Inbound Marketing is an aspect of marketing that focuses on attracting, converting and delighting customers. It avoids traditional marketing, which makes use of billboards, TV, newspapers, etc.
Inbound has 3 main pillars:
Marketing has always focused on interrupting people to promote a product or service, and one of the most used strategies is commercials in the middle of a TV program or YouTube video.
When you're watching your favorite soap opera, and that commercial for a product comes on. Or you're watching an interesting video on YouTube and an ad interrupts you.
But times are different now. With the advancement of technology and the internet becoming increasingly present in users' lives, new ways of holding a person's attention have emerged. As a result, companies felt the need for changes in marketing. Therefore, it was in this pain that Inbound Marketing emerged.
Many companies are using this strategy and achieving excellent results. But this does not mean that all doubts about this strategy have been resolved. After all, it is constantly evolving and many professionals can get lost in the application process.
The time has come to better understand the details about Inbound Marketing, and the advantages it can bring to your company.
Inbound Marketing is nothing more than marketing strategies combined with the creation and sharing of relevant content for a specific target audience. Therefore, through this strategy it is possible to gain customer consent to communicate directly. Thus, a relationship begins.
In short, Inbound Marketing is the strategy by which the public reaches your business, through your content. Therefore, presenting your services becomes an easier task, and because it is a new approach, Inbound Marketing is also popularly known as the “new marketing”.
To make your knowledge easier, check out the video below on the topic:
Firstly, do you know where Inbound Marketing came from? When was it created and popularized? If not, don't worry, we'll explain it to you.
Unconsciously, Inbound Marketing has been used by marketing professionals for many years.
Strategies that aim to generate connections, relevant content, and valuable posts for your potential customers can be considered as Inbound Marketing.
This term was first used by Brian Haligan, the co-founder of the company Hubspot. But, according to Peter Druker, an American marketing guru, the pillars of Inbound have been used for many years with the main concept of Seth Godin, in his famous book “Permission Marketing”, released in 1999.
This book covers the main parts of Inbound Marketing and, for those who want to delve deeper into the subject, it is a great recommendation.
If we go deeper into this concept, we can notice that it appears together with Digital Marketing and the consumer's relationship with online advertising.
Furthermore, in the past, consumers did not have many options for consuming content. Only TV and printed newspapers. So now he can decide what he wants to see and when via the internet. Therefore, you need the consumer to choose to consume your content.
Outbound is the marketing that we are most used to seeing since we were little, which has the idea of actively going after the customer. These are billboards, leaflets, phone calls, etc. Therefore, most of the time, the cost of these strategies is high and you cannot measure their results. So, you don't know for sure how many people were converted from this.
On the other hand, Inbound, as it uses internet channels such as emails, blogs and social networks, has a lower cost. In addition to offering ways to measure your results accurately and quickly.
Inbound offers content to answer people's doubts and solve their pain. In addition to providing a closer relationship with your audience.
So, we have separated the main characteristics of Inbound Marketing:
Outbound is marketing that focuses more on advertisements aimed at newspapers, magazines, TV and radio, in addition to social networks and blogs. Therefore, interaction with the public is limited and results are variable.
So, we have separated the main characteristics of Outbound:
However, now that you have seen the main characteristics of each one, we will show you the benefits of Inbound Marketing.
So, continue reading and see:
A question for many who are beginning to understand Inbound Marketing is: is it worth investing in it?
So, with that in mind, let's show some reasons and benefits that this strategy can offer your company.
Regardless of the size of your business, whether B2B or B2C, producing relevant content brings several benefits.
Therefore, if you are looking to strengthen your brand and increase sales, this strategy is the most recommended.
In Inbound Marketing, the public likes, comments, shares and engages a lot with your content. So, see the reasons that cause these benefits:
Firstly, one of the advantages of Inbound is the reach of a larger audience. But not just any audience, but a specific audience that has a certain interest in a product or service from your company.
According to research carried out by Rock Content, companies that use Content Marketing reach 2,2 times more visits than companies that don't use it.
