Inbound marketing for zero-investment company

Every year more and more businesses are coming into the market. Some businesses have money while some don’t. The main problem that every new business face is surviving in a competitive market. Some business survive while some don’t. But how do some businesses survive in such a competitive market? Marketing plays a key role in the survival of such businesses. Good marketing strategies make a business successful.

We are in the digital era and not using the technologies for business is biggest reason for its failure. Technologies are the biggest plus point for any business to promote itself in the market. Technology and marketing are like two sides of the same coin. Marketing a business is a crucial factor for any successful business.

Every entrepreneur wants their startups to be successful. To be successful, they need to do marketing but they don’t have money. But the key point here is that marketing a business does not need money. There are marketing methods that don’t require money. So why to invest in costly marketing strategies? Startups should focus on low-cost marketing strategies. These methods are powerful enough to make a business successful.

What is inbound marketing?

Inbound marketing is a strategy to attract customers to business products and services. The main goal of an inbound marketing strategy is to convert people into potential customers of the company. Inbound marketing focuses on social media marketing, content marketing, search engine optimization, and branding. This helps in pulling the customers in, provides value, and builds trust.

The use of social media, content marketing, SEO, etc helps to create brand awareness and attracts customers. Every strategy is an online strategy that helps to create and increase traffic into the company’s website. Most company utilizes social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, etc to create content and create brand awareness.

Components of Inbound marketing

In recent years, inbound marketing has become popular in marketing a business. Since it attracts people naturally, every company is implementing inbound marketing strategies. The main focus of inbound marketing is to provide value to the users and in return convert them into potential customers of the company. It is more cost-effective. Inbound marketing strategies mainly deals with providing useful information to people and create awareness.

Inbound marketing is the best marketing strategy for any business. Here are some of the components of inbound marketing strategy.

1. Search engine optimization (SEO)

SEO is the process of generating and increasing traffic on websites by improving the website’s structure and content. Optimizing a website includes inbound links, outbound links, keyword research, improving the loading speed of the website, and so on. The main goal of SEO is to increase traffic to the website and rank higher in the search engine results page (SERP). Most of the people are converted into potential customers because the webpage ranks higher on Google’s search page.

2. Content marketing

Creating valuable content is one of the main reasons for converting people into potential customers. The content should valuable and should stand out. This will help to rank higher in the search engine results page. The content should attract attention and should be related to the user’s needs and problems. The business should identify the customer’s need and present the content in such a way that solve the problems of the users.

3. Social media marketing

Social media marketing is a method of marketing a business on social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and so on. Social media platforms have become the best method to create awareness about the business to the customers. It helps to build a connection with customers and gain their trust. It helps to increase customer reach. The business can have a direct conversation with the customers and get direct feedback regarding the products and services.

4. Email marketing

Email marketing is the process of sending emails to customers. It helps to build customer loyalty. Email marketing is one of the common methods to promote products and services. It is all about increasing subscribers and providing valuable content through email. Email is one of the best tools to be in touch with customers. It keeps customers updated about the company’s products and services and get feedback about the products and services.

Stages of Inbound marketing

Inbound marketing is an important marketing strategy for a business. But the business needs a well-defined process so that inbound marketing works well. Inbound marketing’s main focus is to attract customers. But if the strategy is not well-defined then how will marketing strategies work? So here are the stages involved in inbound marketing.

1. Attract

The first stage of inbound marketing is to attract costumers to the company. Creating the content that solves their problems is the best step towards building trust with the costumers. The company has to create the right content at the right moment. The company should target the right customers who are likely to be potential customers. The use of SEO strategy can help to optimize the content and rank higher in the search engine results page. With the creation of right and high-content, the company can attract more customers. Tools like social media, blogging, etc can be used to attract costumers.

2. Convert

The second stage of inbound marketing is to convert those customers into potential leads. The company needs to provide quality content and start communicating with the customers to build a good relationship with them. The company should answer to their questions to build their trust. This includes tutorials video, email, ebooks, webinars, etc.

3. Close

The third stage of inbound marketing is to convert the leads into actual costumers. Providing good quality content and good customer service help to convert into actual costumers. The company should provide solution the customer’s problems. The company should create content that helps in solving the customer’s problems. Tools like customer relationship management, nurturing automation, etc helps in developing actual customers.

