In order to increase your marketing ROI, you’ll need to work with the right marketing automation tools. But before you look into something totally new, a good solution is to make sure you are truly utilizing the software you already have.
There are a number of free marketing automation tools available for businesses of all sizes. These include HootSuite for managing social media ROI, Google Analytics for monitoring website traffic and conversions and MailChimp for automated email marketing with ease. Comprehensive marketing automation programs like Act-On, Eloqua, HubSpot, Marketo, and Pardot may be initially expensive to implement but have the potential to save your business money in the long run. How do they do this? They offer a whole host of tools and features that business owners can use to maximize marketing ROI. For small to medium sized businesses, HubSpot is recommended as your best buy.
Some companies are failing to use their marketing automation software to its fullest potential, which is leading to additional struggles for businesses where they should not exist. Marketing automation software is more than a scheduling tool for email and social media integration. When used properly, marketing automation software and tactics can – and will increase your marketing ROI as well as yield your company a significant return on its investment over time.
Use Marketing Automation at Every Step of the Sales Funnel to Maximize Your Marketing ROI
One of the worst things a company can do is choosing to spend money on marketing automation software but failing to use it correctly. Marketing automation tools are meant to complement a strong inbound marketing campaign and scale its reach, but they cannot take the place of third-party search engine optimization firms or in-house search engine optimization consultants. The tools by themselves cannot answer the question “what is SEO”, or perform search engine optimization. What they can do is provide SEO tips to an experienced SEO content writer to refine his or her existing SEO strategy. In addition to this, the tools can be used to provide analytics necessary to evaluate the effectiveness of the implemented strategies.
Marketing automation solutions like Hubspot’s integrated marketing platform provide marketers with the tools they need to analyze the effectiveness of their marketing campaign throughout every step of the sales process. Using a comprehensive automated marketing platform has the potential to increase your effectiveness at attracting website visitors, converting those visitors into leads, and nurturing those leads into new and repeat customers.
Increase Organic Search Results with Hubspot’s Keyword and SEO Tools
Creating good content, sharing this content on social media and optimizing this content for search engines through link building strategies like blogging is essential for developing a strong inbound marketing campaign. Marketing automation software can maximize the potential of a strong campaign, but can do very little to promote a poor campaign.
For example, companies that buy email lists from third parties are not going to see as good a return on their investment as a company that generates an email list through the promotion and writing of quality, focused content that generates conversions from organic searches.
A software like HubSpot is most effective for SEO companies that already have created a steady flow of organic leads to their website. The software gives tips and suggestions on which keywords to promote, which guides future campaigns and goals. It also shows what can be improved in regards to on page search engine optimization throughout the code and content of the website in order to increase the number of organic leads. Another perk? Increasing leads and conversions from customers who are using a search engine to find your site.
Use Marketing Automation Software to Promote Lead Generation and Conversions
The key word here is conversion. Your website may be attracting a large amount of traffic, but is this traffic high-quality traffic? That is, is it traffic that will convert into sales? The distinction is important.
Attracting leads is not the same thing as simply attracting website traffic. In order to obtain a lead, you need to have some sort of interaction on the part of the prospect that demonstrates interest in your company instead of others. Utilize lead magnets and calls to action (CTA) on your website, paid online advertisements, and social media pages to encourage visitors to convert into leads.
What is a lead magnet? A lead magnet encourages prospects to give out their contact information in exchange for a valuable freebie, like a free software trial or access to a relevant webinar. Calls to action encourage prospective leads to contact your company immediately – in order to get a free quote, for example.
Increase the effectiveness of lead magnets and CTAs in obtaining conversions with marketing automation software
Using marketing automation tools to track conversions and nurture leads through the development of personalized content is essential. Examples of conversions include filling out a contact form, signing up for an email newsletter, downloading an eBook, or any type of social media interaction or positive engagement. Some different types of engagements are further explained below, along with their potential for impact in a campaign.