Therefore, instead of reaching any audience, it focuses on a specific niche that can become a future customer.
Furthermore, companies that produce a lot of content, around 13 or more per month, can receive up to 4,2 times more visits than their competitors.
But, we know that this reach is worthless if the profile reached does not belong to your target audience. Inbound focuses precisely on the ideal, on people who are interested.
The same Rock Content research also proves that: businesses that use content marketing are able to generate 3,2 times more leads than those that do not use this strategy.
In Inbound, because the persona is looking for your product or service, and it is not forced to them, the relationship with them becomes more trustworthy.
Therefore, your customers will be willing to listen to your tips, information and content.
According to the company HubSpot, which is one of the largest in the world in the field of Inbound Marketing, most people when they go to buy something, prefer to research it on the internet rather than talking to a salesperson.
Furthermore, another important point is that Inbound focuses a lot on open communication and interaction with people. Feedback is essential to know the persona’s opinion regarding the content they are consuming.
For sellers, persuasion is a fundamental element. When a buyer has doubts at the time of purchase, after-sales can be quite complicated.
At this point, Inbound can help you, as it makes use of concrete arguments, which improves the salespeople's power of convincing, which is built over time.
Throughout the Inbound Marketing process, your persona will receive relevant content that interests them. This is content that she needs and will continue to want to know more about this topic.
Therefore, when the time comes for a direct conversation with your leads, to show the qualities of your product or service, all historical information and content will be taken into account.
In short, all the effort and time you spent producing content will be the differentiating and decisive factor at the time of purchase.
The sales cycle is the time spent by your company on the purchasing journey, from the first contact to the sale.
The more time you spend turning your customers into leads, the higher the cost becomes. Therefore, marketing strategies are important, as they can reduce your CAC (customer acquisition cost).
Reducing the time needed to take someone to make a purchase is one of the best uses of Inbound Marketing.
This time reduction happens because the persona consumes more relevant content that speeds up the process. This way, they enter the purchase decision stage earlier.
In addition to reducing the cost of acquiring customers, Inbound Marketing is also a generally cheaper solution than traditional methods.
This is due to using more economical means of communication. More traditional methods such as TV, billboards, among others, end up having a high cost.
Furthermore, the quality of service is not compromised. Contrary to this, investment becomes more efficient.
In other words, you invest your money in strategies that really work, and don't take a “shot in the dark”.
Measuring results is fundamental for marketing. You need to monitor the results to see if your strategies are positive or not.
In a HubSpot survey, it was reported that more than 70% of companies that calculate their ROI (return on investment) say that their marketing strategies are effective.
It is very important that you are aware of the results of your actions. Inbound provides this analysis in real time, so make constant use of it.
All the content that is sent to your leads, in a way, is a way of educating them. Therefore, they feel more confident in making the purchase.
Therefore, a higher average ticket is generated when compared to those that did not go through the process.
With Inbound Marketing, you have all the tools necessary to nurture these leads and follow up until you offer your product or service.
Furthermore, you don't lose money by trying to sell before your lead actually wants to. Because you will be following it and will be more precise at the ideal time for the offer.
Inbound Marketing is a consolidated method. So, we’re going to show you some statistics that prove its efficiency.
According to E-commerce Trends:
IDC data points out:
According to Econsultancy:
Research from Social Media Examiner shows us that:
According to EduTrends:
With all these statistics, you no longer have any doubts about the efficiency of Inbound Marketing, right?
However, it is clear that to obtain these results, you need to plan and execute them correctly.
The Inbound Marketing process has 4 fundamental steps: attract, convert, sell and delight. So, understand a little about each of them below:
Inbound is the best method to get your content to the right audience, at the right time.
Now, let's talk about each stage of the sales funnel in Inbound Marketing. This process will strengthen your relationship and generate sales.
The purchasing journey is the path that the customer takes from the time they realize they have a problem, to when they realize that the solution is one of your products or services.
To show you how this journey works, we will explain the sales funnel, which can be applied to your business's marketing strategy.
