What does Inbound Marketing Mean for this Generation?

In a world where everything and anything is constantly exposed to people, it's hard to avoid any sort of marketing. But the way that marketing has evolved over the years focuses less on the push of advertisements and more on how to intrigue potential consumers.

What is Inbound Marketing?

The strategies of Inbound Marketing are exactly that. They focus on finding ways to bring more consumers to their sites and build relationships with them. This can be through content marketing, blogs, events, SEO, social media, and more. The benefits of Inbound Marketing to a firm can include brand awareness, attraction of new businesses and new consumers to get conversion. The opposite of this, which has been the traditional marketing method for a while, is Outbound Marketing, where marketers look for customers. The big difference with Inbound Marketing in this aspect is that all the information people are looking for is readily available to them at the exact time and place they are searching for it.

How exactly does Inbound Marketing work?

The methodology of Inbound Marketing follows this process: attract strangers, convert visitors, close leads, delight customers and hope that they become promoters for your firm.

The idea behind this structure is to understand that creating content for people who are looking for that material is what starts a relationship with them. Research the people that you are trying to target. View consumers as actual people to build something with, rather than just be purchasers, because this sets a better tone for them which builds trust and credibility.

So now that we have established the structure, lets look at some best practices.

Use Buyer Personas

In order to create something of value to consumers, you need to know who you're trying to reach. By figure that out, you can identify how to tie your marketing to those personas.

Use Buyer's Journey

The way that a person makes the decision to make a purchase is largely a part of their journey their. The interactions that they have are essential to developing that relationship with them, and making sure they are "delighted" in the end.

Create Remarkable Content

After the personas are established, all the content that goes out from the company should focus on that, while also using the buyer's journey to make that experience satisfactory.

Leverage your Content

Now that the content is available and designed around the personas, USE IT! Take the firm's goals and establish how to use the content created to properly lay a context and execute the plan.

What does this mean today and for the future?

Inbound Marketing has shifted the conversation that marketers have when it comes to strategy. When it was always pushing unwanted ads to get people's attention, nobody wanted that, and it made consumers less interested. But now there is more push to learn about the people and what they want. Making something that is personalized for them, makes people want to interact more. Social Media platforms have been one of the big game changers in that. People have taken part in large social justice movements and are then exposed to more work going on in their own communities. What once was about buying products can now be more about communities that have the same affinities and want to work towards a common goal. Consumers have the tools to learn about the ins and outs of companies and can hold them accountable for all the work they do. But if companies are making sure they give their consumers what they want, the relationships they have become solid and a step towards greater causes.

So now I ask you, what can Inbound Marketing do for you?