4. Delight

The final stage of inbound marketing is delight that convinces the customer to be long-term customers. The company should continue to create quality content for its customers. The company should not forget about the customers after they have become the actual customers. This helps in the growth of the company. The company should ensure that the customers are satisfied with the company’s products and services. Feedback, referral programs, etc are the strategy that helps in this stage.

Benefits of Inbound marketing

Inbound marketing is one of the effective marketing strategies for a business. Inbound marketing is about reaching customers at the right time. The use of social media platforms, SEO optimization, email marketing, etc plays major role in attracting customers. Different strategies can help to increase customers. Here are some of the benefits of inbound marketing.

1. Cost-effective

Inbound marketing is cheaper compared to outbound marketing. There are social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc that are free to use. The use of such social media platforms can help the business to promote its products and services for free. Email marketing is also another effective way to market a business. Creating content and promoting through email marketing and social media platforms is the best and free method for any business.

2. Increases traffic

Inbound marketing helps to increase traffic. Inbound marketing targets the right customer at the right time. Creating quality content that helps to solve the problem of the customer can increase traffic. Quality content will help to increase visitors to your website.

3. Increases trust

Another benefit is that it helps to increase the trust of the customers. Providing content focusing on customer needs and problems will definitely help to build trust. This will increase the expectations of the customers. So, the company should provide better services even after converting them into actual customers. Giving valuable information to the customers will definitely increase trust.

4. Reaches new customers

The main job of inbound marketing is the online marketing of a business. This can only be done when business utilizes social media platforms and email marketing. With the help of social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc, the business reach customers easily. The business just has to provide quality content to the users and should provide better services. This helps to diversify the reach of the business.

5. Higher return on investment (ROI)

Inbound marketing strategy is cost-effective. Lower cost means chances for better ROI. Providing good products and services means building trust with the customers. The business can get better information about customers and in the future, this information will help to provide expected services to the customers. This way the business can invest for the long-term and maximize the profit.

6. Brand awareness

Inbound marketing helps to create brand awareness. The use of social media platforms, quality content, SEO, etc can help any business to reach more customers. Reaching more customers means spreading information about the business. This helps more customers to be aware of the business and its products and services.

7. Feedback

In inbound marketing, the business will be directly communicating with the customers. Communicating with customers can help in getting feedback about the products and services provided by the business. Feedback will help to enhance the products and services of the business.

8. Improves products and services

Since inbound marketing helps in getting feedback from the customers about the products and services. The business can identify the problems and gets information on the customer’s preferences. As a result, this helps in providing products and services as required by the customers and also improve the products and services.

Challenges to Inbound marketing

Inbound marketing is cost-effective but many startups may find it difficult to implement the strategies. Startups may face different challenges in inbound marketing. So, here are some of the challenges that may become obstacles for any business.

1. Understanding customers

At the initial stage, the business may face the problem of understanding the customer’s needs. It will be difficult to provide valuable content to the customers. The business needs to research thoroughly about the content that the customers need. The business needs to identify the customer’s needs and problems.

2. Get costumers to use your products and services

Another challenge faced by the business is to make costumers use the products and services. The business should have the ability to convert users into potential customers. Creating quality content for the customers is most important for any business. The business should create such content that makes customers read it and make them use the company’s products and services.

3. Time-consuming

It takes time to see the results of an inbound marketing strategy. Targeting customers and providing the content that they need takes time. Because it takes time to research to identify customer’s needs and problems. The business should not create content that does not fulfill the customer’s needs and solve their problems.

4. Need the right tools

The business needs the right tools to implement inbound marketing strategies. The business should focus on increasing traffic on websites. But the website needs to be optimized. If the website takes time to load, then the customers might return from the website without checking. So, different SEO tools should be used to optimize the website of the business. The business also needs email marketing tools to automate the email process, social media marketing tools to schedule and publish content on social media platforms, and so on.

5. Finding strategies that suit the business

Different strategies may come in mind and the business might be eager to implement those strategies. But, the problem is that the strategies should fit the business goals and objectives. The business should focus on its goals and objectives. If strategies does not fulfill the business goals and objectives, then why to implement and increase the budget of the business. So, the key point here is to research, plan, and implement those strategies that fit the business goals and objectives.