Smart Contact Forms : Marketing automation programs can create dynamic contact forms that recognize previous users. This is helpful, because it won’t require these users fill out the same information over and over again each time they visit. Instead, these smart forms only ask questions that cannot be gleaned from the previous information the user provided in an earlier form.
Customers are less likely to fill out forms if they are lengthy, so using smart forms can drastically reduce the length of these forms and increase the likelihood that they will be completed and submitted by customers.
Personalized Email Campaigns: Marketing automation programs can also craft personalized email campaigns based on a user’s click-through history. For example, if an email subscriber clicked on a heading that read Sales Mastermind Events in Your Area, the subscriber would be automatically entered into an email campaign’s smart list that would send out promotions regarding sales and marketing mastermind events for that area.
Customers are much more likely to respond to email campaigns if they are personalized to fit those customers’ interests – and location.
Choosing Smart CTAs and Leads Magnets
Marketing automation software gives marketers the opportunity to alter website content like CTAs and lead magnets depending on the customer’s user history and preferences. Why is this important? Dynamic websites will not show users who already downloaded an eBook on How to Become a Sales & Marketing Mastermind the same content for a second time, for example.
Instead, it will recognize that the user already clicked and downloaded this item, and will show another, similar promotion instead, such as a mastermind marketing event in Las Vegas. Using dynamic content will maximize the effectiveness of CTAs and lead magnets because they will be designed based on the history and preferences of the individual customer without repetition.
Drive More Traffic to Your Website by Measuring Your Social Media Interaction with Social Media Marketing ROI
Another use for marketing automation software is to keep track of what works and what doesn’t in regards to attracting website traffic from social media that leads to conversions. Be sure to measure social media networks both together and separately to gauge which social media pages are generating the most visit to lead conversions.
Also, track lead to customer conversions, because some social media pages may result in fewer leads – but those leads might be of a higher quality. Hubspot’s Social Inbox is a great tool for nurturing social media leads. This is because it keeps track of the behaviors of your social media followers, and offers tips and suggestions on how and when to promote products to these individuals.
In every step of the marketing process, marketing automation makes things easier and more cost effective. Streamline your marketing campaign by taking full advantage of all of the features your marketing automation software has to offer, such as:
- SEO and keyword tips and tools
- Analytics to track current and past website traffic and conversion rates
- A/B Testing to gauge the quality of lead magnets and CTAs against one another
- Lead nurturing tools to help customers go through the sales cycle faster
- Dynamic, personalized content for websites and email campaigns
Pivoting around customer satisfaction and its replication, inbound marketing is an established methodology that allows your business to do many things at once, including:
- Targeting users (pitching a product that they need),
- Providing them with tailored experience (information they are looking for)
- Nurturing that relationship (through active customer support) to achieve loyalty and thereby grow your business over time
This process is like matchmaking for you and your target users. The good part? Both parties are totally into it.
As opposed to the concept of outbound marketing where, for example, you splash a zany, one-line ad in the face of an unsuspecting user, the inbound methodology focuses on delivering customized solutions that will facilitate and enrich a user’s consumer experience as they transform into advocates of your products and services. Of course, there are several moving parts to consider when talking about this process. Let’s dig deeper into the features of the inbound methodology, a proven way to boost your business performance in today’s volatile digital world.
While informative, this is a primer for anyone that wants to start and win at the global marketing solutions game. We’ll continue by covering the basics like the “internet funnel” and modern ideas for your marketing strategy.
What is Inbound Marketing?
It is like having a user enter Apple’s Fifth Avenue store in New York City, buy the latest iPhone 11 through a pleasant shopping experience, and walk out with a bunch of deals that will make them a lifelong loyal Apple user. The magic of inbound begins the moment that the user must have seen an advertisement for the phone.
Inbound marketing is a business technique that is designed to attract consumers using various marketing, sales, and content strategies. This is done rather than ‘forcing’ them to check out a brand and its products and services with little or no lead in. Success depends on providing a tailored journey to your users that does not only help them wilfully convert into customers, but also make the whole thing an enjoyable experience for them.
