How to Build the Best Inbound Marketing Strategy for your Business

When you consider an inbound marketing strategy for your business, it’s important to build that strategy in a particular order. Like any strategy, you need to understand the goals of the plan before you can take that first step. With this in mind, we thought it be helpful to share the plan behind the plan – how to build the best inbound marketing strategy for your business.

Step 1: Define Your Inbound Marketing Goals

Before you can build an inbound marketing strategy, you need to clearly define the goals of that effort. Are you interested in increasing conversion rates or are you looking to increase lead generation? Perhaps you are looking to unify your marketing efforts across all online outlets? Whatever the goal, it must be clearly defined before formulating a strategy to achieve it. 

Step 2: Clarify Your Target Market

With your inbound marketing goal defined, you need to select the target market you intend to attract with your efforts. When thinking of your target market, focus on an individual who fits the profile of your target audience.  If the target is a business, still concentrate on the characteristics of the individual.

Step 3: Website Ideas

Your website is the hub of all your inbound marketing tactics. Therefore, your website must work as validation to your site visitors as well as a tool to increase conversion rates when they arrive there. Consistency in the messaging of your inbound marketing tactics as well as that on your website is crucial to its function as the hub of your efforts. Be sure that message is consistent in all of your collateral.

There are three further details to keep in mind when considering your website ideas:

1. Speak to your audience and their needs.
   • Content and images should relate to your target market and how you can help them with your products and services.
2. Write for your visitors, but don’t forget to target the search engines.
   • Keywords can be used in site content to increase organic ranking while sounding natural.
3. Include calls-to-action on each and every page to increase conversion rates.
   • Use colorful buttons, images and text versions of your calls to action to increase the chance of conversions.

Step 4: Your Content Marketing Plan

The next step to building a successful inbound marketing strategy is the content you create to draw attention and conversions from your target market.

When building the content marketing aspect of your strategy, keep in mind that this content is meant to draw the attention of your audience, and offer them an educational piece that will resonate with them and give them a reason to contact your company.

Step 5: Selecting Social Media Services

As the platform in which a good portion of an inbound strategy functions, it’s important you seriously consider the social media services you intend to use for your content and inbound marketing strategy.

Some tips for selecting the most effective social media services for your inbound marketing strategy:

• Google+ and Twitter effective for both B2C and B2B companies.
• LinkedIn is effective for B2B companies.
• Facebook is effective for B2C companies.

Social media is an effective way for your brand to connect directly with individuals or organizations in your target market. Select the sties that will work best to get your message out, and then monitor the activity to see what works and what doesn’t.

Investing in an inbound marketing strategy for your brand requires careful planning, implementation and monitoring to garner the best results. By following the steps above, you are well on the way to creating an effective marketing strategy to increase your company’s conversion rates.