6. Results take time

The results that are expected by the business take time to achieve. If the business needs immediate results, then it is not possible. It takes time to achieve the goals and objectives of the business. It takes time to research to identify consumer’s needs and problems, create quality content, implement the right tools such as SEO, email marketing tools, social media marketing tools, etc. The business should expect good results after creating quality content and implementing the right tools.

7. Need a good team

The business needs to have a good team to create quality content and use different marketing tools. This helps to promote the business and its products and services. The business needs to plan how to market, where to market, etc. For this, the business needs a good team that can plan different strategies, create quality content, use tools efficiently, analyze the results, etc.

8. Need optimized website

The main goal of any business is to increase traffic to the website. The business needs to build a responsive and optimized website. The website should be user-friendly enough to attract customers. The website should be well designed and according to the customer’s preferences.

Inbound marketing strategies

Inbound marketing is about attracting customers and convincing them to consume business products and services. But customers don’t seek help without any reason. The business needs to assure that they can help them when any problem arises. Providing good quality content can be one of the solutions to convince them to use business products and services. Many more strategies can be implemented to increase customers. So, here are some of the inbound marketing strategies.

1. Define realistic goals

The business needs to define goals and objectives that can be achieved. For example, if a business expects to increase 10,000 customers within a day, it is almost impossible to achieve the target. So, the business should define the target that is achievable. Defining goals at an initial stage can help a business grow.

2. Create quality content

One of the main strategies of a business should be to generate quality content. Quality content should focus on customer’s needs so that the costumers are convinced to consume products and services of the business. Attracting customers through quality content helps to increase the traffic on the website.

3. Use social media

Social media platforms are the biggest platforms to promote a business. There are billions of daily active users on social media platforms. These social media platforms offer plenty of opportunities for business. The business can create quality content and publish it on social media to create brand awareness. Also, social media helps to have direct conversation with the users. Communicating with users closely can help to identify their needs. So, the business should provide the content that fulfills their needs.

4. Communication with the users

Communication is one of the best ways to interact with users. Communication helps to give information to users on business products and services. It helps to know their needs and preferences and provides users what they need. The business can also conduct a feedback session about the products and services from the users. This helps to identify the problem and improve products and services.

5. Involve in forums

Forums are a discussion site where people from different places discusses on a topic. Users can also post their problems where different people give suggestions on solving them. Involving in such forums helps in building connections and networks. The business can increase traffic on websites by involving in such forums.

6. Use online marketing tools

The use of online marketing tools is another strategy to promote a business. The business should research thoroughly about different online marketing tools and choose the best one. There are many online marketing tools that help to promote a business for free. MailChimp can be used for email marketing, Hootsuite for social media marketing, Google suite for file storage and collaboration, Google Analytics to track website traffic, and so on. The use of these tools helps to market a business.

7. Update website

Another strategy is to update the website. The main goal of business is to increase traffic on the website. For that, the business needs to build a good landing page that is simple and clear. This page should inform customers about the business goals and targets and what business can offer them, benefits of working with the business, and so on. The business needs to update the website based on changing trends. The use of SEO tools is also needed to optimize the website.

8. Referrals

Another strategy is to promote customer referrals. The business can communicate with the customers and encourage them to refer products and services to family, relatives, friends, and people they know. So, the main goal of the business should be to provide quality products and services so that it helps in customer satisfaction. As a result, they can refer to business products and services to the people they know. This will help in increasing the potential customers.

Inbound marketing can be said as the future of marketing. Any business can implement inbound marketing strategies. Hundreds and thousands of startups are emerging in the market every day. And this is increasing rapidly. But, the main problem is to market a business in a competitive and survive. But such startups can promote themselves if they use inbound marketing strategies. Inbound marketing is the best strategy for marketing a business with a little investment or free of cost.

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References

https://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2015/08/25/inbound-marketing-strategy https://www.reliablesoft.net/5-benefits-of-inbound-marketing-for-small-businesses/ https://blog.hivedigitalstrategy.com/top-5-problems-with-inbound-marketing https://www.berncomedia.com/blog/five-challenges-of-inbound-marketing https://www.scripted.com/content-marketing/inbound-marketing-methodology-and-process https://www.aira.net/blog/inbound-marketing-process-explained/ https://www.impulsecreative.com/blog/inbound-marketing-strategies-for-small-businesses https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inbound_marketing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Search_engine_optimization https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Content_marketing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_media_marketing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Email_marketing