Inbound Marketing puzzles me. Well, not Inbound Marketing itself, but rather, I’m a bit puzzled by business owners who have not embraced the principles of Inbound Marketing. Even if a business chooses not to systematize their marketing and lead generation, they should at least be creating content on a schedule for potential leads to consume. Why?
Affordable SEO
The answer is quite simple. Inbound Marketing is possibly the most affordable form of SEO. And I say possibly simply because you can, by spending a little more money, amplify your marketing results.
The beauty of the Inbound Marketing methodology is that your results are measurable. You can calculate the ROI. Even before you spend the first dollar on Inbound Marketing, you can use HubSpot’s ROI Calculator to see what you can expect from your marketing efforts.
But I digress…
Search Engines are constantly looking for new content to fill their results pages. And good content bubbles to the top, much like cream rises to the the top of fresh milk. You want affordable SEO? Do you want to start getting seen on the internet? Begin creating great content.
But if you really want see results, embrace Inbound Marketing! Not only will you get seen, people will take action and give you information in exchange for a bit of premium content (think ebook or short white paper).
For better content (think long ebook or long white paper), people are willing to exchange even more information about themselves. This process continues until ultimately you have identified a valuable, ready and willing lead for you to contact personally. They’ve metaphorically raised their hand to say “I’m interested in what you have to offer.”
Increase Organic Traffic to Decrease PPC Dependence
Most Business owners now realize that they can not ignore the world of commerce on the internet anymore. Even brick and mortar establishments are investing in online ad campaigns through PPC, Facebook Ads and other social media channels. Inbound marketing can give you a way to compete on fair ground against even your largest competitors for a fraction of the cost. It is the most affordable SEO you can implement. And you can implement it today.
Now I have had this conversation with a lot of business owners, and I absolutely know what statement comes next. “That sounds amazing! I’ll have to figure that out…”
When translated, that means you are putting inbound marketing on that list of things that you should get to one day. And you won’t.
Don’t do that! There isn’t anything to figure out right away, just start writing. Write about your customers. Write about the questions they ask over and over (you know what they are). Answer those questions in a blog post that Google can find and your prospects can find. Keep on writing! And once the blog post writing is starting to feel a little more “normal,” then spend some time learning how to optimize your blogs for keywords that apply to your company. Maybe start looking at your website design through the eyes of your customer trying to find helpful information. Start sharing your new content on social media so you can be found by an even wider group of people.
But first, just start.
