Inbound marketing

The potential customer is the focus of inbound marketing. Valuable content, which helps the website visitor to solve their problems, is the main actor in inbound marketing. The company does not attract the customer through annoying advertising, but gives the customer the opportunity to get in touch with the company at their own request.

Inbound Marketing Definition
Inbound means “arriving” and in the field of marketing is a strategy to use value-added content, free tools, webinars, etc. to attract the attention of a target group to the product or service. The central intention of this measure is that potential customers make contact with the company / brand on their own.

Inbound Marketing – Definition
What exactly is inbound marketing?
The term inbound marketing refers to the digital marketing process based on the method of being actively contacted by potential customers. Companies and products are found independently by potential customers.

The company offers the customer valuable and useful content with added value and thereby attracts attention. One reason for making contact can, for example, be a customer’s interest in buying or the search for a specific service. If a company offers targeted and competent support, the customer feels downright attracted and will contact the company on their own.

The aim of inbound marketing is first contact and contact with the product or brand that is not made through advertising. If inbound marketing tools are used correctly, potential customers quickly recognize that the company can help with problem solving.

When implementing inbound marketing, a company must focus on creating content that is precisely tailored to the needs and interests of the target group. This is the only way a company can use inbound marketing to attract qualified potential customers and establish itself as a trustworthy source of information. In all phases of the customer journey , the potential customer has to be helped, he has to feel understood and picked up.

What is the difference between inbound and outbound marketing?
Inbound vs. outbound
The biggest difference is that with inbound marketing the customer approaches the company (pull marketing), the company draws attention to itself through demand-oriented marketing. In outbound marketing, on the other hand, the company (usually unsolicited) approaches the customer aggressively (push marketing), so the first contact is initiated by the company.

Inbound vs. outbound
The offered product is literally “pushed” by the provider in order to be noticed by customers. In outbound marketing, the company literally pushes itself on the customer, bombarding them with advertising messages without being asked. Nowadays you usually only achieve the opposite of what you want to achieve with advertising.

In order to achieve a high reach with outbound marketing, it has to be set up on a large scale – whether as a TV spot or the posting of countless billboards and advertising pillars. Outbound marketing does not only exist in the real world: mass emails, banner advertising and spam emails are among the online tools used in outbound marketing. A very big disadvantage of outbound marketing is the associated high costs. Large-scale advertising campaigns are very expensive and usually do not reach the desired target group.

Cold calling, for example, is a classic method of outbound marketing. Interested parties and potential customers are addressed by the company without being asked. This method of marketing is often perceived as annoying or even intrusive.

Why is this outbound OUT?
Advertising that is played out to potential customers at the wrong time is perceived as annoying and annoying. The only reason is that the advertisement is shown at the wrong time and in the wrong place. When there is no need for a product or service, it is even more difficult to generate interest. It is almost impossible to “persuade” the customer to buy.

Most people switch, for example, when advertising is running on TV, the umpteenth advertising e-mail is moved to the trash without being read and flyers are usually hardly paid any attention.

Everyone knows it and it annoys everyone:

A nice film is playing on TV and an advertising block is faded in precisely at the most exciting moment. Almost 90% of all television viewers switch off the commercial.

Fewer and fewer people watch television; Netflix, Amazon Prime and other streaming services that have no commercial breaks are used. Listening to the radio is being replaced by Spotify or other music providers.

The mailbox is overflowing again. In addition to the unwanted invoices, direct mail is to blame. Almost 50% of people throw unopened direct mail.

The advertising message does not reach the potential customer or is only very well received, the high costs of advertising are spent practically in vain.

Websites with many advertising banners have a high bounce rate that is 80% higher than other websites. One speaks of banner blindness – consciously or unconsciously ignoring banner advertising.

Websites on which the advertising banners literally jump will leave you quickly.

How does inbound marketing work?
With search engine optimized (SEO) content, a website receives many visitors who read it. However, the website is not designed for pure selling, but rather to stand out as an expert on a certain product or service. With content that gives the visitor special added value, the company positions itself in the sector / branch.

The website offers first insights into the expert knowledge that visitors can read in the freely accessible articles (for example in a blog). In addition to this initial information, further and particularly interesting information is offered on the website. Visitors who are particularly interested should have the opportunity to receive further important information. The visitor must be convinced with good content that he can deepen his knowledge by reading the other “premium” information, and that he may be helped with his “problem”. This premium information is particularly “valuable”, although it is accessible to everyone, it is not entirely “free”. In return for the contact details (e-mail address), the visitor receives access to the premium information. This process is implemented with the help of call-to-actions on the website. The collection of contact information (Lead ) from potential customers is known as lead generation. Visitors to the website who are particularly interested in information are usually happy to provide their contact details (lead) for them.

These leads are particularly valuable for the company because they are business contacts from interested parties who have voluntarily given their contact details for communication.

The aim of a website for inbound marketing is to generate as many leads as possible and to work with these valuable leads.

Inbound Marketing Tools
These 3 tools (components) are indispensable in inbound marketing:

Content

It cannot be said often enough, but especially in the area of ​​inbound marketing, valuable content with added value is the means to an end. Every inbound marketing campaign stands and falls with the content. Create valuable content to give the visitor added value.

SEO

What good is good content if nobody can find it? For this reason, very good search engine optimization ( SEO ) is a fundamental part of an inbound marketing campaign. Only those who are found can be successful.

Social media

By posting on social media channels, the content is distributed almost all by itself. Interested parties and potential customers share the contributions, comment on them and discuss them on the Internet. The dissemination of the posted content happens almost by itself.

If you stick to these 3 tools in your inbound marketing campaign, the traffic on your website with qualified visitors will increase almost by itself.