If the world of marketing is yours, surely you have heard the term Inbound Marketing or Attraction Marketing on more than one occasion. If you have a company, brand or business, it is therefore very important that you know this term and know what it refers to and what it is for, since any marketing plan today makes use of it and any specialist wants to use it. strategy for your campaigns. But what is inbound marketing? How did it come about? What is it for? How important is it to your business?
We are going to answer these and many other questions below, in order to make a complete analysis of this strategy and find out how we can make use of it and get the most out of its methodology..
First of all, it is important that we know how this term has evolved over the years.
The arrival of the internet revolutionized the advertising market back in 2000 and the way to reach customers changed drastically. The user went from being a mere spectator of the advertising, to being able to express at that moment what he wanted and needed. At that time, the communication between the client and the brand became bidirectional, that is, the brand would no longer focus only on placing ads, but would seek to satisfy the real needs of the client. In 2005, the concept “Inbound Marketing” was coined by HubSpot co-founder and CEO, Brian Halligan. However, it took a number of years for this term to become popular..
What is Inbound Marketing?
Inbound Marketing (attraction marketing in Spanish) is a marketing methodology that focuses on attracting customers to a company or brand by creating valuable and relevant content, without distracting consumers, with intrusive advertising. Instead, what is sought is to create a relationship of trust and long-term loyalty with customers that ultimately converts into purchases.
Differences between Inbound Marketing and Outbound Marketing
To fully understand the difference between the two, it is important to understand each of them individually.
- Inbound Marketing: To understand what Inbound Marketing is, it is important that we think about the behavior of society with the products, since this technique focuses on that. Today consumers want, in addition to purchasing products, to be able to satisfy their needs. That is why inbound marketing seeks not only to promote a product, but also to satisfy the customer's needs without having to aggressively attack them with advertising campaigns that do not interest them. To do this, it makes use of other types of strategies such as offering quality content so that the client is the one who finally reaches the product and not the other way around. In this sense, what it seeks is to adapt to the way of thinking of customers. To do this, what you have to do is offer the right information to the right person at the right time. Therefore, the purpose of this methodology is to attract the public in the first instance, in order to satisfy their needs with valuable content to these potential clients, and finally offer them what they are looking for so that they ultimately become real clients. It could be that this strategy focuses on how to sell more than what you sell.
- Outbound Marketing: This traditional marketing strategy, however, focuses on the promotion of the product, in a unidirectional way, since it does not focus on what the consumer is looking for or on satisfying their needs, but simply offers the product through advertising. . We can see this in television commercials, magazine advertisements or campaigns on street marquees, for example. We can also see this type of marketing on the internet, for example when we are looking at a newspaper and a campaign for a car appears.
Now that we know what Inbound Marketing and Outbound Marketing are, we can establish that the big difference between the two is that Inbound Marketing focuses on the consumer, offering them valuable content, while Outbound Marketing only promotes the product through of advertising campaigns.
1 Inbound Marketing and content marketing
Next we are going to analyze what relationship content marketing has with inbound marketing since it is possible that there is some confusion between both concepts and it is important that we are clear about the relationship between them and what each one is focused on. In this way we will have a clearer idea of how we can carry out our strategy correctly and efficiently. For this we are going to see the relationship between content marketing and inbound marketing.
The first thing we will do before entering into the relationship between the two will be to review what each of them is.
- Inbound Marketing: Inbound Marketing is a marketing methodology that focuses on engaging customers by creating valuable and relevant content. Instead, what is sought is to create a relationship of trust and long-term loyalty with customers that ultimately translates into purchases.
- Content marketing: Content marketing is a type of marketing that seeks to create and distribute quality content of interest to users, in order to attract a defined audience, establish a lasting and trusting relationship between them, to subsequently generate sales of products or services and thereby increase the revenue of the company. (In the first chapter of the content marketing course, you have this section developed)
Now that we are clear about what both terms are, it will be easier for us to understand that content marketing is one of the tools used in inbound marketing strategies, among others. Content marketing we could say that it focuses on the first step of this strategy, since it is the part in which what is sought in the first place is to attract the client. What we will do, therefore, with content marketing, is to focus on how to create that valuable and interesting content for consumers, to win them over at first and ultimately convert them into customers (inbound marketing).
