80% of decision-makers prefer to get company information in a series of articles versus an advertisement, reported Content Marketing Institute. What this means is that in order to attract and convert potential customers you need to empower them with helpful, relevant content that educates and offers assistance to a problem they are looking to solve. This is called Inbound Marketing. Common examples of tactics used for inbound marketing include blogging, SEO, videos, webinars, e-books and infographics. Additionally, traditional advertising is Marketer Centric and tends to interrupt people (e.g. cold calling, emails, pop up ads), Inbound Marketing is Buyer Centric.
It is not enough to simply create great content, it must be tailored to suit the needs and wants of your “Buyers Personas”. This means creating content that considers not only the general demographics of your target audience (age, sex, household income, etc…) but their interests, hobbies, what they value, where they shop, etc. This is called the “Context” of the content; similar to what writers use to refer to as the article’s slant or angle. The next step is to determine where to put your content which is based on where your potential customer can be found within their “Buyer’s Journey”. That is, have they just begun their research into solving their problem (post on your own blog website) or are they further down the road and looking to make an informed decision (get content onto leading trade assn or blogger’s website)? Lastly, your content needs to be found in more than just one location to ensure potential customers can find it. Therefore distributing your content on applicable multiple websites, blogs, vlogs, etc.. is key.
In my next blog installment (Tues 1/20) I’ll discuss Website Optimization (SEO) as an Inbound Marketing tactic. In the meantime, please feel free to send me an email with any questions you may have about Inbound Marketing…Always happy to help!
Danielle Foley, President ~ Foley Marketing Advisors ~ dfoley@foleymarketingadvisors.com
www.foleymarketingadvisors.com