With the way consumers are buying products and services today, businesses should be changing the way they market to those consumers. Creating a long-term relationship with a customer is how businesses are approaching their sales and marketing strategies because it is one of the most effective ways to increase sales.
Inbound marketing focuses on attracting qualified website visitors, nurturing those visitors with high quality content, converting visitors into leads, and delighting the leads to become loyal customers. Leveraging SEO, social media, blogging, landing pages, website calls to action, and email marketing will help increase the traffic to your website and nurture the traffic to convert into leads. Your sales and marketing team will need to understand this process in order to help grow your business.
Reasons Why Your Sales and Marketing Team Need to Know and Practice Inbound Marketing:
Because It’s Cheaper Than Traditional Marketing
According to HubSpot, the average cost per lead from inbound marketing versus outbound marketing is 62% lower.
If you are still spending a large part of your marketing budget on direct mail or banner ads, you might want to re-evaluate the return on investment for those marketing outlets. Interruption marketing is a technique of the past and is continuing to fade out more each year.
Because Cold Calling Doesn’t Work
Cold calling can be extremely uncomfortable for those who are doing it. It’s awkward, especially if you don’t have an existing connection with the prospect. According to Business Insider, if your sales team calls 1,000 prospects, only 345 will actually return their calls if there is not an existing connection with the company. If there is an existing connection, 849 of those prospects will call back. Developing a relationship with a prospect is much more important than wasting time calling them right away. To build up a relationship you can easily request a connection on LinkedIn where your blog posts are shared. If they’re interested in your content, they will subscribe to your blog where they can continue to be informed.
Email marketing is a great substitute for cold calling because you can easily set up workflows in your system to automatically email subscribers with your latest and greatest content such as: latest industry news, blog posts, eBooks and case studies. When subscribers start becoming more interested in your content, they are transformed into a qualified lead. That’s when you can pick up the phone and call because you’ve already established that connection with your content.
Because Half of Online Shoppers Use a Search Engine to Shop
According to HubSpot, 44% of online shoppers will begin their product search with a search engine.
If your website isn’t ranking for the keywords your consumers would be searching, your business is missing out on a tremendous opportunity for sales. SEO is a large part of inbound marketing because it helps attract those searching for your product and leads them to your website. Your website should be optimized with valuable content to show off your unique selling proposition. In order to keep visitors engaged, your website should also have a call to action for users to take on each page. By having engaged website visitors, your website will easily be able to turn those visitors into subscribers and leads.
Because Social Media Helps Develop Business Relationships
According to HubSpot, social media produces 100% lead to close rate in comparison to outbound marketing.
Social media is a great way to stay connected with existing clients and also build up new relationships. You can easily leverage social networks to directly connect with other organizations in your area, develop potential partnerships in your industry, stay in front of existing clients, and share your content to attract new leads interested in your business. Social media is a great way to share your brand messaging with your audience. It’s also great for SEO since search engines love crawling fresh content and social signals are a plus.
Because Blogging Increases Organic Traffic and Leads
According to BlogHer, 61% of online consumers from the United States have purchased something based off of a blog recommendation.
Businesses who blog not only become the expert in their industry, but they attract potential customers. Blogging, SEO, social media all work together to attract and nurture leads. By blogging regularly, your website will have fresh content which is better for search engine crawlability, and your content will create buzz for social posts. That buzz could lead to helping your target demographic make a purchase decision. The blog will build trust and when it’s time to buy, they will trust your brand because your content showcases your industry expertise.
Because It’s 2015
We’re living in a digital age. Your sales and marketing team should be well-versed with today’s marketing trends and how consumers are buying. If your business is still mainly focused on outbound marketing and has not transformed into the new age of technology and consumer purchasing, your business won’t be able attract as many new sales as it could be. It’s okay if you don’t understand the new age of marketing because there are companies who can help that do this every day (Eminent SEO).
Bottom Line
When your sales and marketing team understand this process, your business should be able to easily attract qualified leads. Your marketing team is responsible for the content strategies while your sales team is responsible for nurturing the leads from the content strategies. Start thinking about the future of your business by incorporating this strategy for your team. You won’t be disappointed with the results.
Ready to transform your business? Call our inbound marketing experts today to get started: 800.871.4130
I think you’ve really hit the nail on the head here when it comes to creative marketing. Often people are afraid to branch out away from traditional and strictly relevant content into something more attention-grabbing and interesting. These seem like some great ways to reach out to potential clients or customers