve won ourselves a customer.
Loyalty: Inbound marketing doesn’t forget about the client after the purchase has been carried out. Creating loyalty is crucial, whether because our product admits new conversions or because a satisfied client is always a good publicist for our brand. We must keep our customers in a database and establish a regular relationship with them through automation tools.
As we’ve already established, clients are crucial. For them to have a good experience is key to get them to carry out a purchase. That’s why you should always offer something that’s going to get their interest, something relevant, useful… something that will make them stop. There are several keys to achieving success with inbound marketing. These are some of them:
Identify your buyer persona:The more you know about your ideal client, the better you will be able to refine your search in social networks or platforms in order to attract them to your product.
Pay attention to SEO:The right keywords will help you find the people that will, in the future, be interested in buying your product.
Develop a strategy:With the principles and stages of the funnel in mind, design a plan. Don’t improvise.
In 2020, retail through e-commerce amounted to 20% of the total of sales. There are estimations that, by 2040, e-commerce may rise to 90% of the total sales. Inbound marketing is a key strategy to stay competitive in this environment!
These kinds of strategies make it possible to have a refined approach to potential customers through search engines and social networks and it opens the possibility to establish a fluid and regular relationship with them. All of this feeds the web traffic that, at the same time, improves positioning and attracts new leads and, thus, increasing engagement.
Success stories are numerous. Many of the most important companies in the digital environment, companies like Uber or Glovo, have grown using inbound and email marketing strategies. Others like Booking, Iberia, GoPro or Adidas have also made the most of the benefits that this strategy has to offer in channels like YouTube or TikTok.