Inbound marketing explained: inbound versus outbound marketing
Attract new clients with inbound marketing strategies. We can customize specifically for your budget and help you take advantage of the latest inbound marketing tactics today.
Before describing how WebCie MTL Inc. can help your company take advantage of all of the benefits of inbound marketing, we first need to understand what inbound marketing is, what it is not and how it is different from outbound marketing.
What is inbound marketing?
Inbound and outbound marketing strategies are very different approaches to marketing. Today, inbound marketing strategies rely on curating and developing traffic through various content marketing techniques like SEO, social media advertising and publishing blog articles that aid potential clients at all stages of the buying cycle.
What is outbound marketing?
Outbound marketing on the other hand typically denotes paid attempts to advertise a product or service. The dollars spent are usually used to push a message out. Whether by cold call or email blasts (spam), advertising messages are the main driving force behind lead generation. Outbound marketing in many respects has fallen out of favor with many advertisers. This is particularly true if you consider traditional print advertising like that done in say newspapers or phonebooks.
Outbound marketing on the internet is susceptible to have many users scroll right by the paid advertisements. This is especially true if the message in the ad has little instant appeal to the user. In contrast however, there are multiple ways to maximize inbound marketing tactics…this is where WebCie seeks to help.
What are the best inbound marketing tactics in 2018?
Create a blog and promote it!
Blog, blog and then blog some more.
Consumers are generally not interested in going to a website if it only has basic mundane company information. Websites that are frequently updated with useful information and content are more likely to draw good traffic. Properly done, a blog will help your company create a deeper relationship with site visitors and customers as it provides pertinent and helpful information on a subject. Over time, the search engines will come to know your website/blog as an authoritative source of information regarding your businesses subject matter. This will in turn help more people searching find and track down your blog. An inbound marketer’s goal is to provide informative, insightful and regularly updated content that shows the website in question is a leader on a particular subject matter.
Search engines tend to reward unique content. This is where our know how come into play. If you have spent a little time on Facebook, you know that there is enough regurgitated drivel across the internet. Long-form content is a good way to get around that and a great way to stand out and be unique. Write articles with latitude that assess points and counterpoints. Critics may respond to this by suggesting that people do not have the attention span to sift through all of that content. However, that problem can be overcome by using good sub headers, lists, images and short paragraphs.
Inbound marketing is a long term commitment to search engine optimization
At WebCie MTL Inc. we are fans of search engines, they’re cool and helpful. Hence, we propose all our clients and would be clients take a long term approach to search engine optimization.
Search engines should be your primary source of traffic.
Search Engine Optimization or SEO for short represents the criteria for gaining a higher rank on sites like Google, Bing & Yahoo. If you have a high rank, your site will be at the top of the results. As these companies rely on advertisers, they circumvent the efforts to subvert their ranking algorithms by changing and continually refining their criteria for which sites get placed where several times a year. Investing in a long term approach assures you will remain up to date on the latest research.
For example, mobile searches have overtaken desktop searches in recent years. Developers have had to adjust to this fact. More recently, users have begun in large numbers to query with Siri/Google Voice. This change is significant as keyword usage will have to be more natural.
A keyword is important because it represents the term that users are searching for. You will need to predict relevant keywords and implement them into your web pages and blog articles. Things to keep in mind: there should always be a balance between keyword stuffing and keyword scarcity. The former will come off as unnatural, while the latter will not yield much traffic. Research keywords and other relevant SEO criteria. It is critical to search engine optimization as an inbound marketing channel.
Make cool, informative videos your kids would like
Videos are another excellent inbound marketing channel to leverage. Some Facebook and YouTube users have actually risen to fame just using the live video functions. One benefit is that people are more likely to watch a video than read an article. These videos should not just offer product advertisements. Create useful content. You should also find good video editing software and a few high-quality images. Beyond that, your ability to communicate effectively is important. If somebody on your team is charismatic, let him/her speak in the videos.
Use Calls-To-Action like -> Call us now and instantly grow!
A cleverly designed Call-To-Action or CTA compels the reader to do take action, do something based on what they just read or watched. If you write a compellingly about recycling, your CTA could invite the reader to apply the principles she learned to her life, or to signup for a newsletter or follow you on a social channel. People are more likely to take action if they are asked…so start asking!
Inbound marketing content can come to some with an extermely large learning curve and time investments that are simply not practical for all. Once mastered and put into a well designed plan, it will help your company develop good traffic.