Inbound Marketing – Lead Generation DO or DIE

Posted by Clark Morgan on 3 March 2011 | 56 Comments

Tags: inbound marketing, inbound marketing greensboro nc, inbound marketing nc, online marketing greensboro nc, small business marketing greensboro nc

Over the past decade I’ve had the opportunity of assisting hundreds of companies with their lead generation and marketing efforts. One thing is for certain, marketing has dramatically evolved over the past 10 years. In today’s digital age, people are engaged online now more than ever. We now have communities, activities, group gatherings, and meetings happening in a parallel digital universe. We chat, meet, study, attend seminars, watch movies, find dates, take courses, work, and consult Google for all our questions. The ability to find and distribute information to your online audience has become incredible. For small to mid-sized companies with budget constraints, it’s crucial they take advantage of this opportunity. Otherwise, companies may find themselves resembling the picture in this post. More new digital technologies have evolved than ever before allowing small companies to compete with their larger rivals on an even playing field. This playing field “leveler” I’m speaking about has come about through strategic inbound marketing. Launching an inbound marketing campaign can literally create a lead generation machine for your company at a fraction of the cost of traditional outbound marketing such as radio, television, print and mail. It can also significantly reduce your pay-per-click and ad spends online by driving more leads to your company through organic search. Its crucial today more than ever before that your prospects “find you” online when looking to buy.

So how do you “get found” by these prospects? It just so happens “getting found” is the heart of inbound marketing. The most successful inbound marketing campaigns contain the following key elements:

1. Extraordinary content. You “get found” making great content available to your prospects online. This is done through blogs, news-releases, white-papers and awesome resources on your website that are of value to your prospects.
2. SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is the next vital component. Keyword strategy and analysis is vital so you’re found by the top search engines like Google, Yahoo or Bing.
3. Social Media is the key to increasing the power of your content to get maximum impact. Social media channels include Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.

All of this is great, but what happens once you “get found”? This is where inbound marketing really pays off by converting your new web traffic into actual leads. Lead conversion is the next crucial step in the inbound marketing process. This is done by:

1. Creating targeted landing pages. Let us help you with generating landing pages that will convert your visitors into leads.
2. Using a strong call to action in your offer. Without a strong call to action, you prospects will leave without a trace.

Finally, examine your campaign and repeat what’s working. There’s an age old truism “If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it”. Measuring results is crucial to your inbound marketing campaign. You do this by:

1. Making the best use of your time, money and resources by eliminating what doesn’t work.
2. Improving performance and ROI (return on investment)
3. Producing the high level reporting you need to inform your inbound marketing initiatives.

Remember, your prospective customers are getting hammered with advertising messages all day long and are becoming better and better at simply tuning them out. For today’s marketer, this makes it a daunting task to reach your target audience with your offer. Much less one that stands out. People today are watching commercial free TV using their TIVO/DVR's. They listen to Streaming or Satellite Radio to cut out the radio commercials. They are registered on the "Do Not Call" and "Do Not Mail" listings to stop receiving solicitations via both mail and phone. And phone books...who even uses those anymore? Not only are these traditional “outbound” mediums becoming more expensive, they are becoming less and less effective if not done correctly, as people grow weary from so many interruptions in their lives. Inbound Marketing has become a growing and very effective strategy to draw your prospects to you online and to convert them into a tangible new leads for your company. Is it currently a part of your marketing mix? If not, what are you waiting for?