INBOUND ACCELERATOR

The core principle behind inbound marketing for B2B brands — whether in healthcare, technology, software or others — is that the content created is designed to have value to prospects and customers. It is not strictly focused on selling something, but rather on teaching or reaching leads in a way that shows how they can best use your product or service to improve their own bottom line.

Inbound marketing is focused around a few seemingly simple steps to generate online leads:

1. Write blog posts that address customer pain points to boost SEO and attract visitors.

2. Further promote those posts through social media.

3. Use posts to link to downloadable content and other offers gated behind landing pages, capturing lead information from the landing page forms.

Sounds simple, but there are plenty of potential stumbling blocks along the way.

If you were to write a Christmas wish list for your marketing department, what would it include?

I envision mine as a “12 Days of Christmas” style countdown, that combines to create a fantastic inbound marketing campaign, all in one neat package and ready to go.

It’s December 5 - how many times have you heard your favorite (or most-hated) holiday song?

While a partridge in a pear tree sounds romantic as a gift, and I don’t know of many people who would turn down five gold rings, some of other gifts bestowed in those infamous 12 days are more than little over-the-top.

A key component to a complete inbound marketing campaign is the downloadable asset or offer. It is this piece of valuable information, insight, or assistance that triggers conversion and online lead generation.

In order to generate online leads with downloadable content offers, you have to create offers that have a strong appeal and value to your prospects. Makes sense, right?

I’ve said all along that inbound marketing requires valuable content, but what content is most valuable to your prospects today? What offers will entice them to convert from a visitor into a lead?

We know from years of surveys that generating website traffic is always a challenge and a top priority for marketers. You’ll find it listed in the State of Inbound 2017 report created by HubSpot, and in the 2016 report, and in the same reports for years before that.

With 4 of 5 consumers (and a similar number of business leaders) saying they would rather watch a video about a product than read text (more on that here and here), it just makes sense to put videos in places that make the most of your automated lead nurturing: your lead nurturing emails.

Consider this:

• Three in five executives would rather watch a video about a product than read text.

• Emails with embedded video thumbnails had a 300 percent boost in click-through rates for Wistia, compared to those with plain images.

Translation: You can improve the effectiveness of your automated lead nurturing emails by incorporating video.

Lead generation is essential. But it isn’t enough. While increasing the overall number of leads generated through inbound marketing should increase sales based on sheer volume, it can also set up your sales department to chase more dead ends, unless you are also scoring leads and qualifying them to pinpoint those most likely to be successful sales.