As the name suggests, the sales funnel resembles a common funnel. Where the majority is concentrated at its top and then smaller parts are concentrated towards its bottom.
It consists of 3 stages: top, middle and bottom. So, continue reading and learn about each of them:
Here is the stage of discovery and learning. At the beginning, the persona doesn’t yet know that they need your product or service. She's just wanting to know more about some problem she's having.
For example, when you feel some symptom of an illness, but you still don't know exactly what it is. Therefore, you will try to find out more about it.
At this moment, the person runs after information that can clarify their doubts. She will also discover that there is a deeper universe than this simple superficial research.
Therefore, the best content to work on at this stage are:
This content is easy to consume and also share. This makes the lead education process easier.
Remember that at this stage, you should not yet mention your business and its solution. The person just wants to know more about this topic and is not ready to purchase yet.
This step is responsible for consideration and intent. Here, the persona already understands their problem and is looking for the best solution.
The person is not yet at the best time to buy, but if the work is done well at this stage, they will be very close to it.
You can also go deeper into your topics, as your audience is engaged with your blog and social media content. As a result, your relationship will also grow closer.
So, to produce this more advanced content, try to do:
To turn these visitors into leads, try to offer these materials in exchange for some data. For example, for a person to access your e-book, they need to provide their email.
Information like this will be important for the customer journey and qualifying your leads.
To help you, try using landing pages. This way, conversions will be optimized and more efficient in generating leads.
But the process doesn't end there. You need to always be nurturing these leads with relevant content, until they arrive at the time of purchase.
At this stage, evaluation and decision take place. After all the work of presenting the problem to people, turning them into leads and nurturing them, they need to discover the best company to serve them.
This step is crucial in the sales funnel. Even though you have nurtured the lead, if the work is not done well here, they may opt for the competition. This way, someone else can benefit from your nurtured lead.
Here, you must work hard on customer persuasion. Present everything that your business can offer, all its benefits.
Furthermore, use concrete evidence, such as your success stories. The lead needs to feel confident that they are in good hands.
We have already mentioned the 4 fundamental stages of Inbound here in the text. However, now let's delve deeper into each of them.
So, stay with us and check it out:
Would you like to attract someone to your company who has no desire to purchase? I do not think so. This would not be to your advantage and would only waste your time.
In the digital environment this is also valid. You don't need to attract many customers, but rather the ideal customers. These customers are called qualified traffic who, in the future, may purchase a product or service from you.
This way, we will show you the content channels that most attract people likely to become your future leads:
After attracting people and turning them into readers of your content and followers on social media, now you need them to become leads as quickly as possible.
For this to happen, you must strengthen your relationship with these people. Continue using content production, but with more use of persuasion.
So, to help you with this, we have listed some very effective tools:
Now that you've attracted people, turned them into leads, it's time to make them customers. This step is crucial for the entire process to be successful.
Therefore, here are some tools that are important at this stage:
After the sale is complete, you should celebrate. But the work doesn't end there. Now you need to turn this customer into a permanent consumer and advocate for your brand.
With well-done after-sales work, you keep customers continually consuming your product or service. In addition, they become word-of-mouth marketing for your business, recommending it to friends, family and acquaintances.
Therefore, we have listed below useful practices for you to delight your customers:
Measuring results is one of the main advantages of online strategies. With it, you can have data-based analysis.
This benefit of Inbound Marketing, on the other hand, is also one of the biggest responsibilities of people who work in the world of digital strategies. Measuring results continuously is a challenge.
By not following your strategies, you are not sure what works and what doesn't. Furthermore, the adjustment and optimization processes end up taking much longer and can cost more money.
Therefore, digital marketing has KPIs. They are key indicators and metrics that evaluate your results accurately, quickly and cheaply.
Working based on this updated data makes the strategy and its evolutionary process easier, with lower costs and helps to achieve metrics.
First of all, you need to be careful not to analyze too many metrics or analyze the wrong indicators.
Due to the high number of parameters, you may end up getting lost in so much data and leaving the most important ones aside.
