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An Introduction / What is it?
Inbound Marketing is a marketing methodology designed to earn the attention of an audience which in turn attracts visitors and customers towards an organisation.
The techniques and channels used for Inbound Marketing are largely digital marketing tactics – including content marketing, SEO (Search Engine Optimisation), Social Media and Marketing Automation – which are creatively blended to build brand awareness, catch the attention of an audience, nurture customers and ultimately generate new leads and sales opportunities.
With a focus on attracting an audience’s attention, the methodology revolves around the creation and distribution of relevant, helpful content. Designed to create genuine value for the audience, the content often address’s the problems, pain points and needs of an organisations (ideal) customers, so that the prospects attracted are better qualified and the business has already built a level of trust and credibility amongst the audience.
As Inbound Marketing methodologies project a business’s expertise within their particular field, once an audience has been attracted, it is the goal to then engage them and nurture towards a sale or conversion with the provision of further specialist help, guidance and content to support their interest. Tactics including email marketing and chat are often used to distribute information and communicate.
Inbound tactics are in stark contrast to outbound marketing strategies, where marketers push an organisations message predominantly via paid channels, including traditional offline advertising, PPC (Pay Per Click) and paid media, in an attempt to find customers. Inbound focusses on providing genuine value to an audience which earns attention, rather than buying it, which results in potential customers finding the business through channels like websites, blogs, search engines and social media.
The benefits of using Inbound Marketing are numerous and the tactics used directly address how buying behaviours have changed with the move towards consumption on demand. With more empowered and informed buyers, Inbound Marketing provides exactly what the buyer is looking for, exactly when they need it, which in turn builds trust, reputation and authority for the business leading to higher number of qualified leads, more sales and better ROI.
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