A thorough study on the 4 key stages of inbound methodology

Inbound marketing is quite a buzz right now. Everyone is talking about it, and so should you. It is not just another marketing strategy, but an evolutionary approach to marketing methodology. But, if you want to exploit it in its best capacity, you must study the basics.

Inbound marketing is an ideology that preaches to businesses how to draw audiences towards them without advertising or promoting their brand. Instead of blowing their own horns, companies are inspired to offer something valuable to their customers and audiences. 

But what can you offer? What can you do to put them in the forefront? And how can you compel people to take options? HubSpot's Inbound marketing methodology has a well-defined flywheel to show how you can convert visitors into leads and leads into conversions.

Source: blog.fit4market

In this value driven blog, we will talk about the four key stages of inbound marketing methodology that makes it possible to turn strangers into your brand promoters.

What are the four key elements of the Inbound Marketing Methodology?

The four key stages of inbound marketing are Attract, convert, close, and delight. There are specific methods to follow at each step that makes the conversions possible. It also matters when you are taking your marketing actions and who you are targeting. We will discuss all of that in our next segment.

How to implement each of the inbound marketing stages?

Step 1: Attract

The first step of the entire inbound methodology in marketing is to attract prospective customers or leads, which starts at making the audience aware of your services or products. The way to do this is by publishing valuable content that answers your customers' potential questions on various digital platforms including social media channels, websites, etc.

Some of the most popular and useful content among the users are how-to content, a list of top companies in an industry, reviews, comparisons, guides, etc. In short, it includes everything that your target audience can find exciting and practical at the same time.

Apart from these generic approaches, you have to keep an eye open for industry, product, and service-specific doubts and issues aroused by your audiences. Since inbound marketing targets only a particular niche, it becomes possible to scale their pain points, interest areas, and other relevant factors.

You need to publish relevant content for your buyer personas, which are both search optimized and promoted in select online channels.

Step 2: Convert 

In this step, the goal is to turn visitors into leads. At this stage of inbound methodology in marketing, you need to collect your prospects' contact information, which includes their email address, phone number, or some other way to contact them. Once you have gathered this personal information, you have successfully generated leads.

However, the gathering of the contact information is not so easy. For fear of spam, most users are reluctant to share their contact details with companies. To convince them to do so, you need to provide them with something valuable and rewarding. Try offering free sessions, free quotes or informative bits, etc.

Make sure that you get your creative juices flowing when planning your offers. Consider the industry you work in, the USP of your company, the value your expertise could provide the customers with, etc. Your secret weapon here is to create compelling offers tailored to your customers' specific needs.

Step 3: Close

At this stage, you take all your leads and then gradually move them forward in the conversion funnel to turn them into customers. Don't ever think that you can stop delivering useful content at the point of lead generation. Your prospects are smart; if they realize it was all about drawing them in, they will run away.

Inbound marketing is about helping people. So, make sure that you keep attending to your customers. However, don't overwhelm them with attention. Too many emails or follow-ups on your end may look spammy and turn your leads away. Be consistent, subtle, and relevant.

The trick to closing leads is to amplify your customer relationship management or CRM. You can automate it by using HubSpot CRM services, which empowers you and enables you to remain consistent. With HubSpot CRM services, you can easily track your leads to see if they are converting into sales or not. And the best part is, it's absolutely free.

Step 4: Delight

Do you know what the best form of marketing is? It's word of mouth! There is nothing better than getting your customers to recommend your brand to other prospects. It has multifold benefits, and it starts at delighting your customers. But unfortunately, this is also the stage of inbound marketing that most marketers ignore.

Referrals and the growing volume of your deal with pre-existing customers have a significant impact on your business's growth. If you fail to identify the opportunity and encash it, you are leaving money on the table. Remember that delighting customers has a direct effect on the bottom line. Hence, you must stay in contact with your customers.

You can do that by sending them surveys, newsletters, personalized product offers, and engaging with them on various digital platforms. You have to make them feel valued and appreciated. This way, you are encouraging them to endorse and recommend you.

In this context, the secret weapon is the maximum exploitation of interactive platforms such as social media. Keep monitoring these channels to identify the perfect time to connect.

Bonus

"Is my company the right size to implement digital marketing?"- this is a question that we always get, and we would like to answer it once and for all. Inbound marketing is suitable for businesses of all shapes and sizes. The approach may vary depending on the volume of the company and the availability of resources. But the effectiveness is indeed noticeable. 

All sorts of businesses have to ensure that they monitor and analyze their customers' behavior, buying pattern, and engagement on different channels to leverage their audiences' availability and develop a healthy relationship.

Summarizing the whole thing

We can recognize instantly that inbound marketing is entirely content-driven. Whether it is video content, blogs, emails, infographics, or any other type of resource, you need to make sure that it reaches the right audience at the right time. 

At every stage of the journey, you have to be intelligently responsive. Provide your audience with what they are seeking, and you will automatically drive them in for the long term.