Inbound Marketing Conversion Path for Beginners

So you are just learning about inbound marketing?

As a beginner to inbound marketing, there are probably hundreds of questions running through your mind.

Many people don’t know that inbound marketing involves blogs, podcasts, videos, ebooks, newsletters, etc.  These medians are visited by people everyday because they are seeking informationor interested by the topic.

Through the use of inbound marketing you're attracting your audience by creating relevant and education content that fits their needs and wants.

People aren't just going to click on a blog, just to click on it. Something made them click on a specific blog article. For example, something made you click on this blog post.

The various inbound marketing activities can be used as a way to attract and target your buyer personas. However, it doesn't just stop there. These internet resources can be a way to market to potential buyers.

There are four steps to follow when implementing your inbound marketing campaign, those steps allow you to attract, convert, close, and delight.

The Beginners Guide to Understanding the Inbound Marketing Conversion Path

Attract

When attracting a customer you need to understand who they are. What types of people are you trying to get to your website, and who are your current customers? You want to build a buyer persona; this allows you to understand who your potential customer is.

You can attract these people to your website by writing blogs that provide leadership and educate the readers on a certain topic. Also blogs increase your SEO (search engine optimization) this is important because you want people to be able to find your website. SEO is important because you want your website to pop up when people are searching keywords in search engines.

Social media is constantly growing and will only continue to get bigger. You can use these social media sites as an important tool when attracting people to your website. Using these sites to spread the reach of your blog or video, making your content available to a large amount of people. Make sure when you are using social networks that you continue to target your buyer persona, cater your messages specifically to them.

Convert

Once you have attracted them you want to make them into a lead, hence the word convert. A lead is someone that is now a potential buyer. They were once just a regular person reading your blog but now they are interested in what you were talking about and they want to learn more.

How you turn these strangers into leads is by making quality content. You need to write blogs that interest and educate the reader. If they don’t like what they are reading they will just stop reading and move on to something else.

Don't forget to have calls-to-action, especially on your blog. By having a CTA on the blog that makes the person want to click through and learn more. And you're keeping those prospects and leads on your website. The CTA should be inviting the person to learn more or offer them something. When they click on the CTA it will bring them to a landing page, this page is essential for the convert stage.

Landing pages should be used to inform your visitors of what they are getting, while instructing them on what to do. This is where the person has to enter personal information so they can obtain what is being offered. Remember your content needs to be remarkable. The person is giving you their information, for something in return.

Now that they just became a lead, make sure that you send a thank you email or have a thank you page reassuring the person that they have made the right decision in taking your offer. Also, the thank you page will have instructions on how to further the sales process.

Close

Now that you have a lead you need to make this person into a buyer. The way you can do this is by email. The person has already given their information to you and is aware of your company/website. So when you send them an email they will be more willing to open it up.

In the email you should make it tailoring to their buyer persona. You can send the same email to multiple people as long as they fit in the same buyer persona. This email will help build a relationship with the lead. The email will instruct the lead on how to further their sales process and how our company can help them. This will build loyalty with that lead so they become a buyer.

During this stage your sales and marketing teams should work together, it is essential that they are speaking the same language. The marketing team needs to pass on the information about this lead to the sales team so they have all the resources available to make the sale.

Delight

The last stage in the process is to keep the customer the boss. You want to make sure that once they are a buyer that they can count on you to solve their problems and deliver for them.

Every interaction that you have with your customer makes an impression on them. So you need to make sure that every meeting with them is a good one. Make your customers happy because a happy customer is one that will continue to do business with you.

To keep your customer happy you should educate them and make sure that you follow up with them. Have constant communication with them so you know that they are pleased with the work that you are doing.

Customers will tell people what great work you do and will refer other business to you. Word of mouth referrals can be an easy way to gain new customers.

This inbound marketing conversion path is the way to get people to your website and turn them into buyers. The medians mentioned above are used by people everyday and are ways that you can attract people to your company. By knowing these customers buyer persona’s you can then start to close. Once you have them as a buyer it is important to cater to all of their needs and make sure they are happy with you.

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