What is inbound marketing? And what does it have to do with your small Utah business?
A term coined by Hubspot.com co-founder and CEO; “Inbound marketing is a marketing strategy that draws your customers to you.”
Although I had not heard of Inbound Marketing until earlier this year I knew exactly how it worked.
Instead of spending your advertising dollars on billboards and tv commercials that throw you name in front of a broad audience, you provide information your potential customers are looking for.
Instead of generating leads by cold calling or sending your sales forces to the local trade shows, you draw customers to you.
So how do you go about inbound marketing?
- Having a website and blog for your business.
- Social media.
- Optimizing you place on the web.
- Viral marketing.
A Blog – Content Marketing is the main ingredient for any Inbound Marketing plan. You give readers great information on your blog and they will seek you out. A blog engages your potential customers in the sales process. So adding blog to your website pulls the interest of those who are searching for you. Remember Google loves content and a blog will provide lots of new content.
For example: If you are a dentist, your blog would include information on dental health, repair and what is happening in your town. You become the go to guy when people in your area have questions about their teeth.
Social Media – I know…this one sounds scary and like a lot of work. First of all social media is a pretty broad term, and measuring the effects of social media can be a little elusive.
Because every business is different an effective social media plan would have to be custom tailored to your business.
Viral Marketing – The oldest form of marketing is still one of the most valid. Recommendations are still the way businesses grow. But it in times of instant communication bad word of mouth can destroy your business.
Getting good word out there and squashing the bad reports has a new medium…the Internet.
Do you know what is being said about your business?
Is Inbound Marketing for your small business?
- Have you had an inkling that your yellow pages ads are not as affective as they were last year?
- Have you found yourself spending more and more money for advertising with little results?
- You use the Internet to find products or search for “how to information.”
- You want to spend less on marketing but get bigger rewards.
This is no group more perfect for Inbound Marketing than small business. With a limited advertising budget, you can get more bang for your buck. You can be the person that people sitting down to their computer are looking for.
Check out these stats for your self.
You can see more slides from HubSpot.
Is your small business a candidate for an Inbound Marketing plan? We would be glad to help you get you plan together. As a Utah Web Design team we want to see Utah Business succeed! We would love to see people searching for your business and you controlling exactly what they see.
Sheila – Utah Web Design
Smartphones are here to stay… so mobile phone marketing gives local business a huge business opportunity. In a crowd…. you generally will observe that most folks are not talking on the phone but are either texting or looking up information on the internet.