The phrase “inbound marketing” is so relevant because it is right there among the top buzzwords heard in today’s boardrooms. This might sound funny, but it is true. Inbound marketing at its core is one of the most reliable ways to engage a user and convert them into a potential customer. This may be done through various means like search engine optimization, chatbots, and marketing automation.
Here’s a fantastic overview of the world of marketing and public relations in the form of a Venn diagram by marketing executive Tony Ahn. Inbound is at the crux of concepts such as performance content, digital, and marcom.
This is like having a user enter Apple’s Fifth Avenue store in New York City, buy the latest iPhone 11 through a pleasant shopping experience, and walk out with a bunch of deals that will make them a lifelong loyal Apple user. The magic of a solid inbound marketing strategy begins the moment that the user must have seen an advertisement for the phone and decided to look into it.
And the best part? That ‘magic’ of a successful inbound marketing strategy can continue to help grow your business. If you do it right with constant updates and adaptation to changes in your business atmosphere, there’s no expiration date attached to it. Before we find out how to make this possible, let’s understand some key terms associated with these techniques.
It is like having a user enter Apple’s Fifth Avenue store in New York City, buy the latest iPhone 11 through a pleasant shopping experience, and walk out with a bunch of deals that will make them a lifelong loyal Apple user. The magic of inbound begins the moment that the user must have seen an advertisement for the phone.
And the best part? The magic of a successful inbound marketing strategy continues to help grow your business. If you do it right with constant updates and adaptation to changes in your business atmosphere, there’s no expiry to it. Before we find out how, let’s understand some key terms associated with this technique.
The 3 Core Stages of the Inbound Methodology
In the above example of the Apple store, if you know that a person who identifies with lifestyle products and has the capacity to spend a premium amount on it is looking for a smartphone, then it becomes easier to shape a plan to lead them to that device. Instead of shooting in the dark, you pick out and aim at the right places. From a business perspective, having that direction is the biggest win of all.
According to HubSpot’s State of Inbound 2018 Global Report (pdf), 69% of businesses believe that attracting users and converting them into customers is their top priority. Since inbound puts the most focus into the first step of attraction, it automatically becomes one of the better, more personal ways to sell a product or service. In general, a company focuses on gathering leads, growing its website traffic, and increasing ROI – Enfusen helps you in the last part.
But how do you go about setting it into motion? As an owner of a business or its marketing head, where do you begin with inbound? You might already know the answer.
The Inbound Methodology – Attract, Engage, Delight
The technique stems from the concept of inbound which describes the positive journey of your customer while considering your businesses. It generally starts from them visiting your website and should ideally end in a conversion i.e. the purchase of your product.
How you identify them, bring them in, provide them with a unique experience while achieving your end goal, and make it memorable is what the game is all about. In other words, it is a method of attracting, engaging, and delighting. And the process typically starts from identifying your buyer personas. Ask yourself: who will buy your product or service and why?
The process typically starts from identifying your buyer personas. To begin, ask yourself: who will buy your product or service and why? Activating the inbound marketing funnel begins with starting at the top – with content creation.
Attract Strategy – Content, SEO, and Promotion
In the initial step of attraction, (after you have recognized your buyer personas) you begin with content creation and branding. For your audience to find and distinguish you in the herd of white sheep, you need to be a black one. In short? You need to stand out, but there is no need to address your users casually (‘hey dudes’) or to do a PR stunt that slants to the unethical to look different.
We mean having a USP and at least one differentiating factor. Chinese technology giant OnePlus is different from its compatriot Xiaomi how? The latter identifies itself as a premium brand while the former produces smartphones that are cheaper in price. Even small differences can be huge ways to set yourself apart from the competition.
Focus on what a user in your target group would click on and consume without resorting to tactics that may not sit well with your brand. For a wearable tech product like Fitbit, the focus would thenbe on health monitoring, a healthy lifestyle, and technology – instead of trying to angle the campaign around the people that may use the product.
