You obviously know where your business is. You wake up every day and drive to the same location. You have done this so many times that you really don’t have to think anymore. When driving to work, you just know where to go. This is the goal that every website should strive to achieve with their online citations.

In the previous two previous blogs, 5 Factors that Determine AdWords Quality Score and Understanding the Google AdWords Ad Auction and Ad Rank, we have mentioned the importance of how different types of ad formats or ad extensions can affect your quality score in achieving the best possible ad position.  You can look at ad formats or ad extensions as an additional enhancement to the structure of an AdWords ad.  A typical AdWords ad looks like this. 

As mentioned in the previous post, Google’s ad auction does not just reward the ad with the highest bid. While the amount that you bid is a certain factor, the Google auction rewards quality more than quantity. The work and time you put in to optimize your ads will yield a greater quality score and can ultimately increase more targeted impressions and a lower cost per click. The process in which Google’s auction works is quite unique but, very important to understand.

So, how is your ad rank calculated?

Choosing the correct keywords is the foundation to every paid search campaign, but understanding Google’s auction system and Ad rank factors can prove to be even more important in creating a successful campaign.  Google states that their auction system is a secondary auction. A traditional auction works when the person with the highest bid wins. However, this is not the process Google’s ad ranking system or auction system works. 

Employing online advertising techniques, such as Google AdWords, can provide a significant boost to your website traffic while you are working to optimize for organic search results through inbound marketing.

There are number of tools that have evolved to help plan and execute an inbound marketing campaign to more efficiently manage the range of strategies and tactics employed over an extended period of time. When trying to attract new potentials buyers and clients, the most important part is planning a strategy on how you you’re going to do so.  

Over the years, Social Media channels have been such a driving force in the digital marketing space.  The power of connecting on a personal level with potential and returning customers is a definitive root in the inbound marketing strategy and, this is exactly what social media can do for your business.  Inbound Marketing is all about personally knowing who your customers are and informing them with engaging content.  Social media outlets have the power to do this instantaneously with your existing following.  The goal is to have your social media following promote your services and connect you to their spider web of friends, connections and followers. This can forever grow your network of potential customers and constantly drive the reach of your business to others. Social media outlets create “word of mouth” marketing over the digital space.

Now that you are beginning to understand the type of systems and content to place on your website, it is time to explain the processes of guiding your prospective customers down the sales funnel.  Certain types and styles of content posts are meant to attract, others are meant to covert and, even others are created to give the prospect a final push and close the sale.  The process is to slowly influence a potential customer of yours with content posts as they proceed to move down the funnel. This is not an exact science.  When a potential buyer is already moving through the funnel, one untimely content post can cause them to climb back up and you can lose out on the opportunity to bring them “IN”. You must bring the customer “IN” and through the sales funnel to be successful at inbound marketing. The purpose is to guide your potential customers through the buyer’s process with your content.

 Inbound marketing as a process is not just about drawing traffic to your website.  It is also about managing the experience of the visitor to the website when they arrive.  So the goal is not only to put keyword specific content on the website to help you get found, but to also provide content that is interesting or engaging to the visitor and guiding them through the buying process throughout the sales cycle.  Inbound marketing protocol is to segment content for visitors that are at the top of the funnel, middle of the funnel and the bottom of the funnel.

Top of the funnel

     Content and the overall importance of remarkable content in the inbound marketing strategy has been a topic of emphasis throughout our blogs.  There are specific techniques to use while posting content to leverage web visitors to leads.  The main idea is to capture information about a web visitor to convert them into a lead for your business.  The correct placement of an irresistible offer on a content post should convince or persuade a web visitor to offer something back to you, their contact information.  Receiving just one simple piece of information such as a company name, email or website of a single web visitor can be powerful enough to convert this visitor into multiple sales. What can you offer? Content created to tailor to your perfect customer is what you will offer.  However, content can exist in multiple forms in the inbound marketing world.  There is a process of how, when, what and where to place your content and couple it with an irresistible offer to attract the most customer views and receive the most customer information.    

     Today we will break down one of the most important inbound marketing strategies of them all, attracting, converting and closing the customer.  There is a famous quote by Alec Baldwin in the movie Glengarry Glen Ross, “ABC, Always be closing!”  While closing does lead to sales and is the ultimate goal in business to consumer and business to business marketing plans, inbound marketing takes somewhat of a different approach than the “Always be closing” or, every sales manager’s favorite term the “One Call Close.” 

     The Inbound sales process is Buyer Centric.  Attract your ideal customer with content, listen to what the potential buyer has to say about your content, and leverage the buyer’s thoughts into a sale.  Transformation of the sales process in the inbound marketing strategy is essential to getting the customers to become leads and the leads to become sales.  You must transform the way accounts are targeted,researched and prospected.  There is an extensive amount of resources in an inbound marketing sales system than in a traditional “Always Be Closing” approach. In the inbound marketing process, a sales person will know more about their leads before ever talking to them in person.