What Are Five Ways to Build a Successful Inbound Marketing Plan?
Inbound marketing is one of the most effective methods for conducting business online.
The modern consumer leans toward companies that focus on high quality and engaging content. A solid inbound marketing plan achieves exactly this. Creating a comprehensive inbound marketing plan hinges on your ability to grasp several concepts, including content marketing, search engine optimization (SEO), social media, web design, and pay-per-click (PPC) advertising. Bringing these concepts together seamlessly requires a concise inbound marketing strategy.
1. Learn Your Buyer Personas
Inbound marketing comes down to how well a brand knows its consumers. Understanding exactly whom you’re targeting is the only way to tailor content and messages to make the greatest impact on them. Buyer personas are different than a target audience. Buyer personas are specific segments of your ideal audience. It’s how they communicate and what they expect from a brand. Identify the specific characteristics of your target buyers, including their interests and priorities. Put yourself in their shoes. Then, build your inbound marketing plan on this foundation.
2. Set Inbound Marketing Goals
The only way to measure the performance of your inbound marketing technique is to set goals and try to achieve them. Identify exactly what you want to get out of your inbound marketing and how soon you expect to see the results of your efforts. Your goals should be specific, relevant, attainable, and measurable. First, assess your website’s current abilities. Check your SEO performance, PPC performance, lead generation, and conversion diagnostics. Key performance indicators will showcase where you need to focus your inbound marketing efforts.
3. Prioritize Your Efforts Across Several Spectrums
Don’t limit your inbound marketing plan to just one type of campaign. Combine print and digital media, and spread your efforts across several spectrums. This may include blogging, guest posting, creating infographics, publishing eBooks and whitepapers, and creating video content. Include a variety of content formats for the best scope of outreach. Consider creating a podcast, LinkedIn SlideShare presentation, or a webinar for more unique types of inbound marketing.
4. Create a Viable Content Strategy
Producing great content is the key to inbound marketing. Thus, your plan must outline what forms of content you want to invest in and how you’re going to make it relevant and engaging. Create content that will be compelling to your target audience using your knowledge about their personas. One tip is to create a large piece of content and then break it into several other types, such as videos or infographics. This can leverage one brilliant idea for several returns. Don’t forget your sharing strategy: nail down how you’re going to advertise your inbound marketing.
Your content strategy must cover the three stages of conversion:
- Top of funnel. The leads are looking for information about a specific subject. Tailor your content using keywords to attract new leads to your website.
- Middle of funnel. Leads learn about your brand, evaluate it, and see what it’s like to do business with you. Make leads want to stay by optimizing your website’s usability.
- Bottom of funnel. Here’s where you need to seal the deal. Give consumers information that shows the value of your product or service, and make purchases simple.
Map out each stage carefully, identifying where your content may have obvious gaps and evaluating existing content. Your website should give your buyer personas all the information that they’re searching for at each stage of the funnel.
5. Implement on an Inbound Marketing Platform
With less cost investment and better returns, inbound marketing is now a mainstay for large and small businesses. To take full advantage of this tactic, you need a strong inbound marketing plan. Connect with us using our online contact form or by calling (800) 300-2906 to start crafting your plan with a team of talented digital marketing professionals.
