3 Winning Inbound Marketing Tactics You Can Implement Now

If you’re looking for a simple, effective and long-term strategy to grow your business, inbound marketing is hard to beat.

In contrast to outbound marketing which is designed to interrupt your audience with messages they are not always ready to hear, inbound digital marketing provides customers with helpful, interesting information that will support them in their purchasing decisions.

A good way to visualise the inbound marketing methodology is the flywheel business model of HubSpot where the goal is to attract, engage and delight your customers, solving their problems and forming connections along the way.

So if you’re a business looking to implement inbound marketing tactics or ramp them up, where do you start?

Here are three easy inbound marketing tactics you can implement now.

1. Create a premium content offer

While your website serves to explain what you do, and your blog allows you to go deeper into detail, a well-designed content offer can really take it to the next level.

The best content offers (also known as lead magnets) are specific, unique and genuine, giving your customers valuable insight and relevant knowledge above and beyond what they can find on their own. This not only provides confidence in their ability to choose wisely, it also builds trust that your business will help them succeed.

Content offers can take a wide variety of formats, from a short checklist, to a brochure or video tutorial. The best choice depends on your product or service, and what people need to know about it before they buy. A content offer that works fantastically well for a home builder client of ours is a collection of need-to-know information on buying land and building a house presented in a downloadable ebook. As their potential clients want detailed information they can digest over time, a long-form offer is ideal, and this one has generated an average of three downloads per day over the last year, significantly boosting their mailing list and brand in the process.

2. Segment your mailing list

The best customers are the ones who are raving about your business to their friends—but how do you create customers who are your biggest fans? The secret is engagement. Offering relevant content (especially valuable gated content) builds your mailing list. And while sending a regular email with broad appeal and general information will be enough for some, segmenting your mailing list into your key customer personas allows you to take that engagement to the next level.

Segmenting is basically dividing your contacts into persona groups based on their common interests and it’s best to keep it simple. For example, our home builder client with 25,000 plus contacts uses just three personas: first home buyer, second home buyer and downsizer. While some content is relevant to all three, there are certain topics that are specific to a particular persona only. By segmenting we can make sure that the content shared is tailored, relevant and engaging at all times, which is a really effective way to generate positive reviews and word of mouth recommendations.

3. Send timely automated emails

Let’s be clear here, we definitely don’t mean spam! When used correctly and combined with the above tactics, automated emails can be one of the most powerful inbound marketing tools. Unfortunately many organisations use automated emails badly, in the form of cold calling and top-of-funnel lead generation. However, the best time for automated emails is when you’re helping the customer in their decision by sharing useful information that they honestly need to know.

A welcome email sequence is a really important and effective way to connect with potential customers while they are actively seeking solutions and their interest is high. An example of this is when a prospective customer has searched through your website and taken action by downloading a content offer. With an automated welcome sequence in place, they will receive an email the next day (or shorter or longer depending on the speed of your buyer journey) to check in to see if they found what they are looking for or need extra help. You can then send additional emails that cover the key information they need to make their purchase with confidence. This is an amazing tactic that not only speeds up the buyer journey, it also creates credibility and community with your potential customer.

Take inbound action today

Marketing can seem complicated, but with a targeted approach that starts with the basics and builds on these, you can get the ball rolling today. No matter how you implement your unique approach, the goal of inbound marketing should always be to attract, engage and delight your customers—and when you do this well, sales and growth will naturally follow.

Do you need help with planning and executing your inbound strategy? Our team are inbound experts and email marketing specialists. Talk to us to find out how we can help you design and implement a successful inbound marketing campaign today.