Less than a decade ago, inbound and content marketing were niche strategies that were only being used by the most forward-thinking ad agencies and marketing firms. Today, these tactics are staples of nearly any business plan worth its salt. So… How can these techniques help you to achieve your business goals?
Hold up… What is inbound and content marketing, anyway?
However, before we dive into that, let’s review some definitions. Inbound Marketing is a set of methods that help to attract visitors to your website, and then convert them into leads and, hopefully, customers; Content Marketing is a subset of that, concerned with the creation and distribution of amazing content.
There are essentially three steps to the inbound methodology. Here’s an overview of the tools for each:
- Visitor Attraction: advertisements, blog posts, social media posts, streamlined content production
- Lead Engagement: email blasts, conversation AIs (yeah, that’s right), lead management plans, etc.
- Customer Delight: coordination between sales and service teams, memorable content, and more
When it comes to content creation specifically, there are two keys to success: quality and frequency.
Catapulting Your Business Forward with Inbound and Content
Now that we’ve covered the basics, let’s answer the question at hand: How can these tools help you out?
The underlying philosophy of all inbound and content efforts is that there’s someone out there who’s in need of your product or service right now. This is the ideal customer for you, and your business offers the ideal solution for them. Since they’re already looking for you, all you need to do is connect…ASAP!
With that in mind, here are some of the reasons your business needs inbound and content marketing:
- You can reach a broader audience – people are scouring the internet all day for helpful, interesting, and informative content. If that’s what your site offers, then they’re bound to find it at some point.
- Matching leads to the right content – an integral part of the inbound strategy is that your leads should get the proper type of content or interaction for where they’re at in the buyer’s journey.
- Cooperation between sales and marketing – a well-executed inbound strategy means that your marketers understand your buyers’ critical needs, which they can then pass on to the sales team.
- A customer-centric approach to business – Jennica Torio (one of Stream Companies’ resident inbound and content experts) put it perfectly when she writes that, “customers are the reason for your success, so you want to make sure you have a customer-focused approach to everything you do.” Let’s face it…if your customers’ needs are fully satisfied, then everybody emerges a winner.
Contact the Stream team to add Inbound and Content to your arsenal!
Trust us, we get it…creating content, optimizing it, posting it, managing your leads, trying to get sales on board…this is a lot of work. That’s why we urge you to drop us a line at Stream Companies to let us do the heavy lifting. And, if you’re still looking for more details, download our free Inbound 101 eBook.