7 Inbound Marketing Strategies To Get 10X More Leads
Inbound marketing is a technique that uses content marketing, social media, SEO, and branding to attract new customers to your business and grow your brand.
This technique uses strategies that try to attract the attention of customers so that potential leads come directly to the business. Compared to outbound marketing (where the business reaches out to potential customers), inbound marketing is more effective in the long-term and reaps more rewards.
Inbound marketing also generates three times more leads per dollar than traditional methods which means they are far more superior than invasive ads or cold calls (outbound marketing.
That is why In this guide, I’m going to show you how you can market your business and 10X your ‘Leads-Game’ with 7 highly-effective Inbound Marketing Strategies that work like a charm – in 2020 and beyond.
#1 Inbound Marketing Strategy: Create A Free Tool
One of the best inbound marketing strategies has to be creating a free tool. It is not something many people can say no to and is one of the best lead magnets you can create for your business. This strategy works especially well for businesses that are providing an online service or software like an SEO Tool, a website builder, an eCommerce software and so on.
Ahrefs uses this technique by providing their free ‘backlink checker’ tool that allows you to see the backlink score of any website.
A potential customer is more likely to then take their 7-day paid trial if they like the use of the free backlink checker tool.
Another example of this is the ‘Headline Analyzer’ provided by CoSchedule. CoSchedule provides a well-known work management software that includes stuff like a blog calendar and a marketing calendar.
Their free headline analyzer tool is known to be one of the best available and has raised a lot of brand awareness for them. This means more people are going to possibly invest in their paid tools.
Also a free QR Code Generator like the one Beaconstac offers their audience is a great way to lead with a free tool and generate new leads, customers, and revenue at the same time.
A free tool attracts the right attention to your brand and results in brand mentions, backlinks, leads, conversions and more. You will also be generating more sales and making more money online.
It also helps potential customers trust you more because they get to see how your company works and are more likely to be interested in any paid products you have.
#2 Inbound Marketing Strategy: Blog Like Wikipedia
Let us skip the classic blogging and SEO advice about starting a blog and focusing on SEO. At this point, that goes without saying. What I will say though is that I believe you should stop ‘blogging’ and instead treat every article on your blog like a Wikipedia page.
Wikipedia treats every page on their website like a pillar post. They create in-depth content that is updated constantly to make it better. This is why Google trusts them- Google’s algorithm loves this!
If you want your articles to rank, you should be doing the exact same thing. Instead of creating a low-quality 1,000 word piece of content that will most likely be forgotten, focus on creating a thorough article that covers any questions that are related to your topic.
This will likely take longer and you will also have to go back to update it whenever there are relevant changes to be made but you will see far more success with articles like these than you will with a 1,000 word piece full of fluff.
#3 Inbound Marketing Strategy: Implement Videos Into Your Marketing Mix
According to HubSpot, 72% of customers would rather learn about a new service or product through a video rather than any other medium.
This only further establishes the point that people are moving towards getting a large amount of their information from video-based content which means that it is imperative that you start implementing videos into your marketing strategy.
A good example would be WP Beginner, a website that covers everything related to WordPress. They are known to incorporate video marketing into their social media strategy as well as within their website.
They even have a ‘Videos’ tab on the top of their site that takes you to a page that is full of all of their WordPress tutorials.
This is what it looks like:
Establishing your presence across different content mediums is an important step to take as your business begins to grow. Not everybody wants to sit down and read an article which is why it is important that you do not miss out on all of the leads and conversions you can get from people that would rather watch a video.
Viewers also retain 95% of the message when they watch it through video compared to only 10% when they receive it via text. This is another advantage of video marketing which is why it works especially well for service or software-based companies that normally focus on creating tutorials.
Taking the time to invest in a video marketing strategy is one of the few surefire ways you can widen your audience reach.
#4 Inbound Marketing Strategy: Establish A “Convert Everybody” Mindset
Once you start to generate a good amount of traffic through SEO, the next step is to convert that traffic into leads. This is what the ‘Convert Everybody’ mindset is all about. Instead of allowing a website visitor to leave and never come back, you make them a life long customer by using a conversion strategy.
A conversion strategy includes stuff like exit-intent popups, countdown timers, email marketing, floating opt-in bars, lead magnets, and case studies.
The ‘convert all’ strategy focuses on multiple different conversion strategies all at once. A good example would be OptinMonster, a lead generation software for marketers.
If you visit their website, you will quickly realize that they do everything they possibly can to convert a website visitor into a lead.
Some of the digital marketing strategies they use include-
- Exit Intent Popups
- Countdown Timers
- Email Marketing
- Different Lead Magnets
- Case Studies
- Opt-In Notification Bars
- Live Chat
Here is what some of them look like:
The convert all strategy is what allows OptinMonster to make most of their sales. It takes an average of 5 attempts to convince a customer to buy a product. Adding them to your list of leads is the only way you can make more than one attempt.
