It’s the year 2014 and, like it or not, the marketing world has changed. It is now more challenging than ever to place a display ad in a newspaper, phonebook, billboard, magazine, or even run a TV or radio spot and get heard. These in-your-face marketing practices that interrupt your day are slowly becoming more and more tuned out by the potential buyer. Traditional selling was done by cold calls and cold emails. While these traditional marketing practices should serve as a component of your marketing budget, marketing managers should look to change with the times by first, focusing online and into the digital world of marketing and, second, attract ideal customers “into” their website using inbound marketing.
What is inbound marketing? It is using relevant, targeted, and engaging content to attract, convert, close, and retain interested buyers about your business’s products or services. This isn’t just any old content either. This is content that we, as inbound marketers, create for your business. This allows the right content to be found and accessed by your target customer when they are searching online in places like Google, Bing and Yahoo for answers to their questions. Inbound marketing empowers your prospects with educational content that your ideal buyer wants to consume. In doing this, you share a wealth of knowledge about your products and services to all your potential customers. However, inbound marketing campaigns have many moving parts and, for it to be successful in attracting new leads and closing sales, the correct channels and systems must be put in place to continuously attract, convert, close, and delight customers.
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