The Inbound Marketing It is a marketing strategy that aims to be beneficial to customers through useful content with added value. Inbound marketing assumes that customers are looking for products in any case and only have to find the right product.
General information
Inbound marketing is clearly distinguished from classic strategies. While email marketing or direct sales are characterized by the fact that the advertiser sends a message to the customer, this is not the case with inbound marketing. Customer attention is gained when useful content is posted that can be discovered on the web in order to generate potential customers.
Because the potential customer is looking for useful information and products, it is assumed that they only have to be directed to the right product to generate a sale from a potential customer. This is done through the creation and maintenance of content with added value, which the client will automatically find in their search. In other words, inbound marketing is about finding and communicating with potential customers through content, topics, and solutions to problems.
How does it work
Inbound marketing can use different channels and instruments, such as search engines, social networks, blogs or online press. Depending on the channel, different tools are available to convert visitors into paying customers. Marketing experts affirm that inbound marketing is the basic strategy to generate income in the online area.[1]
Thus, inbound marketing is an integral part of search engine optimization, online press, or maintaining social media profiles. Capturing the attention of potential customers is important for the success of inbound marketing actions, which are multiplied by these channels. Visitors who have been attracted to interesting content will be qualified leads, who can turn into a sale later if the content found matches the visitor's initial search request. The last step is to convert as many clients as possible into regular clients.[2]
HubSpot's software, which includes tools for various areas of online marketing, can be used for efficient inbound marketing implementation.
The content used to generate leads is a key factor in the success of inbound marketing. In this way, content marketing can be understood as part of inbound marketing. Blogs, podcasts, web videos, e-books, infographics or reports can be used to answer and satisfy the basic questions and needs of customers. The approach is as follows: By creating high-quality content, visitors can become customers. By distributing through different channels, more visitors can be attracted. The slogan "Content is king" it is also appropriate for inbound marketing.
Relevance for SEO
If search engine optimization is understood as an integral part of inbound marketing, the rules of SEO can be applied to inbound marketing. The content must be localizable. The content has to be bookmarked so that it can be found by search engines and therefore potential customers.
This starts with keyword selection, and ends with link building and OnPage optimization. Customers often start their search with keywords, so it is essential to link your content to the correct keywords. It is essential to mark the content correctly depending on the type of content that is used to attract customers. For example, images can be tagged with an ALT attribute, or videos must have a concise description along with relevant keywords.
Blogs or landing pages can be considered as a starting point for inbound marketing according to SEO guidelines and should be marked appropriately.[3] Duplicate content should be avoided when distributing content through different channels. Teasers for an interesting post or video must be unique, since the first lines of text of an article on Facebook, for example, can now be read by search engines. Only when inbound marketing uses different SEO tools can long-term success be achieved.
