Top 5 Tips to Mastering Inbound Marketing
In order to be a successful entrepreneur, you have to wear many hats on a daily basis. Perhaps your most important area of expertise will be that of inbound marketing which seems to be constantly changing.
Maintaining a thorough understanding of the most current practices is going to be crucial to the success and growth of your business. No matter how busy you are from day to day, the importance of marketing and content creation cannot go ignored. Here are five tips for creating and implementing the most beneficial inbound marketing strategy.
1. Traditional marketing is becoming obsolete
Current statistics show that over 91% of all consumers have, at one time or another, unsubscribed from a mailing list online. And the average click-through rate for online display ads stands at a mere 2%.
As the Internet becomes a more regular part of our everyday lives, businesses are being forced to adapt to these ever increasing changes. With so many more choices of marketing available to the average consumer, entrepreneurs are now being forced to earn their consumer trust rather than using some sort of “quick fix” advertising method.
2. Content is King
Just as with our wide assortment of television channels, consumers now have more options of information at their immediate disposal than ever before. Content is King, and the focus is now on effective, education, and relevant content creation that also inspires and entertains the average reader.
Using hard-sell tactics and taking about your brand name constantly can easily turn off consumers. Most successful entrepreneurs have learned the hard way that the art of conversation and social interaction builds a company brand much faster and to much higher levels.
3. Use your website as a hub of consumer information
Designing your content creation on the company website that is geared towards the individual consumer rather than your online competition should be a basic fundamental of your inbound marketing strategy. Your articles, blogs, and landing pages need to be written with a human touch in order to attract and engage the consumer.
Websites that blast “buy now” sales tactics are usually far less successful than those that instigate consumer conversations and interactions. Always design your content creation with an actually reader in mind.
4. Master the “call to action”
Of course, your website is there to make you money. Therefore, it needs to be easy to navigate for the end reader. After spending all of your time writing content and maximizing SEO techniques, all of your hard work can quickly go down the drain if your readers cannot figure out where to go to buy your products and services.
A call to action should be an obvious gateway for your consumers, showing them exactly where to travel next on your website. It needs to be clear and easily recognizable with only a mere glance of the eye. Not only do you need to optimize your website for the search engines, but you also need to optimize your website for consumer interaction.
5. Be visual
The average visitor to any website has an attention span of about 8 seconds. That means that you have only 8 seconds to “land the sale”. Content creation strategies of writing lengthy 2000 word product descriptions may not work to your best advantage. And if a picture speaks a thousand words, then you can easily translate that same information much more quickly by mastering the art of image visualization.
Part of your inbound marketing strategy might be to employ a team of graphic designers, but most of us cannot afford this. Try using Visage or Canva for creating simple visuals that get results. Or consider hiring a freelancer instead.