Pro Tip – Including why you are doing what you are doing in your branded content often helps you set your business apart.
Creating content that is valuable to your audience and which solves their problems is key. This content can be in the form of:
- Featured content and basic information about your products and services as pages or sections on your website
- Guides, walkthroughs, and tips on your supporting blog pages or social media
- Syndicated content through partnerships
- Engaging videos on your YouTube channel
After the important first step of content creation has begun, the focus will shift to dissemination and promotion.
Setting up a complementary SEO plan will increase the visibility of your content on search engines like Google and Bing. The same goes for social media, networking sites, and forums. This is why optimizing your content and customizing it for your target audience is the biggest challenge in the execution of the inbound methodology. As you might know, organic search and direct website visits are two of the biggest traffic sources globally, with paid media trailing well behind – so make use of these two opportunities!
Pro Tip – Take a cue from publisher Slate to see how they focused on podcasts to drive digital growth in a matter of months. They increased year-on-year website traffic by 30% (quick case study here).
Engage Strategy – Long Term Commitment is the Goal
Once you have your users on the website and looking at your content, the next step is to gift them with a unique experience. This can be through targeted content and direct marketing of your products and services.
For example, if you are selling wireless headphones, make the case for them right at the top of your site so that users do not have to scroll down to see the information that they need. They visited your site for a reason – don’t withhold their reward because you’d like them to scroll past unrelated content. Your visitors reach you through organic search and social media feed / credit HubSpot
The attention spans of leads and visitors are getting shorter, so you need to captivate your users within the first few seconds of their visits. Otherwise, they will bounce off of your site, and visit one from your competitor.
Pro Tip – Instead of selling your product or service, sell a solution. An example? Ask yourself: Why use wireless headphones?
Having a quick-response sales setup then becomes important. At the end of the day, the goal is to have the visitor to convert into a customer. So, make sure the visitor can follow a path that culminates in this conversion. This can occur via a successful form-fill, an e-book download, or a product order if it’s an ecommerce website.
Whatever you do, engagement should result in long term commitment from the user. That is when you can move to the next step in the inbound marketing funnel.
Fact – 54% of consumers prefer videos over any other type of content (HubSpot’s Trends data published in 2018).
Using the Delight Strategy – Requesting Loyalty from Your Customers
This stage in the inbound funnel involves maintaining a connection with customers long after they have taken the intended action. You have to keep them engaged through emailers, follow-up calls, and periodic marketing prompts that can extend the experience that they first had when they bought your product or service. These suggestions can be combined into an experience that is not only memorable for the customer but ultimately makes them loyal to you.
For instance, auto manufacturers have found a way to do this quite effectively. They take extra care of their customers through regular calls and occasional free servicing offers sent through mail or email. Gestures like these both keep the brand in close proximity of the user, and help it project itself as a well-wishing entity.
So, when the time comes for the user to upgrade, they successfully manage to retain them – but this time with a new vehicle model and a renewed, long term relationship.
Although, McKinsey & Company reports that the industry is still in dire straits when it comes to digitizing the customer journey.
(This example of the auto industry tactic is extremely important from a business point of view. When the passenger vehicle segment of the industry in India faced a prolonged slump earlier in 2019, manufacturers depended on committed and returning users to keep their retailers busy – and themselves afloat.)
Another example is looking at smartphone manufacturers that release a newer version of their popular models every year (or every other year). This not only keeps their business healthy, but also highlights their trust they have in their loyal customers. This is regardless of the hidden tricks involved in the model, or the small improvements and changes that are made.
Turning your customers into advocates of your brands with these strategies is, therefore, the ultimate goal. This validates the magic of inbound where the cycle keeps going, also picking up new users along the way.
These strategies allow your business to thrive with existing, loyal customers and an influx of new prospects from both your original inbound strategies and through advocacy that comes along with the natural process.
