Inbound marketing: How to convert potential clients into your loyal customers ?

You need to be well aware that outbound marketing is most certainly outdated !

The cold-calling style seen in the « Wolf of Wall Street », spamming through emails or the old-fashioned tried and true door-to-door marketing, have very little efficiency to conclude a business affair. This intrusive marketing style has a knack for getting on your customers last nerves mostly because they don’t need anyone’s assistance to access information on any particular product. It’s no coincidence that today there is a rise in the use of blocking tools, files for spam, and ad blockers.

Unless you have been a hermit these past five years, it’s absolutely impossible that you missed out on the rise of inbound marketing. In case you have, here is a refresher of the basics.

What is inbound marketing ?

Since 2006, inbound marketing has been recognized as of one the most efficient marketing methods to promote online companies, to generate potential clients and to reduce the conversion time. Thanks to inbound marketing, your digital strategy will reach superior levels in generating conversions and maintain client engagement. Instead of relying on outdated marketing methods such as purchasing ads and email lists, you will put all your effort together to create high-quality contents. When you offer customized content and adapted to your customers, you will naturally attract more traffic to your website which you can then convert, engage with and retain over time.

One of the greatest advantages of inbound marketing is its cost. It requires very little investment and is far from reaching the same budget levels as one would find in an advertising campaign, for example. The difference with an advertising campaign also relies in the diffusion time of your content as it has no limit. It’s your website, the decision power relies in your hands.

A conversion funnel in four strategic steps

Four phases constitute the inbound marketing funnel:

Attract : Attraction is the very first step in the inbound marketing process. At this important initial stage, the client receives the right content, at the right place and at the right time thanks to the optimization of search engines and to the use of social networks.

Convert : Once your visitors have landed on your website, your aim is to convert them into leads. It’s the ideal time to collect your visitors very precious contact information (through web forms for example).

Engage : This is most anticipated steps during which you will convert your leads into customers! At this stage, very specific marketing tools such as automation, social networks and lead management need to be put in place to ensure that your targeted action is completed at the right time.

Retain : At this stage, your goal is to delight your customers, to retain and to offer them high-quality and exceptional content. Engage with your clients so they can become your brand ambassadors in the future.

We invite you to learn more on each of these essential steps to inbound marketing. In the next articles, we offer you tools and precious advice to be successful in each of these stages.

To learn more:
Step #1 of an inbound marketing strategy: attracting your target audience
Step #2 of an inbound marketing strategy : converting your visitors into potential clients
Step #3 of an inbound marketing strategy : converting leads into customers
Step #4 of an inbound marketing strategy : retaining and engaging with your customers

Are you planning on integrating inbound marketing to your business current strategy? Do not hesitate to ask our strategic experts.