top 10 inbound marketing strategies

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INBOUND MARKETING

TOP TEN STRATEGIES

Modern Marketing PartnersTop 10 Inbound Marketing Strategies

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Top 10 Inbound Marketing Strategies

Inbound marketing, one of the top marketing buzzwords emerging over the

past of couple of years, will be used by 58% of companies this year. In addition,

48% of marketers plan to increase their inbound marketing spend in 20131.

Inbound marketing is a term coined by Hubspot, defined as the practice

of drawing potential customers to you, as opposed to broadcasting

communications to potential customers through traditional methods like

advertising (now categorized as outbound marketing). For the old-school

marketer or traditionalist, inbound is considered a “pull” strategy, while

outbound marketing is considered a “push” strategy.

Below we will share the top 10 inbound marketing strategies, followed by

details on our Integrated™ Inbound Marketing Process with an accompanying

infographic. Finally, an inbound marketing case study example will illustrate

best practice implementation.

1. Thought Leadership

2. Blogging

3. Social Media

4. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

5. Integrate with PR

6. Paid Search Advertising

7. Calls-to-Action and Registration pages

8. Generate Word of Mouth

9. Leverage events

10. Integrated Inbound™ Marketing

TOP 10 INBOUND MARKETING STRATEGIES

http://offers.hubspot.com/2013-state-of-inbound-marketing


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10 Inbound Marketing Strategies

1. Thought Leadership – Establishing your brand or key spokespersons as

thought leaders in your industry through content marketing, publishing and

public speaking. If possible, leverage educational opportunities including

associations, institutes, or training programs. Content types include blogging,

case studies, white papers, eBooks, surveys and industry studies, videos, and

more. Demonstrate how your company or brand solves problems. Be informative

and educational, not promotional. Use content as material for public speaking.

2. Blogging – A blog is a great opportunity for your company or brand to

establish thought leadership, while also generating leads. Arguably, one huge

benefit of blogging can also be leveraged as an search tactic. A properly search-

optimized blog builds up your indexed pages count, is a source of fresh

content to your website (which search engines love), allows you to discuss

the “keywords” associated with your company, and increases website traffic.

The SEO benefits are clear, but don’t write for the search engines, write for

your customer. Provide value. Provide additional resources, and social share.

3. Social Media – Social media is no longer an option and represents the

essence of inbound marketing itself. Not only is social media another touch

point to reach and interact with customers and prospects, it provides an

outlet for all your content. Establish a social media strategy. What networks

are right for your brand? What content will we use? Just because you build

it, doesn’t mean they will come. Be sure to post/share regularly. To increase

your reach, add social profile icons and links to your website and blog, and

add social sharing tools. For business-to-business marketing, LinkedIn will

likely be important, along with Twitter, YouTube and Google+. For business-

to-consumer marketing, Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram are important

(along with YouTube and Twitter).


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4. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) – An estimated 93% of online

experiences starting with a search engine2, and the majority of searchers

only click on the top 1-3 results. Making SEO improvements to your website

can increase your rankings in a search engine results page (SERP) and

ultimately, increase website traffic and leads. For a more detailed analysis

of SEO improvements you can make, read our white paper: Search Engine

Optimization – Top Priority for Modern Marketers.

5. Integrate with PR – Publicity or PR is by definition, free. And PR can

build awareness and reach new and different customers. What makes PR

part of the inbound marketing mix, is the ability to social share publicity

through the several social networks mentioned above, along with the traffic

PR can deliver to your website, blog, or social networks. Finally, PR can be

used to cost efficiently announce new thought leadership assets like studies,

eBooks, and whitepapers; again, with links to the respective content.

6. Paid Search Advertising – or Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising has created

some controversy in the inbound marketing world. People debate whether

or not PPC should be classified as an inbound marketing tactic. While PPC

does straddle the line, we consider it to be an inbound marketing tactic,

and a powerful one! PPC can help supplement your website traffic while

you are trying to build natural or organic search authority through SEO

improvements. And for high commercial intent searches, PPC outranks

natural (organic) search results.

7. Calls-to-Action – You’ve established yourself as a thought leader, blog

regularly, and have built a social following. But, are you converting? Having

powerful calls-to-action (CTA) in all of your content can help turn prospects into

customers. Provide incentives. Use action verbs. Place effectively. Constantly

test and track the effectiveness of your calls-to-action and make updates.

Use landing pages and registration pages to capture prospect information.

Integrate with CRM or marketing automation to support ongoing lead nurturing.

http://www.modernmarketingpartners.com/Download-Whitepaper-Search-Engine-Optimization-for-Marketers.cfm

http://www.modernmarketingpartners.com/Download-Whitepaper-Search-Engine-Optimization-for-Marketers.cfm


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8. Word of Mouth – 93% of word of mouth advertisement occurs off-line.

