Inbound marketing is a fairly new discipline. At first it can be a bit fuzzy seeing how this methodology gets results. What is clear is that inbound marketing is coming on strong and it stems from clients asking for bottom line results from their websites. Once you see your visitors converting to customers, the full power of this methodology comes into focus.

Here’s a pretty clear case study from one of our clients. It will help you see how putting inbound marketing into practice leverages sales.

First let’s define, what is inbound marketing? Inbound marketing is attracting “searchers” to your website and then creating a relationship with them by being a trusted resource as they explore your business category. Let’s break that down further.

As a marketing firm, we see firsthand where the marketing focus is going. And, it’s clear who is, and who isn’t participating in inbound marketing. Nationally, 60 percent of companies will execute an inbound marketing strategy in 2013. This projection includes big and small companies. Those companies who are not employing the ROI of inbound are scratching their heads and wondering where the market went while trying to formulate yet another campaign to “turn it around."

Inbound marketers have seen that the buying cycle has changed to include a research phase. Remember this buying cycle - attention, interest, desire, and action? That was the buying cycle when I started helping companies grow in the 1980’s. Today the buying cycle is more like - attention, interest, desire, Google search and action.

Back in the day, the ones before digital marketing, a business was a location where people had to come to do business with you.  Customers would make decisions in very different ways and were rarely armed with more information than the information that you provided to them as a business. Then came the early days of the internet, people thought of websites as brochures that were accessible online. Smart consumers could read these online brochure style sites and learn about your business and other businesses.

Fast forward to today and you have social platforms, email, blogging and automated software that can turn your site into a sales force. We’ve seen companies do this and leave their competitors wondering where all the customers went. How can you do this? In previous blogs I have talked about keywords, optimization, creating blogs and content in social media. If you want to turn all of that into leads, you have to convert your traffic into leads.

When Netflix debuted House of Cards it was a lesson for inbound marketing here in Lansing, Michigan. The new show cost millions of dollars to create and the risk for Netflix was monstrous. It’s their first original series. The real magic of the launch was that Netflix released the first seasons of the show all at once. Netflix allowed their viewers to consume this new show the way they choose - all at once, a show a day, a show a week, their choice. 

That is the lesson for marketers - consumers choose. Consumers are no longer depending on the networks to dole out shows once a week. Viewers have recording options like TiVo and DVR so they can record seasons and view when, where and how they choose. And, subscription services like Netflix allow even more flexibility with a full season at the viewer’s fingertips.

Create a Keyword Strategy for Your Lansing Business

If you have a website, you should have an internet strategy. The next eight blogs from InVerve will focus on the eight things you should do to build a strategy. If you take a half hour to lay these ideas into your marketing plan, you will be well on your way to putting those building blocks in place.

The first thing you should do for your business is have a keyword strategy. You need this in order to help people who are interested in your product or service to find you. Identify a minimum of five keywords. The key to strong keywords is in understanding your customer and what they care about.