What is Inbound Marketing?

At K2 Analytics digital marketing agency in Las Vegas, we’re experts at inbound marketing, but what is it exactly? Inbound marketing is when companies create content on their websites and blogs to get prospects interested in your company or product. This is the key difference between inbound marketing and outbound marketing. Traditional outbound marketing includes cold calling or TV advertising, where your services are pushed toward the prospect. Inbound marketing uses blogging, SEO, email marketing, and social media to pull prospects toward your business.

If you want to understand what inbound marketing is, you’ll need to look at it the 6 different ways to use inbound marketing. Inbound marketing is a process that utilizes content and social media to attract customers. It uses the same techniques that customers use when they search for products online.

1. Inbound Marketing Focuses on Content

Inbound marketing is a process that uses content to pull customers in rather than outbound methods such as ads. To use content effectively, you need to know your customer and what they want from your product. When you create great content, you’re showing value and building trust with potential customers who may not have heard of your company before.

Prospects won’t just come flocking toward you because you have an interesting blog post up about how certain widgets can improve their life. You need to get it into the hands of qualified prospects for them to see any value in it. This is where social media comes in handy. If someone likes your post on Facebook, this will be seen by all of their friends and family. It’s a great way to get your content in front of new eyes and is considered inbound marketing because you’re pulling prospects towards you, not pushing your company on them.

2. Inbound Marketing Uses Social Media

You can use social media channels such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Twitter to build an audience for your content. This is what we call building a following or community. When someone has ‘liked’ your brand page on Facebook, this means they are connected with you and regularly see any updates that you post. You can also find customers who have commented on some of the posts that you share on social media sites. These people may buy from you in the future because they have already shown an interest in your brand.

You can use social media to search for customers who would be interested in your product or service. If you sell ranching equipment, you could join a group on LinkedIn called ‘ranch owners’ and find out who is active in the group. These are people who own ranches and might need to buy new equipment sometime soon. You can then follow them on Twitter and interact with them regularly until they are ready to buy your products. The goal is to get rapport with potential customers before offering any sales pitches.

This is just one example of how you can use social media when utilizing inbound marketing strategies, but it should give you an idea of what’s possible.

3. Inbound Marketing Uses SEO (Search Engine Optimization)

SEO is getting your website or blog to rank as high as possible when someone searches for a relevant keyword phrase. Inbound marketers often use ‘online visibility’ instead of ranking because it means more than achieving a top spot in search results. Search engines such as Google now offer advanced search options that allow users to drill down into specific topics and even include social media posts from certain brands or types of blogs. This is why SEO needs to be handled properly if you want to drive traffic toward your company using inbound methods.

To achieve the best rankings, you need to create content that covers all the major keywords you want to target. Not only that, but your content also needs to be of high quality and offer value to readers. If it doesn’t provide much information or answer people’s questions, then they won’t come back for more which means that you lose visitors quickly.

You can also use SEO if someone has found your business through social media channels like Facebook because the posts will show up in search results as well. This gives even further exposure to what you are offering, whether it is a product, blog post, service, or anything else.

4. Inbound Marketing is Mobile-Friendly

Today, mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets are used by millions of people every day when they are looking for something online. If your website or blog doesn’t display properly on mobile devices, then you are missing out on a lot of potential customers. People often look up reviews, product information, and pricing details before making an online purchase, so if your site isn’t responsive (mobile-friendly), then your sales will suffer. This is why it’s important to build a mobile-friendly website.

The design should work seamlessly across all devices to ensure users can access your website easily, whether using an iPhone, Android device, laptop, tablet, etc. There should be no issues with scrolling up and down the page because this is how people naturally browse through content these days. You can also use features such as ‘tap to call,’ which allows prospects to contact you immediately by clicking their phone number listed next to it.

5. Inbound Marketing Focuses on Blogging

Blogs have been around for many years now, but their popularity has exploded in recent years. More people than ever before are using them, and they can be a great source of traffic for your business if you handle them properly.

Some of the most popular blogs online today were created by individuals or small groups, but now businesses have started to use blogging as part of their marketing plans. These days, many brands update their blog several times per week with fresh content aimed at attracting as many visitors as possible (and converting those into leads and sales).

There’s no doubt that social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook will still offer fast results when it comes to getting new customers. Still, blogging provides a different way to communicate directly with prospects. It allows you to create high-quality content on a regular basis which builds a relationship between a business and a customer.

6. Inbound Marketing is Affordable

Generating traffic through traditional online marketing methods can be expensive, especially when you take into account the cost of paying for ads or sponsored content. Many marketers have started to move towards inbound marketing because it offers an affordable way to get higher search rankings, attract more website visitors, and convert prospects into sales.

Inbound marketing strategies utilize organic (non-paid) search results, which means that you won’t have to worry about campaign costs or budget constraints while working on your plan. This also means that there are no restrictions on the number of connections that you can make with prospective customers, so this method works well even if you have a small budget.

Once your strategy is in place and you know where to find your potential customers, inbound marketing allows you to make the most of what you have by utilizing tactics like blogging, SEO, social media, email marketing, etc.

K2 Analytics – Inbound Marketing Experts

K2 Analytics offers inbound marketing solutions that enable small business owners like you to increase your exposure, attract more prospects, and make more sales. We understand the challenges faced by small businesses (budget restraints, limited time, etc.), so we’ve created innovative strategies which you can start using today to see better results tomorrow.

Our team is passionate about helping you succeed online, so contact us today!