We all know inbound marketing is one of the most powerful marketing tactics for businesses. It’s the glue that holds together your marketing strategy. If you’re in the business of marketing, then you know that inbound is the way to go. Inbound marketing is the focus of your marketing efforts on turning your customers into your ‘marketers’ or genuine advocates who’ll get the word out about you!

But what if you’re not an expert in this field? How can you learn the ropes and make the most of inbound marketing? In the past, inbound marketing seemed like a marketing strategy for B2B companies. But the truth is that inbound marketing is for everyone.

Here are some simple tips to make the most of inbound marketing.

Optimise, optimise, optimise!

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is integral to any inbound marketing strategy. Just to refresh your memory, businesses and brands rely on SEO to improve their website’s ranking on Google and other prominent search engines. The operating principle here is that your website is likely to get more traffic from visitors when you rank higher on Google’s search engine results page.

Optimisation begins with carefully researched keywords that should be used in your site’s URL, in any content featured on the page, headlines and subheads, and in image names, to name a few.

Although including keywords is ideal, avoid overstuffing your page with keywords as this could do more harm to your search engine ranking than good. Instead, create relevant content that solves a problem for your ideal customer.

Give prospects a compelling reason to convert

Your website shouldn’t be an online brochure; it should be a warm handshake to new visitors that start off their journey to complete conversion!

One way to do this is to complement SEO results with resources that add value to visitors. Start by building a clean, navigable, and user-friendly website. If your website feels like a relic from the early days of the internet or if it feels like a labyrinth of useless information, that’s a good indication that your website needs work. As SEO drives traffic to your website, provide visitors compelling reasons to stay, sign up, and make a purchase.

Go social

You’ve got another powerful tool in your inbound marketing arsenal — social media.
Your inbound marketing efforts shouldn’t stop with your company website; take it a step further by establishing a presence on social media platforms. In today’s highly connected world, businesses can benefit from a presence on social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter. Depending on what SNS your audiences use and where your buyer personas hang out online, your business could also benefit from maintaining an active presence on other platforms like Instagram, Pinterest, and Snapchat. And don’t forget forums too, like Reddit and Quora!

A strong presence on a select group of networks will allow you to build a more resilient relationship with your existing clients and customers while also attracting the attention of people who may still be on the fence. But be mindful of the time you spend on social media. As much as we want you to maintain a strong presence, make sure you still have time for your other inbound efforts.

Let others know what your clients say about you

It’s great if your brand can already speak for itself. It’s even better if you can get others to speak for you, too! If you already have a small, but loyal and enthusiastic customer base, consider handing them the microphone and soliciting their satisfied feedback. If they’re genuinely satisfied, these advocates will be all too happy to share their thoughts and let other people know about their experience with you. They’ll even be willing to bet their name on it should you ask them permission to publish their testimonials and reviews on your website.

Never underestimate the power of good old word of mouth as even a few glowing testimonials and recommendations can go a long way toward establishing confidence among those unfamiliar with your brand.

Take care of your new leads

As you connect with visitors coming to your website through SEO, social media, and other channels, don’t let the conversation stall. Instead, keep the interaction going through email nurturing. The reason for this is that not all your prospects are ready to make the jump yet. Some of them may still be dealing with some internal objections and may need more convincing.

Others may simply be being coy. Even though they’re not ready yet, they’ll be on board eventually, but you’ll need to help them through it! Email campaigns help you do just that by giving you the ability to automatically stay in touch with prospects. This sustained interaction can help you establish yourself as a trusted resource, and eventually their first choice when they’re ready to buy.

Don’t forget to measure

As with anything in the world, Inbound marketing can sometimes be hit-and-miss. So, when you’ve already taken the initial steps in your inbound strategy, remember to keep an eye on your metrics like website analytics. Website analytics is a great source of insight as it can tell you which will tell you how visitors find your website, how long they stay there, and whether their browsing sessions result in conversions.

In addition to web analytics, you can also track lead sources in your CRM to report to see which channels are actually converting into customers.

Final thoughts

The best inbound marketing strategy is simple and straightforward. Usually, a sound inbound marketing strategy combines a good website, strong social media presence, email nurturing, and tracking your metrics. When done right, you can attract and convert more customers and avoid time-consuming marketing initiatives so that you can focus on the activities that matter most to you.