Marrying Sales with Customer Support
One of the greatest myths is that the inbound funnel only satisfies the marketing aspect of a business. In reality, it is a solid way to push your sales and servicing facets, too.
The best example of this marriage is in the finance sector. When it comes to online financial transactions, users tend to get anxious about the slightest of hiccups. So, it is in the best interests of companies to resolve these hiccups as soon as they occur – for peace of mind on both ends. Instead of waiting for the user to contact a chatbot or dial up the toll-free customer care number, companies can utilize marketing automation to send and receive alerts. These alerts can then be routed to the customer support team, and members can then directly call the users and help resolve the issues.
Such an experience will be extremely rare and surprising for a user, because they won’t always expect the proactive approach from a business. If nothing else, it helped them get out of the anxious state and helped to increase trust. By meeting these needs, it’s going to be tough to convince them that the brand does not care about them and their continued support.
But what are some of the most promising activities that you can do across these verticals in today’s always-online world? How can you adapt your business’ marketing strategy with the changing times, changing demographics, and ever-evolving user volition? Simply by paying attention to the trends.
Actionable Ideas from Enfusen to Grow Your Business
Remember the volatile digital world that we talked about earlier? This isn’t just a buzzword anymore, but also reality. Today, consumer behavior is much more evolved and therefore, highly unpredictable. The rise of the internet and the always-online culture have only fueled this changeability, which makes things more difficult for businesses. The key to overcome this difficulty is to embrace and understand this change as you move ahead.
Thankfully, inbound marketing allows for these changes. In fact, it is not influenced by them because the onus is on you, the business owner, to customize the strategy according to your varying business needs. When utilized properly, the output will show itself automatically all with the reliability and efficacy of the inbound methodology.
For aspiring businesses, a sure-shot way to get ahead is to depend on tools such as Enfusen’s own data-driven marketing tech that focuses specifically on ROI.
Here are some ideas that we at Enfusen believe will be significant in 2020 and far beyond.
Marketing Automation
Have you ever signed up for an online wallet and paid your power bill through it? If so, you may have received an email the following month reminding you that the due date is approaching. That’s a brilliant example of a system of after-sales automation that you can use in your own business, too. For a modern, tech-savvy user, that’s a clear relief as scheduling a payment is one less item to check off from a cluttered to-do list at the end of the day.
Social Media Listening
Another great idea for customer support and reputation management is using social media to keep an eye on clients and users. Listening and responding to both general and targeted feedback establishes a strong connection between you and your customers, and shows that you see and value what they say. Regardless of the sentiment of online chatter that your business receives, being communicative always helps -and it always works in your favor.
Social listening can also assist in measuring the performance of your campaigns. A good example is this Uber case study where the global cab aggregator tracked online conversations about its new app through a tool and measured its effectiveness by listening to customer feedback.
Mass Tools of Attraction, Engagement, and Delightfulness
The goal is to not just have a prospect transform into a one time customer. Success is also about building a community of advocates and nurturing them. That is what makes a brand legendary and sustainable over time.
As mentioned at the beginning of this article, inbound is such a popular and relevant technique today that everyone is doing it. It is a primary approach to more than 70% of businesses in the world. Which is why you need something different and trendy to set yourself apart and still win the game.
As mentioned earlier, inbound marketing is such a popular and relevant technique today that nearly everyone is doing it. It is a primary approach to more than 70% of businesses in the world, which says a great deal about the potential for success when it is done properly. For this reason, you need something different and trendy to set yourself apart and still win the game without compromising your values, needs or overall goals.
If you’re willing to customize the process of inbound marketing and stick with it, you will see – and feel – the results you’re looking for.
As mentioned at the beginning of this article, inbound is such a popular and relevant technique today that everyone is doing it. It is a primary approach to more than 70% of businesses in the world. Which is why you need something different and trendy to set yourself apart and still win the game.
Inbound has the answers but are you ready to customize it for your own needs? Let us know your experiences with inbound marketing strategies in the comments section below.
