Are you struggling to generate leads?
Use inbound marketing for lead generation!
By the end of this article, you will know what inbound marketing is and how you can generate leads for your B2B company through inbound marketing.
Why do you need inbound marketing?
Have you ever heard the line Don’t call us, we’ll call you? Upon hearing your prospects say this line, do you expect them to call back? No, you don’t. Because this is a cliched answer to express rejection. People love to buy, but they hate being sold to.
[bctt tweet=”2018 marketing is about excellent timing marketing” username=”brand_minds”]
Google reports state that customers expect businesses to meet their needs, answer their questions and even predict their intentions. Businesses need to have the right answer, for the right customer at the right moment! How can businesses achieve this goal?
Inbound marketing – definition
Inbound marketing is a marketing strategy that’s focused on attracting customers through relevant and helpful content and adding value at every stage in your customer’s buying journey.
Hubspot
Is your company using leaflets, catalogues, outdoor billboards, media, print and digital advertising, cold calling or mass emailing? Then your company uses outbound marketing to generate leads, also known as the push marketing strategy.
image source: cyberclick.es
The company using inbound marketing draws in and influences their prospects. It wins them over with strategies that help the company build trust and position itself as the authority of its field. And it’s easier for the respective company to generate leads and turn them into customers: they already know its products or services. This company is using the pull marketing strategy.
3 benefits of inbound marketing for B2B lead generation:
- The cost/lead is 61% less than cost/lead generated through outbound marketing (source: hubspot.com);
- It takes between 4 to 6 months for an inbound marketing strategy to bring results; inbound marketing is a long-term strategy, but if implemented correctly and over a long period of time it will generate leads constantly which is exactly what every B2b company expects from its marketing strategy;
- It’s easier for your company to close the leads because they are warmer than the leads generated through outbound marketing.
How to generate leads through inbound marketing
Inbound marketing – 3 examples:
1. Content marketing
Content marketing is a strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content. Its objective is to attract and retain a clearly defined audience and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action. (source: contentmarketinginstitute.com)
Statistics say that 84% of people expect brands to create content that is valuable and responsive to their needs and expectations (Havas Group’s 2017 Meaningful Brands study).
Company blogs are an important part of the content marketing strategy. Brands and businesses use their blogs to deliver articles, ebooks, infographics and other pieces of content to attract leads and convert them into customers.
Expert’s statement
We asked Ciprian Soleriu, marketing expert at Conversionacademy.eu what is the no 1 mistake companies make regarding their blog.
The biggest mistake companies make is writing content that is too broad. The solution is to have multiple pieces of content for their multiple ideal client.
This is easily done by repurposing content with the ideal client in mind, his/her desires, objections and obstacles in getting done the most important things for her/him.Ciprian Soleriu
2. Social media marketing
Social media marketing is a marketing strategy that companies use to raise brand awareness, to promote a product or service, to communicate and connect to their audience.
To generate leads, companies tailor posts to attract their audience to their websites where they can download an ebook, read a blog post, sign-up to newsletter etc.
63% of marketers rated LinkedIn as the most effective B2B social media platform (source: contentmarketinginstitute.com). Nike’s company page on LinkedIn is a great example of social media marketing done right. The Best LinkedIn Company Pages of 2017 are a great source of inspiration for your company’s social media marketing. Regarding these companies, LinkedIn said the following:
The companies in this list feature thought-provoking content and eye-catching imagery that showcases the best of their brands to their respective audiences on LinkedIn. These companies don’t just deliver compelling content, though. They encourage engagement by interacting with their visitors and followers on LinkedIn.
3. Messaging app marketing
In our article How to use chatbots to increase sales, we showed how messaging app marketing yields more results than email marketing.
Messaging apps and chatbots are the power couple of mobile communication between brands and customers. Companies can use these chatbots for lead generation: they identify qualified and unqualified leads, send marketing or informational materials and help move leads through the sales funnel.
[bctt tweet=”Discover 3 inbound marketing strategies to generate leads for your B2B business” username=”brand_minds”]
Conclusions
- With inbound marketing, your customers find you when they need you;
- You don’t have to find your customers when you need them to spend;
- The pull strategies are better than push strategies;
- Customers want content, not ads;
- Build trust by offering valuable content;
- Create content for every stage of the buyer’s journey
