What is Inbound Marketing? The question everyone is asking.
What is Inbound Marketing?
The short definition is: Attraction marketing. This term refers to a marketing strategy that focuses primarily on putting the consumer or customer at the center of all efforts to deliver value and generate sales through loyalty.
The term became very popular in the world thanks to the company Hubspot, but back in 2005 we started to hear about Inbound Marketing in the United States thanks to Brian Halligan, Dharmesh Shah and David Meerman, who developed the modern methodology that we all know today.
What makes Inbound Marketing so special?
Unlike traditional advertising, the main philosophy of Inbound Marketing is to provide value and encourage purchase through information, in addition to seeking to generate long-term relationships between brands and their consumers.
One of the strongest points of the Inbound Marketing methodology proposed by Hubspot is the merger of two departments that companies always thought were separate: Marketing and Sales.
But it just makes so much sense! That's right, by merging the talents of marketers who are experts at persuading and salespeople who are experts at helping people make a decision, companies that began implementing this strategy saw positive results not only in their sales but in the growth of their businesses through customer repeat business.
With the birth of Flywheel, the sales funnel changed.
Agencies that specialized in the subject began to understand the Costumer Journey, which seeks to portray the customer journey in a round-trip path, where satisfied customers lead to new customers.
For the Inbound methodology it is not enough to attract new customers, but now it is also followed by a new phase to delight them and achieve maximum satisfaction.
Good implementation is the key to success
The strategy is not the black thread of creation, what is actually done is to use several tools and methods that have already existed and make them work together, for example one of the keys for Inbound to work is SEO Marketing, as it is used to organically reach people who are looking to solve a need.
Once this need has been solved by your brand, other tools are used such as newsletters, ppc campaigns, blog posts and other valuable content that makes the customer understand that you are the expert on the subject and builds trust.
And CRMs are key to organize the sales team and keep better track of prospects until they become customers and do not lose business opportunities.
Is Inbound Marketing ideal for my company?
We get asked that question a lot, and we always answer the same, if your product or service needs to prospect customers, yes.
The industries in which they are most implemented are mostly real estate, education, automotive or those where the purchase decision of their consumers tends to take more time than usual.