INBOUND ACCELERATOR

Email marketing is an important element in any inbound marketing program, especially for connecting with leads who convert on your website, in order to offer additional content and value that may lead to a completed sale. So what factors lead to effective use of email marketing for inbound?

In some professions, you have to do the dirty work to set up a project for success. Building the tallest skyscraper begins with making sure the ground is prepped and a solid foundation in place. Creating the most delectable dessert begins with making a mess in the kitchen. It takes some dirty work before the genius can be seen.

In marketing, it’s not so much dirty work as it is data work.

One key benefit social media has over many other types of marketing is its ability to engage followers in an interactive way. It is not just a passive medium.

And by engaging followers, you not only increase their involvement with your page, but also expand your exposure to others as their own contacts see when they like, comment or share your content.

Very few things in life, despite their labeling are truly “one size fits all.” More often, attempts to make one thing fit all possible users, the end result is more of a “one size almost fits most, but isn’t really a good fit for anyone.”

When it comes to inbound marketing content and offers, that same rule of thumb applies. If you try to create just one piece of content or one offer, and expect it to appeal to all of your customer personas, regardless of what stage of the buying cycle the individual is in, chances are the content or offer will fall flat for just about everyone.

You’ve seen the SEO “do” lists:

DO use keywords in headings.

DO use long tail phrases.

DO include complete meta data and mark up your pages with schema to improve how results are rendered. (Get the non-tech person’s cheat sheet to meta data here.)

Measurement is a key step in any successful marketing program. It is important to know the numbers in order to track performance of your overall marketing strategy, as well the performance of individual elements, so that you can increase the use of elements that work, and improve those elements that aren’t meeting expectations.

Along with metrics such as website traffic, social media followers and reach, and blog post views, you need to track the performance of your calls-to-action, including those that are part of emails, blog posts, website banners, and social media content.

It can be easy at times to focus on just one marketing channel at a time—focusing on your local media advertising when the TV or newspaper ad salesperson knocks on the door, but thinking about something totally different when you sit down to dedicate time to social media.

The problem is that when you do that, without considering an overarching marketing strategy, you may send mixed messages, or at the least, lose out on opportunities to make each of your channels work more effectively by building off the others.

According to a survey by Zazzle Media, marketers are finally becoming almost completely comfortable with content marketing and all that it entails.

Nearly 9 in 10 surveyed in 2019 say they feel their content marketing strategy is linked to all other parts of their business, compared to fewer than half of respondents just a year ago. The proportion of marketers who say they know the best practices for implementing content marketing has also jumped in the last year.

In B2B marketing, especially when marketing services such as technology solutions, project management, or consultation, decisions are not typically made the first time a prospect visits your website.

The decision to sign a contract with a vendor comes after much research and consideration in a buying cycle that can often take weeks or months — sometimes even longer. That means that pushing every contact or lead you get straight to sales is a waste of time (both for your sales team and for the contact, who may have just been starting the research process — after all, 8 in 10 business buyers do research before contacting a vendor).

In my last two articles in this series of lessons in marketing, I’ve talked about the importance of trust when dealing with finances and money, and the importance of understanding the science when marketing in the life sciences industry. Healthcare IT is another field in which decisions are made slowly, based on data and authority.