We could therefore say that content marketing would be the tactic to attract customers, while inbound marketing would be the global strategy..
As we have already mentioned, today consumers ignore messages that are not personal and that do not focus on their interests and needs, so inbound marketing seeks with its strategy to be able to provide solutions to the problems, interests or needs of customers. users, and for this it makes use of content marketing on many occasions together with other types of SEO strategies.
If, for example, the sales team has created an excellent sales plan to convert potential customers into actual customers, content marketing will be one of those key tools that guides customers through this process.
2 What is a sales funnel (AIDA)
A sales funnel is the stages a user goes through from the time they learn about your product or service, until the purchase is made and they become a customer. There are so many stages that a potential customer goes through, from their first contact with the company to the closing of the sale.
A sales funnel is a system that is made up of a set of actions such as creating content or advertising, in order for users to carry out a specific action in the most effective way possible. That is why depending on the stage in which the consumer and potential client is, the actions to be carried out are different.
One of the most applied and effective methods to apply in this process is the method known as AIDA. These acronyms stand for attention (attention), interest (interest), desire (desire) and action (action). Specifically, it is about the 4 phases of the sales funnel. It was first developed in the late 19th century by American publicist E. St. Elmo Lewis, who used the acronym AIDA to describe these four stages of the buying process.
The purchase process begins from the moment a user has a need until it is solved by buying the product and/or service. This process is usually divided into 4 phases, as we have just mentioned, which are the ones that the AIDA model focuses on:
Attention
The first stage of the buying process is to capture the consumer's attention. However, attracting the attention of users in the online world today is not an easy task at all. That is why this step is essential to be able to continue with the process. For this it is interesting that you know what your clients need, and make a proposal that has differential value.
At this point, make use of the following examples:
Interest
Once the consumer's attention has been captured, the next stage is to arouse their interest. For this, it is important to show solutions to their potential problems. One of the key aspects in the interest phase when applying the AIDA method in marketing is to empathize with your buyer persona. You can achieve this by showing relevant and useful information about the product or service being offered, highlighting its most important benefits and features.
In order to keep track of this, analyze from Google Analytics, for example, the number of page views and the time spent.
Desire
In this third stage, what we must achieve is to generate a desire for the product or service offered, since this will be key to closing the final purchase. Our product or service has to help satisfy the needs of our client, that is, offer them the solution to their problem. At this stage, the customer must know the main benefits that he will obtain if he makes the purchase.
Action
If we have managed to get the client to go through the three previous actions, you could say that they are convinced. The last stage of the purchase process is the action, in which the consumer is expected to take a specific action, such as making a purchase or requesting more information. At this point we must make this step easy for the customer, and facilitate the purchase process.
Some of the verbs that work well to provoke this action are the following:
2 How to measure the AIDA method in marketing
The AIDA method is used to guide consumers through the purchasing decision-making process, but how can you measure its marketing effectiveness? Below we will see some of the indicators that can help measure the impact of the AIDA method on your marketing strategy.
Among the attention metrics that we can assess whether or not our method has worked, we can find the following.
Attention metrics
These are the metrics that measure the attention that we have captured from our clients with a first impact
- Open rate: The open rate of emails or banner ads is an indicator of how many consumers have paid attention to your message and have been attracted by your headline or initial image. This indicator can help us assess users who have passed the attention stage.
- Click-through rate: The click-through rate indicates how many consumers have shown interest in your message and have clicked on the link provided, which would not be indicating that they have passed the interest stage.
- Conversion rate: The conversion rate is the number of consumers who have taken a specific action, such as making a purchase or filling out a form, after showing interest in the product or service being offered. This rate indicates how many consumers have passed the "want" and "action" stages of the AIDA method.
- CTR in each of the channels: The CTR (Click-Through Rate) is a metric that measures the proportion of people who click on a link compared to the total number of people who see an ad or content
indicators of interest
These indicators will show the interest that our potential customers have had in the content, services and products that we have shown them.
- Number of page views: With the number of page views we can analyze whether users have visited more than one page on our site, or have only stayed on one of them without going through the process further.