So why is it important and relevant to inbound marketing? Think of inbound

marketing tactics as a conversation starter. Inbound marketing gets people

talking about your company. Though these conversations may happen offline,

you can still influence and shape them early one. Promotions, events, contests

and interactive tools communicated through digital channels (website, social

networks), increase engagement, and build traffic.

9. Leverage Events – both live and virtual events (webcasts), can help

your company establish itself as a thought leader and generate leads.

Webcasts are an effective, and cost-efficient way to boost your content

marketing program. Live events including trade shows provide opportunities

to reach new customers interested in your services.

10. Integrated Inbound™ Marketing – integrate Inbound and Outbound

Marketing initiatives for maximum impact and results. Start with research,

planning and strategy. Outbound includes advertising, PR, events, direct mail

and email, and sales. Inbound includes SEO, content, blogging and social

media. Cross-promote websites, blogs and social profiles in advertising, emails

and more. Use Calls-to-Action and registration pages to capture leads. Finally,

measure analytics of websites and social networks.


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Integrated Inbound™ Marketing

Inbound Marketing is hugely popular thanks to the tireless efforts of marketing

automation software publishers including Hubspot, Marketo, Eloqua and

Pardot, each with a different spin on what constitutes effective inbound

marketing. Still, each of these sources is selling software, so there is clear

bias for Inbound Marketing, and bias against many traditional or outbound

marketing techniques. In some cases, this bias is so exaggerated, that it

borders on conspiracy!

Consider Hubspot’s State of Inbound Marketing Report, which compares

Inbound to Traditional or Outbound marketing, identifying lower costs and

greater effectiveness of Inbound. The conspiracy? Hubspot defines outbound

marketing as trade shows, direct mail and telemarketing. Ok, what about

advertising and PR? What about email and brochures for sales staff?

No question, the marketing mix has has significantly changed, shifted, and

evolved from traditional marketing to Internet-centric approaches. But are

marketers eliminating advertising, PR, trade shows, email and replacing with

inbound marketing? Not even close. Sure small companies that never did

marketing might only implement Inbound marketing, but most brands active

in marketing employ a full complement of marketing elements and approaches.

Here at Modern Marketing Partners, we put forth a new theory of effective,

best-practice marketing. A marketing mix that is multi-disciplined with a

consistent brand identity and message. Outbound marketing integrating

seamlessly with inbound marketing, and more measurable than ever before.

We call it Integrated Inbound™ Marketing, and we illustrate the components

and inter-relationships via the Inbound/Outbound Marketing™ Process

Infographic on the next page.


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-metrics/dashboards

THE

Research Analysis Planning Strategy Branding

Advertising, PR,Events, Direct,Sales Support

Measurement/Reporting

Analytics, Metrics, Dashboards, Activity Calender


Outbound Marketing

Advertising, PR, Events, Direct, Sales Support


Inbound Marketing

SEO, Content, Blogging, Social Media


Lead Generation

Offers, Registration Pages, Promotion, CRM/Automation

INTEGRATED INBOUND™ MARKETING PROCESS


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Inbound Marketing Case Study – Construction Marketing Association (CMA)

A great example of the power of inbound marketing to achieve measurable

results is the launch of the Construction Marketing Association (CMA).

Established in January of 2010, CMA employed a comprehensive inbound

marketing program to build awareness, drive memberships, and launch such

initiatives as the STAR Awards, professional certification program, and a

career center with the help of Modern Marketing Partners.

Like all successful inbound marketing, a search-optimized website was

foundational, coupled with extensive and relevant content. An award-winning

blog and integrated social media profiles distribute content and communications.

Frequent webcasts and white papers reinforce thought leadership.

Results: Growing memberships, e-commerce sales, website traffic, registrations

through multiple offers, and importantly excellent search authority across a

wide range of topics.

MMP was recognized with the following awards for the CMA inbound marketing campaign:

1. Communicator 2011 Silver CMA Social

2. Communicator 2011 Silver CMA Blog

3. Hermes 2011 CMA Blog


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Modern Marketing Partners is a full service marketing and communications agency based in the Chicago region. MMP implements and manages many inbound marketing campaigns for clients. To request a complimentary inbound marketing analysis, contact Neil Brown at 630-868-5061, or visit our website www.ModernMarketingPartners.com.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:

1 2013 State of Inbound Marketing Report

2 http://www.searchenginejournal.com/24-eye-popping-seo-statistics/42665/

http://www.modernmarketingpartners.com

http://offers.hubspot.com/2013-state-of-inbound-marketing

http://www.searchenginejournal.com/24-eye-popping-seo-statistics/42665/