Traditional outbound marketing strategies have proven less successful over the last two decades, leaving many businesses wanting to focus more of their efforts on less intrusive methods. Inbound marketing through social media for example, can grant you access to a wealth of potential customers without having to shove your products under their noses.
Read on to discover what inbound marketing is, and our 5 top tips for how to help your marketing strategy succeed…
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What is inbound marketing?
Inbound marketing is where you draw customers in to you, instead of going out and interrupting them while they are online, watching TV, or taking the tube to work. And while these methods do work, there are other less invasive strategies that can yield incredible results.
Customers today like to feel like they’re making their own decisions, rather than being manipulated with clever marketing tactics. As such, bombarding them with ads and hoping for the best is no longer the only viable option.
Inbound marketing is more focused on providing free value by creating and sharing awesome content that builds credibility and establishes trust. It is the embodiment of: “Build it and they will come”, allowing customers to make their own minds up at their own pace – as opposed to being forced to make rash, ‘buy right now or forever regret it’ decisions.
Where does social media come in?
Social media is the perfect medium for implementing an inbound strategy for your business. You can create insightful content and promote it on the right platforms to reach your target market without an outbound approach. You can engage in conversation, ask and answer questions, and really connect with your potential customers over time in a meaningful way.
Here are our top tips to get your own inbound marketing approach up and succeeding through social media today:
1. Use only quality content
Social media gives you a unique platform to showcase what makes your brand special, so don’t waste it! Only produce highly relevant and quality content that is sure to interest, inform or entice your ideal customers. Remember there are so many ways to get your message across, from videos and images to blog posts and text. Stay on brand, release content consistently, and focus on delivering value above all else.
2. Build real relationships and engage with questions
Commit to building a community of interested and loyal followers that you interact with regularly. Social media allows you to really connect with people. If you want people to keep coming back for more, deliver value, be consistent, and engage with them as often as possible.
Encourage reviews and respond to them accordingly – especially the negative. When people can see plenty of social proof – and indeed your commitment to your customers – they’ll have a much easier time putting their faith in you.
3. Stay on brand and build your online awareness
You can find a lot of opportunities here to get your message out, but you should always stay on brand. Only use the platforms and content that support this. Sync them all up with your website, use the same logo and colour schemes, be consistent with your language use, and so on.
One great way to benefit from social media is to build relationships with influencers, but be careful because you should only choose people that truly reflect your values and style. Hiring an influencer who is not relevant to your audience is largely going to be a waste of time and money.
4. Utilise the data available to highly target your audience
Social media platforms have an immense amount of information about their users that can be leveraged when refining ads and targeting the right people. You should also measure and assess all of the engagement that you have on your posts. Which post types have been getting the most engagement and how can you continue to replicate that success?
5. Convert visitors into leads
Now you have attracted your visitors with your interesting content, obvious value, and sparkling personality, it is time to actually convert them into loyal paying customers. It is all well and good that people are taking notice and engaging with your brand, but if you don’t have a clear value proposition then they won’t be converting into customers.
A top social media marketing agency can help you with this next stage of your inbound marketing, drawing visitors onto your landing pages, encouraging them to commit their email address or enticing them with an offer that is simply too good to refuse.
Have you found this article insightful? If so, we urge that you put what you’ve learned into practice and start dominating the social media game today!