So, with that in mind, we prepared a list of the most important Inbound Marketing metrics:
ROI (return on investment) is the main marketing metric you should track. It is what will tell you whether marketing is bringing losses or profits to your business.
This calculation is very easy, and you just need to add up your marketing investments and compare them with your results over a given time.
Therefore, you must take into account the leads generated, reduction in the sales cycle, new purchases by active customers, in addition to the increase in the number of sales.
This metric will show you whether your business is managing to convince people. You need to analyze how many visitors are becoming leads, and how many leads are becoming your customers.
This evaluation is fundamental for marketing work, as there are no real results without conversions from the sales cycle.
Apart from the final conversion rate of the sales funnel, you need to analyze each stage individually to see if there are any problems at a certain stage.
With this analysis, you avoid possible problems and make them easier to resolve. This way, you end up saving time and money.
CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost), better known as Acquisition Cost per Customer, shows you the amount spent by the business to acquire each customer.
CLV (Customer Lifetime Value), better known as Customer Lifetime Value, shows you, on average, how long your customers stay with your business.
For your company to be healthy, it is essential that the CAC is much lower than your CLV. If the situation is the other way around, you could spend too much to get customers and lose money.
This metric will show you the level of satisfaction your current customers have with your company. This can be done directly and simply, with just one question:
“On a scale of 0 to 10, how much would you recommend this product or service to someone you know?”
Therefore, based on this data, you can analyze what needs to be improved and receive more attention.
Many people are unsure whether Inbound Marketing works for their business. This answer is simple, yes it works.
The attraction process is suitable for all types of businesses, whether small or large.
So, here are some examples of businesses that Inbound Marketing can help:
First, let's talk about marketing agencies.
Agencies, to be able to sell marketing, need marketing. Therefore, with Inbound Marketing applied, the agency can attract customers and use its own success stories.
Furthermore, it gets all the benefits that Inbound offers, as you have already seen throughout this text.
Many small businesses are unsure whether Inbound Marketing is for them.
Due to a smaller marketing budget, lack of time and other factors, this doubt ends up arising.
But this issue is easy to resolve. Inbound Marketing works very well for small businesses, due to its cost-benefit, the possibility of quickly scaling your business and monitoring its performance closely.
More and more industries are noticing how Inbound Marketing can be advantageous for them.
In addition to strengthening your brand in the market, you can attract more customers and achieve more sales.
Therefore, to better understand how Inbound will help your industry, check out the video below:
Educational institutions can benefit greatly from Inbound Marketing, as it is a strategy that is based on creating values and educating their audience.
You can attract more students by implementing the right processes and sharing content and knowledge.
It is essential for a E-commerce, so that consumers have access to information about the business before making a purchase.
This way, with Inbound Marketing, you can create a blog and strengthen your presence on social media.
With this, you will have more power of influence and, above all, more sales for your e-commerce.
To make Inbound Marketing easier, there are some tools to help you.
However, there are many tools, and many are free, that will make your work easier. So, we mention some of them below:
For you to write content for blog in an organized way, there is an excellent tool for this called WordPress.
This tool is free and maintained by the user community. Furthermore, it has an excellent structure for corporate blogs and very professional themes.
Throughout the text, it was possible to see why email marketing and automation tools play a very important role in Inbound Marketing.
One of the best tools for this is RD Station. It was created and developed by the company Resultados Digitais and has become the best-known automation tool in Brazil.
However, this software is complete and supports all types of plans for any company, regardless of its size.
For you to optimize the SEO of your blog and website, you will need a tool that meets your needs.
Therefore, SEMrush is a kit of tools linked to marketing. With this platform, you can analyze your website traffic, research and analyze key words, see your social media engagement and more.
Since most searches are performed through Google, the best tool to analyze your metrics is Google Analytics.
It is a completely free, complete tool and serves very well from businesses that are just starting out to the most established ones.
Did you like to know more about Inbound Marketing? So, be sure to follow our blog to stay up to date with everything about this universe.