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Inbound Marketing: The Elements You Need to Implement

Denver Inbound MarketingThe purpose of inbound marketing is to create new customers, plain and simple.  To accomplish this task we use the internet and a properly built website to turn traffic into clients.  The process specifically moves from traffic to leads to prospects to customers.  This doesn't happen by accident, it requires a large amount of nurturing and a specific methodology executed at a high level. 

In failing to execute properly the hole will leak prospects and fail to convert through through the nurturing pipeline.  The result is less new customers, less new revenue, and a lower flow of profit. 

The intent of this article is to educate you on the different elements necessary to execute in order to run a successful inbound marketing campaign

Once you've had a chance to review and evaluate your skill sets in house and identify the areas you may need help with we hope you'll consider this top Denver Marketing Firm to help you fill in the blanks.  

Element 1:  LEAD GENERATION 

The first step is getting eyeballs to the right spot, generating leads is critical as you can't produce propsects and ultimately clients without leads.  Leads can come in many forms from many sources but the goal is to get them to your website.  Regardless of level of interest or relationship, if you're able to drive visitors to your website you'll be able to convert a healthy percentage of them into leads with the proper calls to action and conversion forms in place. 

Think of how you can offer visitors something of value, for no charge or expected reciprocity.  If you can present them with an offer of interest you'll be able to entice them to 'buy'.  The resulting form completion will provide you with what you're looking for, a LEAD! 

Element 2:  BLOGGING

Our research has discovered that nearly every organization trying to break into internet marketing misunderstands the purpose and point to blogging.  Contrary to popular belief, the blog is not a place for you to brag about your recent business ventures, share pictures of your holiday party, or tell stories. 

The purpose of your blog is to create and spread fresh content that is optimized to make your website more relevant for your core services.  Use your blog to continually inject fresh relevant content onto your website and your keyword rankings will inevitably grow.  Write intelligently, write relevantly, and write often.  For more on effective blogging read our recent post:  How to Write an Optimized Blog Post

Quik Tip:  come up with a list of the ten keywords you really want to compete for.  Create a topic and blog title around each one.  Start writing, referencing the article above for more pointers.

Element 3:  SOCIAL MEDIA

There is a ton of buzz around social media these days and it seems that every organization on the planet now has a Facebook page.  Twitter is going insane and you have no idea why.  Why would you tweet?  What would you tweet?  Why do you only have 48 fans on your company Facebook page after two years of trying?  Maybe this is all just too complicated, you can't even figure it out much less create or prove return on investment. 

To simplify things a bit think of social media as a community first, a method of content distribution second.  If you can find a way to engage and foster your community of fans and loyal customers through Denver social media marketing you're well on your way. Once you've created that consistently growing and engaged fan base now you can start converting them back to your website via your content and offers. 

Social media relates to inbound marketing in providing additional sources to distribute your content.  Quick tip:  try tweeting your most recent blog posts, creating snappy headlines that prompt people to read your content.  If fans find it interesting they will share it, exposing your content to a previously unreached demographic.  Now you're making some progress, now you're marketing!  Want some more tips and tactics?  Download our free eBook by clicking on the image below.  I promise it won't hurt, and the price is right.

 


Element 4:  EMAIL AUTOMATION

Email marketing is the new direct mail, and it's probably equally sexy to business owners.  Everyone would rather talk about social media but the fact is that email marketing done right is much more effective, and much easier to track results.  Done as part of an inbound marketing campaign your email campaign will support your other efforts, helping nurture your leads through the sales funnel.  You'll be able to introduce them to new pieces of content, prompt them to take next steps, and keep your brand and offering front of mind until they're ready to buy. 

Email can reinforce all of your other internet marketing efforts, keep you in touch with your prospects, introduce new products and services, and make clients out of prospects.  

Element 5:  SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION

If The Google thinks you're relevant, you are.  Everyone, yes everyone uses search engines.  Google, YouTube, Bing, and Yahoo are the largest search engines in the world and their goal is to help your potential clients find what they're looking for.  When you dump Denver Marketing Firm into Google it's my goal that you see my site and decide to visit.  If my site isn't on the first page of Google then you most likely won't find me. 

Companies pay thousands of dollars per month to SEO firms in hopes of gaining relevance.  Inbound marketing combines the benefits and techniques of SEO principles into the content strategy.  Onsite optimization as well as offsite optimization and 3rd party article submissions sites help your site grow in relevance and the result is more traffic.  Just like our first element states, traffic to your website in the form of new visitors will produce leads and prospects and customers if your site is set up correctly.  Use Denver SEO techniques to improve your relevance and your traffic.

Element 6:  LEAD MANAGEMENT

Once you have driven traffic, made them an offer, and got them to claim it now you have yourself a lead!  What now?!  Don't panic, nurture.  Proper inbound marketing puts together a strategy and workflow to lead management.  To nurture your leads you need to stay in contact with them, help them through the sales funnel with additional offers, and not miss a beat.  Failure to follow up in a timely manner can cost you the sale, are you prepared to let nothing slip?

If you're concerned the answer is certainly to manage your leads with work flows and automation.  Automated thank you messages, email responses, and calls to action will help you work your leads through to a consultation meeting.  We're sure you'll know what to do when you get a prospect in front of you ready to evaluate your offering and make a purchase decision.  If you don't, we may need to talk about outsourced sales solutions. 

Element 7:  MARKETING ANALYTICS

If any other marketing firm tries to sell you on a campaign without driving the importance of analytics and constant improvement based on what the analytics reveal  you should probably continue shopping.  Without proper, real-time analytics you'll never be able to properly evaluate your improvement and return on investment.

Furthermore, without such reporting and insights it would be increasingly difficult for your marketing firm to improve results and justify their own existence.  At Revenue River we strive to produce positive, trackable ROI with every client and we make a point of reviewing the numbers with our clients proactively.  We can tell you where you are, where you came from, and where we're taking you at all times.  We'd be happy to show you in detail the analytics we're able to provide, make us prove it.  Want a teaser?  Check out our free marketing grader and we'll show you the analytics of your current efforts, and why you need more help.

Putting it all together could be more difficult than it seems.  Not only do you have to work with all 7 of these elements in order to implement a successful inbound marketing campaign you also have t be able to do it within a reasonable budget.  Many mid-sized companies devote 2-5 employees to such activities, a luxury your firm may not be able to afford on the front end. 

While inbound services aren't free, and shouldn't be cheap, they can be affordable and lessen your risk.  By keeping budgets in mind and timelines for ROI in place with our retainer we're motivated to produce immediately and prove results regularly in order to justify our existance, and your investment.  If the firm you're working with can't say or do this simple task for you it's probably time to look elsewhere.  If you're not happy with your flow of profits, raise it with Revenue River.

 

Digital marketing strategy