Cold calls. Television commercials. Direct mail campaigns. Are you familiar with some of these marketing strategies? Your company’s message is likely not being fully heard if this is the only way you are communicating with your audience. These are all examples of outbound marketing.
The problem with outbound marketing methods is they are intrusive and interrupt people’s daily activities. These tactics seem pushy, and your audience might feel that they are being convinced to do or buy something they don’t need. Once they feel that way, they will hang up the phone, mute the t.v., or throw your flyer away.
Instead, current marketing trends focus on bringing the customer to you by utilizing inbound marketing. Hub & Spoke can help you do this by giving your website a strong ranking in search engines like Google, as well as helping you engage with your potential audience through blog posts and social media sites.
Let’s look a little bit deeper into some of these inbound marketing techniques. After all, successfully utilizing these strategies will enhance your customer base and generate revenue. Isn’t that the whole point of any marketing campaign?
SEO
How your website ranks in a search engine results page just might be the biggest factor in determining your website’s overall reach. Most people turn to a search engine when we have a question, are looking for something or need a specific product or service. Those top website results will be where we go first.
One research firm found that 93% of all online experiences start with a search engine. If you’re not listed on that first page of results (or, even better, the top 3 results), your website is likely not being visited too often, compared to your competition.
Social Media
Think about social media like this: On a personal level, you use it to stay connected to friends, family and your favorite businesses, entertainers and so forth. If these things are important to you personally, they are definitely important to your business.
People like to interact with and be engaged by their favorite brands and companies. Social media is the vehicle to make this happen. Not only that, but you can promote all of your other content (such as blog posts) on your social media accounts.
Blog Posts
Adding a blog to your company’s website is a relatively inexpensive and effective way to generate interest in your website. A blog allows your customers to connect to you on their own terms, when and where they want. You can talk about specific products or services you offer and share other information your customer base is likely to find useful.
When you’re writing your blog posts, make them educational in nature. This means your content should speak directly to the needs of your customers. What questions or concerns might they have? How can you best answer those questions? Posts that do this will generate more interest in your message and send prospective customers to your website, in addition to keeping repeat customers listening and interested.
Rather than seeking out your customers in an intrusive manner, inbound marketing focuses on elevating your website’s presence and bringing prospective customers to you.
Utilizing SEO, Social Media and Blog Posts to generate interest in your website, you are calling on people to visit your website or interact with you because it fulfills their needs. Your inbound marketing efforts create a user experience that is helpful, not jarring or invasive.
