Inbound marketing can be rewarding, but like anything that’s rewarding, it’s also a challenge, especially since it’s a concept that lives in the ever-changing world of the web.
Here are five marketing techniques you’ll want to make sure you’re doing to stay ahead of the curve.
1. Content is King
Companies can gain a loyal following online with content marketing, that is, by creating original content that can inform or entertain their customers or potential customers.
More and more companies are embracing it as an alternative to traditional advertising, with 93 percent of business to business marketers using content marketing in 2014.
“This trend suggests that marketing to the masses through techniques like television ads and radio ads are becoming less effective,” Jayson DeMers wrote in Forbes. “Instead, it’s better to concentrate on inbound marketing, by producing valuable, engaging content designed for a specific audience. ”
The content marketing family has a lot of members: social media posts, blog posts and articles on the company website, e-mail blasts, white papers and newsletters.
2. Embrace Social Media, and Use As Much as You Can
Your company probably has a Facebook and Twitter account, and if all is well you’re using them the right way: to talk with your customers and your fans, answer their questions, help solve their problems, while also promoting your product. Your social media marketing efforts should be a conversation, not a broadcast.
And it should also go beyond Facebook and Twitter. Some brands have had luck with other platforms, like Tumblr, Instagram or Pinterest. A study last year showed LinkedIn to be the most effective platform for B2B communications. Number two on that list was YouTube, which gives you a potential audience in the billions. So use it to do your marketing. Set up a YouTube channel and tell the story behind your product, or educate your customers on how to use it.
3. People Want Images
While your users will never stop reading text, social media marketing is increasingly becoming more and more image oriented. Sites like Buzzfeed and Pinterest are proof of this direction, but studies show that other social media posts that use images tend to get a bigger response.
The same goes for blog posts. Try to populate your blog posts with a healthy amount of images, or with infographics, to help better explain your business or products to your readers.
4. You Need to be Mobile
Why do your marketing efforts need to be mobile friendly? Here are two statistics to answer that question.
By 2017, 87 of all connected devices sold will be tablets and smartphones, according to Forbes.
And a survey by Google in 2012 found that 72 percent of mobile users wanted the websites they visit to be mobile-friendly. In 2015, Google has made being “mobile friendly” a component of page rank evaluations.
If your site isn’t mobile friendly — or if there isn’t a mobile version of it — you could be getting penalized and missing out on a good chunk of your web traffic.
5. Prepare For New Technology
Mobile devices are one thing. If Apple has its way, 2015 could be the year of wearable devices. A report by Forrester Research last year found 42 percent of U.S. consumers were intrigued by the idea of wearable technology. The same report found that 68 percent of global business decision makers thought wearable devices were a priority.
If they become a priority for your consumers, finding a way to market to them via Apple Watch will become a priority for you.
If you want help determining your marketing priorities, IQnection can help. Our free marketing roadmap webinar takes just 20 minutes, and helps you plot your marketing strategies, to help you get more traffic and leads.
