First things first, what is inbound marketing?
Inbound marketing is the innovative approach of attracting and engaging with potential leads in a way that instills brand trust and loyalty through online channels. With inbound marketing, the prospect finds you and signs up for more information. You can attract inbound leads with blogs, landing pages, and many other forms of online engagement.
Now, with that out of the way, let’s look at ways in which you can make inbound efforts work for your sales team.
Provide Valuable Content
Chances are that you have a website where prospects can find you online and chances are it contains a blog and other helpful resources. The content component of inbound marketing is very important because the most effective inbound marketing strategies rely on providing valuable content so that you establish yourself as an industry expert. Ineffective content leads to a less successful strategy because it does not provide value to the reader so they become disengaged. So, valuable content is the key to making your inbound efforts pay off.
Here are some posts that should help in crafting the content component of your inbound marketing strategy:
How to Maximize the Benefits of Content Marketing
Improve Your Marketing Strategy with a Blog
12 Most Common Misspelled (and Misused!) Words in Content Writing
Give Prospects Options
Now that you have some quality content, people are beginning to read it, which is great! However, you’re not seeing many people reaching out to you. Why could that be? Chances are it’s because there’s no easy way for them to sign up to receive more information from you. To circumvent this, provide things like CTA buttons, modal forms, live chat, etc. on your content pages to allow readers to connect with you directly instead of having to navigate away from the page in order to do so. This allows you to capture more leads and maintain engagement.
Here are some posts about opt-in forms to aid in creating the perfect way for prospects to ask for more information:
Best Practices for Choosing and Using an Online Form Creator
Why Your Opt-In Form Needs a Makeover
Online Forms 101: Design Basics
Follow-up Immediately
The moment a prospect fills out a form or reaches out to you in any way is when they are most engaged (and when they officially become an inbound lead!). Don’t waste this opportunity by waiting to respond to them — send something right away even if it’s a simple welcome message.
Here are some posts to help you ensure leads are engaged with right away:
What is the difference between a welcome email and a welcome flow?
Workflow Automation: How to Customize Your Buyer Journey
Include Automation
Following up and engaging with each inbound lead manually would be a time-consuming task. Instead of wasting precious time and resources on follow-ups, let automation take care of it for you. With automation, you can send drip campaigns to leads and, when they become engaged enough, your sales team can reach out personally to close the deal.
Here are some articles to help you find the right automation software to make inbound efforts work for your sales team:
Top 10 Reasons You Need To Use Inbound Marketing Software
Always Be Ready for Leads with Inbound Marketing Automation
Streamline Your Sales Process with Inbound Marketing Automation
SimplyCast’s all-in-one engagement platform has all the tools you need to optimize your process and make inbound efforts work for your sales team. Sign up for a free trial today and see how it could work for you!