- Permanence time: Another factor that will mark the interest of our clients, will be the permanence time since this will indicate whether they have spent a considerable time on the site or not.
desire metrics
In order to make an analysis of the desire metrics, we can look at the following indicators:
- Percentage of carts added
- The percentage of people reaching the payment method
action metrics
To assess the action metrics in our AIDA method, we can look at the following indicators to establish an analysis.
- Increase in subscriptions obtained
3 What is the customer journey
Before making the purchase, the customer goes through different stages as we have just seen. During these stages, the consumer goes through different states, since the customer journey is his path from the first contact with the company to the purchase and also after sales.
Emotional states through which the customer passes the sales process
At this point, we can divide emotional states into the following:
- Entertainment: Generally, users enter social networks and the web in general most of the time because they seek to be entertained. During this entertainment process is when he knows your brand, and your opportunity to generate a need for him.
- Need: In this second state you have already created the need in the consumer, so this is when you will begin to analyze the different options.
- Analyze proposals: At this point you will carry out an analysis of the options.
- Compare Options: Here you will shop for the available options to meet your need.
- Satisfy your need: Finally you will satisfy your need with the chosen option.
Acquisition time
This is the time that passes from when the person sees us, until they buy from us. This time can be 5 minutes or 2 weeks for example. This will depend on different variables. Among these variables we find the following:
- Levels of consciousness: Totally unconscious, aware of the need, aware of the solution, aware of the product.
Sales funnel phases
- He sees you for the first time: This is the moment when he knows about your brand, service or product
- Show interest: At this stage the consumer analyzes if your service or product interests him or not
Understanding these three stages of the purchase process will allow you to accompany the consumer during this process, and you will be able to help them move forward on this journey. During these stages it is important that we offer our users what they are demanding and that meets their needs so that the result is as expected by us.
4 Types of Sales Funnels
Sales funnels or also known as "Sales Funnel", "Conversion Funnel", "Conversion Funnel" or "Marketing Funnel", is a system that seeks to attract strangers, convert them into leads and transform them into customers. The main objective of this is the following:
- Attract customers to your business.
What is a Sales Funnel for?
A sales funnel is used to:
- Build trust: It is important to gain the trust of your potential customers and show them that you are a benchmark in your sector.
- Get new customers: It is important that your potential customers become consumers.
- Increase billing: This can be achieved by offering complementary and related products to the main product.
Now we are going to look at different sales funnels, so that we can better understand what we are talking about. But first of all it is interesting that we ask ourselves a series of questions before selecting which sales funnel we are most interested in for our business.
- What is my type of business?
- What specific goal do I want to achieve with this funnel?
- What is the maximum cost per customer acquisition that I can afford?
- What resources do I have?
Sales funnels by duration
This type is used when the product or service has a specific duration or continues over time:
- Sales funnels for launches: These are funnels designed to promote a product or service in a timely manner. For example, products that are in season or that have a momentary offer.
- Evergreen sales funnels: In this case, they are funnels that are always active and allow you to obtain income continuously without requiring your presence for a specific day and time.
Sales funnels by objective
This type of sales funnels has a clear objective:
Sales funnels to capture leads: Allows you to convert unknown users into potential customers. Its objective is to obtain different customer data to be able to store it in your database and thus maintain contact with. This can be achieved through actions such as free content, online classes, raffles, etc.
Sales funnels to generate customers: With this type of funnel, you seek to retain the customer who buys from you again by initially offering something that they will not be able to resist as a great offer, adjusting your budget a lot in this case.
Sales funnels to increase the average: It consists of proposing to the customer a complementary product to the one they have purchased. In this way, if the client is interested, you will increase the average sale.
Sales funnels by business model
These types of sales funnels focus on the type of business:
- Sales funnels for infoproducts: An infoproduct is a 100% digital educational product: digital books, online courses or virtual congresses. The objective is to offer the solution that the client is looking for.
- Sales funnels for local businesses: Physical businesses also need a sales funnel uniting the digital and physical worlds. The idea is to capture the customer online to take them to the store or physical place.
- Sales funnels for service businesses: It is important to implement a customer generation funnel, so that they can discover you.
- Sales funnels for ecommerce: In this type of funnels it is essential to combine ads on social networks, strategies for capturing contact information and retargeting campaigns that close sales. In this way you will boost the visibility of your brand.
