Inbound Marketing Creates Connections To Target Groups

February 12, 2023

When approaching the topic of inbound marketing, three elementary questions arise from the point of view of company managers, which probably also come to mind. 1.What does the term mean? 2. Is this tool suitable as a marketing mosaic stone or does it replace established business processes? 3.What benefit would the implementation bring to your own business goals? Without an acquisition, sales would at best be flat. In the medium term, a company’s continued existence without potential new customer contacts – the sales leads – is hardly conceivable. That is why acquisition and cold calling are among the established marketing and sales tools of a progressively operating company.

For many decades, adequate market cultivation was based on strategies that were actively geared towards the customer, so-called outbound marketing. It describes processes in which the company takes the initiative and actively seeks new customers in the market. Typical representatives are telesales campaigns, cold calling at the customer’s door, conferences and trade fairs, print advertising or direct mail campaigns by classic mail.

Inbound marketing supported by effective software, such as the provider Marketo or HubSpot, approaches the acquisition of current sales leads via a completely different approach. It aims to set the stage for being found by potential customers. The way for this online marketing tool has already been paved by the Internet, digital website company presence and communication, as well as social media, and it offers the best conditions for effective marketing automation. You decide which channels to use to spread your messages. The company website is undoubtedly one of them. But blog posts, specialist articles and company news in digital magazines or tailored to closed user groups are also valuable information distributors. The image joins in and unfolds its effectiveness in established channels such as “You Tube”.

This brief comparison of the two marketing tools already makes it clear that a peaceful coexistence of the two processes in a company is quite conceivable, and in some cases even desirable in terms of corporate success. Companies that use the new opportunities of inbound marketing will not be forced to do without outbound marketing such as trade fairs, conferences or open-house events with the associated personal customer encounters and image-building processes.

Creating the conditions for effective inbound marketing

Inbound marketing thrives on professionally prepared and convincing information about the company, its products and services – the content. Top-class and visually well-prepared content attracts the attention of interested parties. If the information from your company is carefully tailored to target groups, the preparatory work represents an initial effort that should not be underestimated. Thanks to the powerful automatisms of the inbound marketing software that is now available on the market, company standards can be implemented, those of the product and service range on the one hand and the target groups on the other -Address on the other hand. The goals of an inbound marketing engagement can be divided into the following individual steps.

The first step is to arouse customer interest. Special filters then help to generate potential customers. A core goal is achieved when business deals are made. The satisfaction of newly acquired customers is also a valuable inbound marketing building block, which can be used with the appropriate software tools for follow-up orders and recommendations to third-party addresses.

Inbound software: prompt actions on the way to the order

The advantage of a powerful inbound marketing software lies in the variety and flexibility of the possible uses. In this way, processes for addressing target groups can be structured, content can be assigned, personalization can be carried out and the information channels suitable for specific target groups can be fed in a timely manner. But the software is not just limited to the content messages to be placed precisely. An intelligent link with analysis tools takes up the activities triggered by inbound marketing on the part of the addressed target groups and automatically carries out the desired analyses. This interactive interlocking of actions and their success control leads to the desired high-quality and promptly generated sales leads. Thus, the chance of closing a deal increases on a twenty-four-by-seven basis thanks to the permanent availability of the information channels of the worldwide web. The inbound marketing concept, which is to be developed to suit the company, is available 24 hours a day and seven days a week and is geared towards individual customer contact with “feedback”. This is where the chances of the software-based workflows of online marketing lie. For you as a decision-maker, the question arises as to how great the benefit of this automation is against the background of your company profile and product portfolio.

The initial effort required for content creation and process structuring can undoubtedly be seen as a disadvantage in the beginning phase. However, this hurdle can be lowered step by step in the tried and tested manner for management and the specialist departments involved. There is the possibility of a two-pronged marketing strategy. You start with the software-controlled conversion of sub-areas and thus keep company parameters such as costs and departmental implementation of new processes under control. The company divisions initially remaining in the “old” organizational scheme continue to use the onbound tools that have been introduced. With careful preliminary planning, introductory concepts can be developed in this way that can be presented and implemented by the workforce. Companies that want to further optimize their Internet presence and have to benefit from the online tools of inbound marketing also get on this track. In this way, online marketing can become a growth engine.