As a Digital Marketer, it is sometimes difficult to know where to start, especially because of the ever-changing world of online marketing, optimisation and Google Algorithm updates. Fear not, there is salvation.
These 5 Key Inbound Marketing Elements encompass the basic steps to make sure that your business has a holistic and aligned approach to your Digital Marketing efforts, aligned to your business and marketing objectives.
- Contacts
- Buyer personas
- Buyers Journey
- Content
- Goals
Contacts
“Your contacts are the heart of your inbound marketing efforts. A contact can be anyone who your company markets to, sells to, partners with, engages with or employs. Or an individual you are establishing a relationship with.” (Hubspot)
When your marketing, sales and services team uses the same contact database, you are creating alignment and consistency, in not only your marketing efforts, but your whole inbound marketing strategy.
Buyer Personas
Identifying Potential Customers and Building Value
Identifying which contacts your business can successfully help and ultimately delight is a methodical and specific approach. Buyer Personas are semi-fictional presentations of your ideal customer based on real data, and some select educated speculation about demographics, behaviours, motivations, and goals.
Buyer’s Journey: Understanding The Mindset of Your Potential Customer
Personas are created through research, analysis and taking a closer look at who is already buying from you. They can help you understand the mindset of your potential buyers and develop the relevant content. They are the glue that holds inbound marketing. Together.
Buyer’s Journey: Awareness, Consideration, Decision-Making
“The Buyer’s Journey is the active research process someone goes through leading up to a purchase.” – Hubspot
This is a critical opportunity for you to provide assistance in the buyer’s journey, in a contextual, timely and relevant manner. Content is the fuel that allows you to do this and your inbound marketing strategy the vehicle.
Content:
Relevant, Unique and Useful Content to Delight
Every interaction with your contacts should be tailored to where they are in the buyer’s journey. To gain the advantage you require as a brand or organization, you need to develop a content strategy that is aligned with your Buyer’s Journey.
Emotive Content = Attraction
One of the greatest tricks of marketing is selling without having to sell. Everyone likes to feel special, this is where personal data collection and customer service information plays a key part. As a business, all of your units must be able to deliver contextual, real-time information that shows proactiveness in providing a unique solution for a contact’s need.
You must be able to predict your contact’s needs in order to provide a seamless journey from research and content discovery, to consideration and purchase. After that, the customer must feel so satisfied with their engagement, they will share their experience about your brand, service or products, with their community and networks.
Emotions are undeniable and getting someone committed to a purchase is much easier when you have appealed to something they recognise in themselves.
This Galxyboy Video was a media production and brand-influencer collaboration, that used street culture clothing and the most up and coming creatives. It captures the essence of aspiration and ambition which provided a unique but asynchronous thread for these creatives, in different industries. It appealed to “Starting something” and the excitement and fear of new beginnings.
In this commercial, GALXBOY challenges the youth to live the mantra of the brand, which is to be Smart | African | Ambitious enough to start something.
GALXBOY 2019 | SMART . AFRICAN . AMBITIOUS
On top of this, 48% of consumers say that they want videos to reflect the products/services they’re interested in when it comes to informing their decision making. Interestingly, a further 43% said they want videos to be interactive in order to allow them to decide what information they want to view and when, which could be the next step to video personalization.
Once you have identified which phase of the journey they are in, you must make sure that you are not interrupting their experience and you are adding value and providing solutions. ie.. Providing a for someone
You must always work to; Attract, Engage and Delight your site visitors or potential clients.
Content Creation: Ask yourself this question before creating or putting out content:
Context – Who are you creating content for?
Goals: Set SMART Goals
Goal Setting:
When setting out with your inbound marketing efforts you have to begin from a place where you know what you want to achieve:
Make sure your goals are SMART” Specific, Measurable Attainable Relevant and Time-bound. This will ensure that your digital marketing efforts have a solid foundation and focal point to base your decision-making on.
While following the above foundations, also make sure your goals are detailed, concrete, and easy for your team to measure and analyze.
Ask yourself what your marketing objective is:
- More blog subscribers?
- Sign up for a webinar?
- Increase traffic to your website over a set piece of time?
Goal setting assists your efforts by providing alignment between your marketing, sales and services team.
Tip:
Set goals that display how marketing efforts assist your company/client and how measurable efforts are being used to achieve business objectives and scalable growth.
