Here at Squirrly we are trying to make you understand how important it is for your inbound marketing strategy to realise what you want to offer and create amazing quality content. And for that to actually work we have explain over time the SEO principles and how to implement them better, how to identify and appeal to your specific audience.
You certainly need this know how in order to be sure that you will have any type of success in the inbound marketing environment, but at no point have we explained how this process actually works from the perspective of the readers. If you don’t identify the process right you can not understand what the real purpose of each piece of content has. There fore, you can not create the most efficient content and use your site at it’s full potential.
Be clear on your targeted goals
Now before I take you through this whole maze of how the reader goes through the process, lets see what are the aspects that you need to make sure that are clear for you. Like any other process, in the inbound marketing concept you have a series of events that occurs in a certain order and take you in the end to your final goal. But in order to make sure that you are going in the right direction and that you can have a clear qualitative view over you outcome, you need firstly to understand what you are after.
Now it doesn’t require a long 50 pages report in which you explain each little objective you have with your organisation. If you have something like this that is the result of documented research, that’s great but if you don’t, it’s not a problem. But you need to understand and not forget your main focus. Let’s explain it this way. If you have a shop and you want to create an online presence for it your goals should be promotion and maybe getting people to buy from your online shop. It might be that you just need a long mailing list so then your goal is different. But what is important for the inbound marketing world is to determine this goals and commit to them.
The inbound marketing process
Now that you know what you are after with this what you need to do as the first step is to identify who you are talking to. Then get to know them and pin point which is the best content to make them be interested. We have talked more about buyer persona and the types of audiences in past articles. Now what most people get wrong, is that they consider that once they know what they want and who they are talking to they will create one piece of content that will get to a bunch of people through social, they will love it, there for love you and a part of them will convert from that one single piece.
Unfortunately that’s not the way it works. Yes, you wrote an excellent piece of content, that was targeted to the right audience, was distributed to them. They considered it interesting. But that’s it. It’s the first time they see you as a company in the inbound marketing world. They are not going to say “Waw these guys impressed me so much! I am not clear on what they are selling but I WANT IT”.
The process goes like these. One of your potential clients out there enters the path of one of your social media distribution campaigns. They have an interest in the field or a need in that aria so they are motivated to open your content. Then they will scan it and if something is very interesting for them or you write a very entertaining, engaging story will consume your content. And after that they will pass on to the next article or task. It might be to get into further details into your site’s content or check their email, or do a google search on the topic. Regardless if it’s their first encounter with your brand in the inbound marketing world they will not be convinced to buy.
You shouldn’t be discouraged. Think about it you basically do the same. The encounter was positive, people have heard your name and seen you and your content. They might have even enjoyed reading it. Now what you want to make sure is to grab them. But not by an immediate sell, rather by making sure that they have this positive experience with you again.
How can you do that ? A good way that has been proven to work time and time again in the inbound marketing world are calls to action. Get them to subscribe to your newsletter, your Facebook page, follow you on twitter. Makes sure that they can find your content again easier. Once that happens, they will interact with several pieces of content that you have created and they will build a trusting relationship towards you. And that will make them more inclined to buy later on when you represent them this opportunity.
Adapting to the process
One way to make this whole process work for you is to understand the funnel for your own site and determine what actions or events determines a person to be in the top or the bottom of the funnel. Once you have done this you can choose who you are writing for from this perspective and make sure that the distribution of the content is targeted in the same way.
Do you apply this concept in your own inbound marketing strategy? Have you ever had a large success with one piece that converted many ? Let us know in the comment section.
