Inbound marketing is a digital marketing strategy based on creating content that attracts visitors to your blog or website. The goal is to convert these visitors into leads and then turn them into customers.

The term was coined in 2006 by Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah (HubSpot). They observed that internet users’ interest in high-quality content can strongly influence their purchasing behavior and, consequently, represent an excellent opportunity to promote their software.

The principle is to create a space for exchange and sharing between your company and its prospects. The methodology is essentially based on a content strategy in which your publications address topics that matter to your prospects, and then are shared widely through an appropriate social media strategy. Your challenge is not to occupy space, but to capture the attention of qualified prospects. This stems from a strong definition of the target audience, what interests them, the means to reach them, and your SMART objectives.

Implementing Inbound Marketing

The inbound marketing conversion funnel is built around four key stages: Attract, Convert, Engage, and Retain.

SOURCE : HUBSPOT

Step 1: Attract

The attraction phase primarily focuses on building brand awareness among qualified prospects. The objective is to drive traffic to your website and social media platforms. This is the stage that brings your brand out of the shadows and into the spotlight. It relies heavily on a content-driven strategy designed to demonstrate that your business is relevant and compelling enough to capture attention. Optimizing your visibility is achieved through search engines and social media channels.

In practice, this involves creating content specifically designed for your target prospects (buyer personas) and distributing it strategically to reach as many of them as possible. The content focuses on topics that genuinely interest your audience and align with your areas of expertise. Above all, it is essential to avoid promoting your company or products in an overly direct or sales-driven manner.

Second Step: Convert

Attracting an audience is important, but converting that audience into customers is essential. This is why lead nurturing plays a critical role. In other words, it involves consistently engaging your prospects through newsletters, social media content, clear calls to action (CTAs), landing pages, and other conversion-driven touchpoints.

Newsletters involve sending content by email to a list of prospects. The primary purpose of this content is to inform, educate, and present commercial or promotional offers in order to nurture interest and support conversion.

The selection of social media content should not focus solely on your products. It is strongly recommended to also share tips, insights, and useful information that are relevant and valuable to your prospects.

Calls to action (CTAs) are a highly effective way to move prospects from a passive stage to an active one. A CTA is a clickable element placed on a website page, blog, or email that encourages prospects to take a specific action, helping them progress through the buying process.

A CTA typically directs users to a landing page that presents the offer the potential prospect expects to access after clicking on it, in different forms : :

• White paper: designed to help potential prospects deepen their knowledge on a specific topic;
• Quiz: allows prospects to test their knowledge on a specific topic;
• Sales documentation: provides access to technical datasheets or product specifications that may be of interest to your prospects.
• Presenting the company: to showcase your company’s expertise…

Step 3: Engage

The objective of this phase is to engage prospects so they become customers by building relationships with them through digital channels (social networks, newsletters, etc.) or traditional ones (scheduling appointments, phone calls, etc.). In this phase, you must start a conversation with your prospect in order to explore their request more thoroughly. You should focus on the product’s benefits and the value it can provide, rather than discussing its features. The goal is to get the prospect to buy into your offering. Without this long-term commercial relationship, it would be impossible to build customer loyalty.

Step 4: Retain

The purpose of this process is to retain your customers so that they become ambassadors for your brand. This is achieved not only by offering products and services that meet their needs, but also through engagement efforts. At this stage, it is essential to value your key customers and maintain a relationship of trust with them. Social networks and email marketing can be highly useful in this retention process, through automated emails sent after a long period of prospect inactivity. It is recommended to personalize these messages and use a compelling vocabulary (emphasizing the emotional aspect of the correspondence).

Conclusion

Over the past twenty years, digital marketing has transformed the relationship between companies and their prospects. Mass communication, follow-up phone calls, repeated sales visits, and similar practices are increasingly perceived as intrusive by potential customers. Inbound marketing opens a new era of exchange and sharing with prospects, in which everything is done (according to best practices) to become interesting in their eyes and, therefore, to win them over. The catch is that you cannot become your own media outlet overnight. Calling on professionals is highly recommended to successfully implement—and deliver results from—your content creation strategy.