Now that we know the different types of marketing funnels, we can make use of each of them based on our needs and preferences according to our type of business.
5 Inbound Marketing Examples
Knowing different ideas of Inbound marketing will bring new ideas to us and we will know how to execute this strategy in a more practical way. Below we will see different examples and ideas of Inbound marketing so that we open our minds and put our imagination into practice when we want to carry out any of them.
Promote events on social networks
It is important to know our customers, so social networks can help us attend different events or create our own, to meet new people and create new contacts. In this way, we can also present our brand and publicize our products or services in a closer way.
Interactive web tools
That our potential customers interact on our website is something really positive. That is why it may be interesting to include some interactive tool on our site so that in this way we are also providing extra value for users. Remember to launch the tool through your email marketing campaigns and social networks to increase reach.
Optimize your content
Another of the actions that you can carry out as an Inbound marketing strategy is to optimize the content that you already have, and eliminate that which is useless. Analyze the results and go looking for new inbound marketing ideas to improve it or better integrate it into your strategy.
use videos
This type of content is the one that fails the least and usually always gives very good results. They are the most consumed by customers and this will make it have more reach. Also, if you have a YouTube channel, you will see that you get more audience through this type of medium.
Contact influencers or micro-influencers
Look for key influencers in your sector and carry out a strategy with them. They exist of all kinds, so he looks for those with whom he thinks it might be interesting to establish a relationship and tries to reach an agreement.
Step by step guides
Another of the options that you have to connect with your audience is to do it through guides or tutorials in which you explain step by step how to carry out a process or how to solve a certain problem. In this way they will find in your content the help they need for a certain problem and this will make them become possible leads.
infographic
Conveying complex data and information in a way that is not boring can only be achieved with infographics that are eye-catching and easy to understand. Infographics not only help to convey tips or data in a nice way, but they are also shareable and much more likely to spread through other means.
Optimize for organic search
Keyword optimization can also help us ensure that all landing pages on our site have a relevant title and that our site has content that is tailored to our target audience. Optimizing the content from an SEO perspective will help the content go the extra mile to attract potential customers to our site.
Offer a Newsletter
Another option that you have is to send a newsletter with the different news that you offer to the portfolio of clients that you have thanks to the emails that have registered on your site. Newsletters can feature several types of content:
- Product announcements. This can include previews of new goods and services your company will launch.
- Special sales. If your business is running a special sale, newsletter subscribers need to know about it.
- Calls to action. A call to action asks your readers to do something, like subscribe to a podcast, leave a review, or join a social media group.
These are some of the examples of Inbound Marketing that we can carry out in our business, to attract new customers, keep the ones we already have or generate new interactions with them. In addition to this, we can carry out many other different strategies.
6 Types of audience for each stage of the sales funnel
We must bear in mind that for each part of the sales funnel, there are different types of audience. This audience, depending on the level at which it is found, has emotional states and levels of consciousness in common. Based on this, we can represent each group by a temperature that will represent the interest that the user has. The stages can therefore be divided into the following:
cold public
This is the type of audience that has just met us. In principle, they have no intention of buying, and they are not showing any kind of interest due to what is a cold audience.
The marketing objective for this first stage, therefore, will be to carry out actions that reach the maximum number of people possible, and the other objective will be to make them know that our brand exists.
lukewarm public
This type of audience is warm because it is already beginning to show some kind of interest. You are following us, commenting or sharing posts, liking our posts...
At this stage, since it is a public that already knows you and has had contact with you, we have another series of objectives, such as providing more information about the product you offer, generating more solutions for the client so that they do not have any kind of doubt about the product. In this way you will be helping users in that stage of comparison and analysis, to determine if they are interested in your product or not. We must also try to generate a solid connection with the user at this stage. generating interactions with him and getting him to become a member of our community.
hot public
Finally we have the hot public, which is already all those who are about to buy. This type of public has already shown a lot of interest in our products.
At this stage, our objectives will be to encourage the user to purchase, help them clarify comparative doubts with respect to the competition, transmit confidence and authority and credibility to end all those doubts they may have to finalize the purchase.
