You’ve probably heard of Inbound Marketing if you’re launching an online business. Unlike traditional marketing, inbound marketing focuses on building a relationship with customers. Rather than selling the goods directly to the user, its principle is to deliver content and lure the audience to it.

Here are ten ways to help your business optimize its inbound marketing approach.

Search engine optimization

SEO is a general term that refers to everything you can do to make your content more visible on search engine results pages; SEO is an umbrella term.

When people search for you in organic search results, it doesn’t matter how good your e-book looks or how clear your podcast sounds unless they can find you there. You need to get your content to the middle or top to get your content on page one.

On-page SEO is all things you can do right on your website to make your content show up more on the SERP. A macro-level means making high-quality, human-centered content that answers people’s questions and solves their problems. This is how you do it: At a minimal level, make your content more relevant when people search for things you want to talk about. For example, you might make your content more relevant by optimizing it for specific keywords.

People who work on things outside your website are called off-page SEO. The goal is to get links to your content from high-quality websites. Each link tells search engines that your content is good, making your site more likely to rise in the organic rankings. SEO is a big part of inbound marketing because people don’t go to websites they don’t know about.

Blog

According to HubSpot, the company that first used the term “inbound marketing” in 2006, marketers who focus on blogging are 13 times more likely to get a good return on their investment.

Companies that update their blogs at least 16 times a month get 3.5x more traffic and 4.5x more leads than companies that only update their blogs a few times a month. A blog is a great way to answer your customers’ most essential questions in easy-to-read long-form content.

The more educational your blog is, and the more often you update it with new content, the more likely you will become the brand that prospects remember as they move closer to the end of the sales process.

Webinar

It’s not always easy to add your personality to your written work. When you write a blog post, you can be more casual and make jokes. But when you write a white paper or an e-book, you might wish you could add something more human in nature.

When the webinar comes in, things start to get interesting. A webinar is an online seminar. Lecture-style content is shown to a small group of people only on the internet. With this format, a member of your content team can give the critical information and do it in an exciting and personal way.

The sound of a natural and authentic person, even if it’s just his or her voice, makes people think your brand is having a conversation with them. It’s easy for your customers to forget about the people who write your blog posts, whitepapers, and e-books, but that’s not the case with a webinar. They’ll be able to see them in action. Once again, the ability to ask for information from your prospects as an entry fee makes the webinar an excellent way to get new leads.

Podcast

Much like the webinar, you can add some personality to your brand with the help of a podcast. When they make their final decisions, your prospects will think of you as a valuable and relatable source.

It doesn’t have to be much work if you want to start a podcast. Having a laptop, a few microphones, and at least one coworker means you’re ready to start making videos.

If you want to become the brand people turn to during their Monday morning commutes, all you need is one 30-minute show a week.

Infographic

Written content is great, but people don’t always have the time or the desire to read 2,000 words about long-tail keywords.

Sometimes, your customer just wants a quick look at some essential data, and it should be presented in a way that looks good.

There’s also a good chance that if the information you’re sharing is essential, like benchmark data for mobile ads across 18 industries, it will get a lot of attention on the web. A lot of buzzes aren’t just short-lived. It has a long-term effect on people who are interested in your business. As soon as you can get people talking about your brand, you’ll start making sales.

Whitepaper

The meaning and purpose of a white paper are different depending on who you talk to. The type of business you work in and your goals will most likely impact the final product. You can think of the term “whitepaper” as an educational piece that goes into more detail than a typical blog post. It’s also written slightly more formally than a standard blog post.

Blog posts are your homework for each week. Whitepapers are your term papers. Generally, think that people who download your whitepaper are looking for more rigor, depth, originality, and value. Good looks are important. To win, you have to look good.

A white paper is better than a blog post or an infographic because, in addition to giving value to people interested in your product or service, you can ask for their contact information in return. After people download your content, you can use email marketing to help them move closer to making a sale.

Video series

Video is a big thing. It’s growing and fun, and most importantly, it works. As they scroll through Facebook and Instagram, people want to see what they’re interested in. You know why it works, too: Your brand comes to life.

Video is better when it’s short and sweet, but writing is better when it’s long. When it comes to social media, there are exceptions to every rule. People aren’t interested in videos that last more than a minute or two.

Plus, the video gives you the chance to repurpose content in a way that is easier for people to understand. He may not have had time to watch your webinar, but he can probably spend two minutes on LinkedIn to get the main points.

Case study 

I’m going to say that you’re looking for software like the one I talked about before. There is a case study on the company blog that you’re looking at. It tells the story of a very similar company to yours that bought the software a year ago and has been making money ever since.

This software has made a massive difference for the customer who is being talked about in this text. “Well, that means it could also work for me, right?”

That’s what a case study can do. Those who aren’t sure about your product or service will see that it has worked for people like them.

E-book

An e-book and a white paper both have a lot of good things. As a source of actionable and insightful information, you have another chance to build your brand as a source. There is usually no charge, and you give them your name and number in return.

If you decide to use e-books as part of your inbound strategy, which I think is a good idea, don’t treat it like a joke. It’s a book that you’re writing that implies a level of knowledge that is pretty high. You should only use this type of content for the essential parts of your work.

Social Media

Social media is a great way to get your ideas and new content before a new group of people. Social media works with an inbound marketing campaign when you use it to add to the great content on your site. There is a way to use your content to be part of the conversation. Improving your social media presence is a great way to boost your ROI and make your brand more well-known. A lot of the time, it isn’t about trying to make a sale all the time.

Final Thought

There are ten ways you can get the people who are most likely to buy your product or service to visit your website and learn about your brand.

Not all of these ideas will work for you. You may find that only one or two of them work well with the rest of your marketing plan. As with everything else in marketing, there will be a lot of tests, trials, and mistakes. The leads will start coming to your door when you find the balance that works best for you.