Including various conversion strategies in your post is what could eventually become the lifeline of your business- just as it has done for OptinMonster.
#5 Inbound Marketing Strategy: Get Your Social Media Game On Point
It has been proven time and time again that social media can be a great source of traffic for your brand. Some companies even depend exclusively on social media for their traffic.
While I would not recommend putting all of your eggs into one basket, it is still a good idea to invest some time and effort into creating a good social media presence for your brand.
This could mean having an active Facebook page, a lot of Twitter followers, a YouTube channel with millions of views, or best of all- all three.
Foundr Magazine is a good example of a brand that has managed to develop a solid social media presence across multiple channels.
Some of the key takeaways from Foundr’s social media strategy are:
Free Training Library
Foundr constantly promotes their free online training library that includes tips from industry experts. The tactics that they include come from the experience of successful entrepreneurs that they have partnered with.
This is a great way to get people interested in their social media since no other platform is providing exactly the same thing from the same founders that they have partnered with.
Eyecatching Original Images
Foundr’s Twitter account is full of amazing pictures that are created by their design team along with tons of quotes that are worth retweeting. Here is a good example:
These images are eye catching and worth sharing. There is a far better chance people will interact with a visually appealing tweet or post. This has helped grow their brand reach.
Insights from Industry Experts
Foundr constantly partners with founders of successful companies to create posts filled with actionable tips that come from their experience. These episodes are shared on their blog and can later be used to promote their social media as well and bring in a larger following.
Creating unique and eye catching content can help you grow your social reach and in the long-run, your brand as well.
#6 Inbound Marketing Strategy: Don’t Compete, Cooperate Instead
Companies tend to view anybody who is succeeding in the same industry as competition that needs to be beaten but what if you worked together?
This idea is becoming more and more common as influencer marketing has become a popular marketing strategy.
Gymshark, an ecommerce sportswear empire that is valued between £300M and £400M, depends almost exclusively on social media influencers to grow their brand name and reach new customers.
Influencer marketing allows you to reach your target audience in a non-invasive manner.
Here is how it works for Gymshark:
Gymshark partners with athletes that have an engaged and growing following on social media. On average, the athletes they partner with have at least 1 million followers.
The athletes will then promote Gymshark through their channel. This can be by adding a link to the Gymshark shop in their bio or by wearing the Gymshark clothing in a post. It is far more effective than traditional ads and annoying pop ups because the posts seem a lot more natural.
This has helped Gymshark gain millions of views, grow their brand awareness, and even increase the amount of people they reach on their own social media accounts.
The majority of Gymshark’s customers now come in from social media now which is a testament to how well this strategy works.
#7 Inbound Marketing Strategy: Don’t Forget To Retarget Your Audience
97% of your website visitors will never come back.
This is why you need to make sure you set up a retargeting campaign via Facebook, Instagram or YouTube, for example.
So, what is a retargeting campaign?
Retargeting campaigns means that you are targeting your ads towards people that have already visited your website but not converted into a lead or sale.
You can do this by adding a tracking pixel from the platform where you are running ads on to the pages that you deem to be ‘high converting’ pages or on to your entire website if you simply want to target visitors that did not convert at all.
In my experience, it is most effective to target only certain pages to get the best ROI. Visitors that have already signed up for your email list or skimmed through the landing page of your product are far more likely to be convinced by your ad than someone who has simply read one blog post.
You can also use retargeting ads to target users that have engaged with your Facebook page recently, watched a video you created, or engaged with your Instagram business account.
Claire Pelletreau uses Facebook retargeting ads to make $1.60 for every $1 she spends. Here are what her ads look like-
This is a really effective strategy for a few reasons:
- You are targeting users that are obviously already interested in your product, service or brand.
- You get a second chance to convert the visitor into a buyer.
This is one of my favorite marketing strategies because it is often overlooked by most small business owners. If you never want to miss another potential sale, a retargeting campaign is the best way to take care of that.
Conclusion
The end goal for every company is to convert as many visitors as possible into leads. Inbound marketing is one of the most effective ways to do this. Whether it is partnering with an industry expert, creating a free tool, or doubling down on your video marketing strategy- you need a game plan.
When you are creating your plan, keep what Guy Kawasaki, the Chief Evangelist of Canva, said:
“If you have more money than brains, you should focus on outbound marketing. If you have more brains than money, you should focus on inbound marketing.”
Which inbound marketing strategy will you implement in your marketing mix in 2020?
We hope you enjoyed this promoted piece as much as we did!
Burkhard Berger is the founder of awesomex™. Follow him on his journey from 0 to 100,000 visitors per month on www.awesomex.com. He gives intensive insights into his growth hacking strategies, digital scaling tactics as well as his successes and failures.