Depending on the stage in which our public is, we will apply some strategies or others in our sales funnel to be more efficient. It is therefore important that you make strategies for each type of public, so that in this way it does not become aggressive advertising depending on each stage. Thanks to the sales funnel, you will therefore have a global vision of your entire strategy, and your audience will receive the content that best meets their needs.
7 Importance of customer retention
The first thing that we must be clear about is that customer retention and the acquisition of new ones is a key aspect for our company. However, we must bear in mind that the retention of existing customers also involves the acquisition of new ones. If you offer good pre-sales and post-sales support, you will have a good chance of getting satisfied customers, who, in turn, will promote your brand.
What does customer retention mean?
Customer retention is a strategy that makes it possible to achieve customer loyalty with respect to a company or service and, on the other, its ability to satisfy the needs of its public. The objective of this effort is to retain consumers and achieve a repetitive purchase in the long term. The customer retention rate is associated with the abandonment rate.
Main benefits of customer retention
- Retaining customers is often faster and cheaper than attracting new ones as this requires less marketing effort, since existing customers already know and trust the brand, and it is easier to maintain that relationship than to establish a new one.
- It is usually an effective strategy to increase revenue
- The sales process is more efficient since there is a higher probability of a sale. Existing customers are more likely to buy again than new customers.
- It is a model of sustainable growth
- Approximately 70% of new customers buy on the recommendation of a repeat customer.
- If your client is satisfied with the product and the service, it will be more difficult to lose it against the competition.
- Valuable Feedback: Loyal customers are willing to provide valuable feedback to the company, which can help improve products or services.
Customer retention can help companies keep customers happy, increase sales, and reduce acquisition costs, which in turn can improve business profitability.
Importance of a customer retention strategy
It is important that we carry out a customer retention strategy, since in this way we will be able to analyze if it is working and we are meeting our objectives. An effective customer retention strategy is essential to the long-term success of any business.
- Increased profitability: Retaining existing customers is more profitable than acquiring new customers. Loyal customers buy more and more often, which translates into higher revenue and better profitability for the company.
- Customer loyalty: An effective customer retention strategy will help create a solid base of loyal customers. These customers not only buy more, but also become brand advocates and can help attract new customers through word of mouth.
- Reduction of costs: The acquisition of new clients can have a high cost. A customer retention strategy can reduce marketing and advertising costs and focus resources on maintaining existing customers.
- Reputation improvement: Satisfied and loyal customers are more likely to speak positively of the brand and leave positive comments on publications or company posts, thus helping us to create a brand image.
- Problem identification: Feedback from loyal customers can be a valuable tool in identifying problems and areas for improvement. This can help us adapt and improve the customer experience.
A customer retention strategy is important to keep customers happy, increase profitability, improve reputation, and adapt to changing customer needs. It is a valuable investment for any company that wants to stay competitive in the market in the long term.
How to retain clients
Invest in excellent customer service: Customer service is critical to keeping customers satisfied and loyal. It is important to offer a personalized and attentive service, listen to their needs and solve any problem or doubt they may have.
- Offer incentives and discounts: Discounts and promotions are very good tools to retain customers. These incentives can motivate customers to keep buying.
- Offer a loyalty program: Offering this type of option to customers can improve the retention of new customers for our business.
- Maintain effective communication: It is important to maintain effective communication with customers to keep them informed about news, promotions and other issues related to the company. Social networks, email and other digital tools may be the best options to maintain this communication.
- Follow up after the sale: It is important to continue to stay in touch with customers after a sale to make sure they are satisfied with the product or service. This can also be an opportunity to solicit feedback and suggestions for improvement.
- Offer high-quality products or services: Loyal customers expect to receive high-quality products or services. It is important to ensure that the products or services offered meet the quality standards of the company and that they meet the needs of customers.
Taking into account everything we have just seen, we can say that Inbound Marketing is an increasingly important strategy for companies, since it allows attracting potential customers effectively, offering them valuable content that interests them and helps them to make informed purchasing decisions.
By focusing on high-quality content creation, search engine optimization, and social media marketing, inbound marketing can help businesses generate quality leads, engage a broader audience, and ultimately increase sales.
By focusing on building relationships of trust and value with customers, Inbound Marketing can also help companies retain existing customers, increasing their loyalty and long-term value, which will lead to better results in the future and a more sustainable business model.
