Inbound marketing should be a priority for your business. It is how you will draw customers to your site and attract prospects to discover your website. It involves creating helpful, relevant content that adds value and engages your blog and website visitors, leading to conversions. However, it’s more than just throwing up a few links and writing a few posts. You need to know the types of marketing strategies (inbound or otherwise) that make it work for you. This will get you started with an inbound definition and a little direction.

What is Inbound Marketing

Inbound marketing is a specialized marketing technique that uses social media marketing, branding, content marketing, and SEO to attract customers and prospects to your business, products, and services. It extends beyond driving traffic and promoting your company by enhancing the entire customer experience. It is a very effective way to increase sales, boost brand awareness, and grow your business.

Core Tenets of Inbound Marketing

There are three core tenets of inbound marketing that are the same whether your goal is brand awareness or introducing prospects and customers to your product or service. They draw visitors in and lead the to conversion.

The core tenets of inbound marketing are:

• Attract – Ease is the name of the game. When someone visits your website, you want to provide great content that they can use right away, but you also want to make sure that your contact information is very easy to find. Including a call to action above the fold is also an effective strategy.
• Engage – Engagement may begin with valuable content, but it should always lead to personal contact. Calls to action with links directly to your contact page make it easy for your customers and prospects to get in touch with you. Use strong content to spark conversations, prompt questions, and open the door for developing relationships.
• Delight – The core of your inbound marketing strategy should be to create the best possible customer experience. This means they can find what they are looking for quickly and easily, they don’t have to search for your contact information, and you are accessible and available for answering questions or providing additional information.

Choosing the Right Inbound Agencies

Inbound marketing is a highly specialized technique and most businesses are best served if an agency handles this part of their marketing strategy. However, not all inbound agencies are created equal. When looking for an agency to handle your company’s inbound marketing needs, ask these questions:

• Are they flexible enough to meet your needs whether you are seeing strictly inbound or want to incorporate other digital marketing services as well?
• Do they use inbound marketing for their own agency’s marketing strategies?
• Will they or can they create an inbound strategy that is in line with your goals and needs?
• What kind of inbound marketing is best for your company and can the agency deliver?
• What measurement and monitoring tools do they have in place to make sure that your inbound strategies are indeed effective?
• What does their track record look like in terms of inbound successes and effective campaigns?
• Do they have substance and are more that a fancy website or compelling blog? Do they have any HubSpot certifications? Can they provide any inbound examples for your review?

Contact Art’s Cube

Whether you want to design your website from the ground up, increase your visibility with expert SEO, or create ad campaigns that get results, Arts Cube has you covered. Contact us today to find out how we can help you with your inbound marketing needs – and beyond.