Do’s and Don’ts of Integrated Inbound Marketing

stir agency milwaukee

STIR Staff

May 3

The world of marketing, advertising and communications inherently means working through constant change and anticipating new trends. Twenty years ago, no one understood the importance and the significance of having a website. Ten years ago, Facebook was for college students. Five years ago, everyone was wondering if they should be marketing their business and services on social media. Today, it’s about Integrated Inbound Marketing. See a pattern?

You may have missed or been late to past digital trends, but you have an opportunity to get in front of this one.

Attract Your Customer

In a nutshell, Integrated Inbound Marketing allows you to attract customers to you versus you chasing them. Inbound marketing helps your customers or prospects to find you easily and enables them to browse the information, insights, and advice you provide.

How does this help with sales and get new business? You want people to become visitors, visitors to become new business leads and new business leads to convert into sales. Integrated Inbound Marketing positions you as a resource and expert while keeping you in front of your audience consistently, giving them many opportunities to find you and interact. It transforms companies into thought leaders, bringing sales and marketing together.

Do’s & Don’ts of Integrated Inbound Marketing: The Basics

Let’s start with the basics. Here are a few do’s and don’ts of Integrated Inbound Marketing:

DO: INCLUDE IT IN YOUR STRATEGY

Integrated Inbound Marketing should be part of your strategy. Blog posts, social media and whitepapers are all great ways to share your expertise, become a resource and create and nurture a prospective customer list.

DON’T: HAVE IT BE YOUR ONLY STRATEGY

All good strategies and campaigns need variety and integration. The Inbound process can help, but it can’t be the only thing you do. You also need public relations, social media and other strategies to build third-party endorsements and credibility. If consumers only see your claims on your owned materials (website, advertising, etc.), they will have no reason to believe those claims or view you as a resource and expert.

DO: KNOW HOW TO PUBLISH

Plan how, when, why and where you share your information. Integrated Inbound Marketing will improve your website traffic as your content directs people back to your site so you can benefit and nurture leads. A publishing strategy and schedule is critical; it’s time to change your company’s mindset from director to publisher and writer.

DON’T: CONFUSE IT WITH ADVERTISING

Advertising allows you to target an audience based on demographics, psychographics, medium and other attributes. Integrated Inbound Marketing takes it to a higher level by connecting your content with people using a specific set of search terms ­— better trying natural interest you’re your resources. People who find your content can become the qualified leads to target, similar to targeting for traditional advertising.

DO: FOCUS ON MEASUREMENTS

It takes time: weeks, months or even years. The Inbound process is a unique approach to generating leads and potential customers. It requires a different set of metrics for judging success. You have to look at a number of things like open rate, click rate and content interaction such as when users make an effort to provide you information.

DO: HAVE PATIENCE

Things don’t happen overnight. Integrated Inbound Marketing takes time and you need to generate traction. It’s comparable to radio advertising – running one ad, one day, on one station probably isn’t going to produce results. Consistent frequency and posting will get traction over time.

DON’T: HAVE PATIENCE

But also, don’t be too patient. People are always searching for new information and it could be yours. If you post the right content at the right time, you will get the right reaction, sooner rather than later. But, you need to do it before your competitor beats you there.

Integrated Inbound Marketing is the new, significant communications methodology to revolutionize the system. It’s not the first and definitely not the last, but today it is the bridge to a new world of better targeted and better-measured marketing. You still have time to learn and take advantage for it.

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