What is inbound marketing?
Marketing is key to any brand, but theres more than one way to go about it. For the modern company, inbound marketing is a craft they should certainly learn the art of. Inbound marketing meaning  Inbound marketing is marketing that draws in customers through content, social media, blogs, and SEO, as well as other tactics. Essentially, inbound marketing aims to get your brand on the radar of potential customers in your target market, even if they arent planning to make a purchase soon. Inbound marketing helps build your brand awareness, and generate leads by engaging with customers in ways beyond conversions. Inbound vs. outbound marketing  Inbound marketing differs from outbound marketing in the way in which it interacts with audiences. In short, outbound marketing doesnt involve much interaction, using more traditional methods of advertising like TV ads. These messages interrupt other content, and give information on your brand to an audience that never asked to see it. Inbound marketing, on the other hand, aims to answer a demand that the customer has, even if that need isnt something that can be answered with a purchase of a product or service. For example, you may have a blocked sink, so you run an internet search for how to fix it. The top answers are blog posts from brands that offer services such as plumbing and home insurance. You get your answer from their blog, and have no intention of buying home insurance, but the seed has been planted that the brand is knowledgeable, trustworthy, and has provided help in the past. Outbound marketing examples  TV adverts  Pop-up adverts  Magazine adverts  Billboards  Inbound marketing examples  Blogs  Social media  SERP descriptions  Websites  eBooks  How to create an inbound marketing strategy  Creating an inbound marketing strategy can help you build your customer network long before they even become customers. You need a solid marketing strategy so you can reach the audience you want. 2. A young customer base will likely engage more with social media than with older users, while they will also be more driven by trend-led imagery and content. An older customer who is also more affluent will be looking for a more timeless approach. That doesnt mean you cant use social media and have a strong following through quality image-sharing, but it also opens up other possibilities, like eBooks. 3. Its not just potential customers who will think better of you if you are proven to be a credible source, Google will too. The better your content is, the more it will be shared, and if your credible content is shared by other credible sites, then Google recognizes that you must be a good place to turn to for advice. That means you will slowly rise up the ranks of the Google pages and become one of the first pages a user sees when they search a relevant term. Moving up with inbound marketing  After you have created an action plan, all thats left to do is to get started. Make sure to always keep your target customer in mind, but be open to new customers who may appear as your engagement grows, and adjust your inbound marketing strategy accordingly. We can help  GoCardless helps you automate payment collection, cutting down on the amount of admin your team needs to deal with when chasing invoices. Find out how GoCardless can help you with ad hoc payments or recurring payments.