By now, you probably understand the basic reasons why inbound marketing works for so many businesses around the world. That’s a great first step, but how do you start actually running inbound campaigns?
And, perhaps more importantly, what types of strategies are best? Inbound encompasses a broad range of different campaign types, but some are more foundational than others.
If you’re new to inbound, you will likely want to start with the most basic strategies that have been proven to work.
Here are some common inbound campaign types that will carry your business a long way toward its online goals:
Build a Useful Business Website
No matter how many new digital campaign channels are developed online, websites continue to be a centerpiece. The reasoning is simple: a business website can serve as a home base to all of your other digital properties and campaigns. Websites also help establish credibility for a business. And, for customers trying to connect with a business, they can be extremely valuable, offering basic contact information, store locations and hours, contact forms, emails, and even links to other properties, including social media accounts where consumers can go connect. Websites are relatively inexpensive to set up, and even a simple setup will offer great value to your business, helping inbound customers figure out how to connect with you.
Start a Company Blog
With a website in place, it’s easy to get started producing your own content. Regular blog posts serve a number of valuable purposes. For one, they help demonstrate your expertise to customers–relevant content will make it clear that you know what you’re doing, and that your business can be of service to prospective clients. Blogs also serve technological purposes.
Each post can be indexed by Google, making it able to appear in online search results. You can further optimize each page to maximize its visibility on Google and other search engines. Greater visibility will inevitably mean more traffic to your company’s website. Over time, this will equal more opportunities to make a sale.
Send Emails to Subscribing Customers
Email remains a highly effective way of driving traffic to your website, and encouraging sales from past and new customers. Email lists can be developed many different ways: by having online consumers opt-in when they register an account; by offering a newsletter sign-up box on your website; and even by posting a sign-up sheet near the cash register in your physical store.
As your list grows, you can continue connecting with consumers on a bi-weekly or monthly basis, keeping them in-the-know on promotions, new products and services, and other aspects of your business. Just be sure not to overwhelm consumers with too-frequent email–that could force unsubscribes and damage your brand’s reputation.
Get Active on Social Media
Social media has become a great, multi-platform campaign strategy that increases the value of many other inbound strategies. For example, you can promote your blog content through your social profiles, thereby increasing the value of both. Meanwhile, connections forged through social media can be retained for the future, allowing you to keep reaching out to a dedicated consumer base.
Social media is also used by many companies to establish brand trust and strengthen a company’s visibility–all of which are critical to cultivating a strong, loyal consumer base. And as social media followings grow, so do the opportunities to drive sales and popularity among all kinds of consumers–both existing customers and new ones.
If you’re ready to start implementing these inbound strategies for your business, contact DBC Digital to start developing your digital campaigns today.
