INBOUND ACCELERATOR

We’ve talked in the past about setting goals and “doing the math” — you can’t know if you are succeeding, if you don’t know how to define success — but there is another step to take that has a similar ring to it:

You can’t sell if you don’t know who you are selling to.

Who is your marketing content talking to? Who is PR reaching? And what message does sales need to target to maximize ROI and bring in the most profitable customers?

If those targets and message don’t align from one department to another, you have a problem. While there are different types of alignment (here’s a look at aligning goals and expectations between departments), aligning the main message across all departments in order to focus on the best possible customers can be achieved by first creating solid buyer personas.

One of the first questions to consider when creating a marketing strategy or any individual piece of content to fuel that strategy should be this:
Who am I trying to reach?

Who are your customers? What are their needs? How do they like to get information? What is most important to them in making a purchase decision? What prevents them from buying?

Pop quiz: Who is your best customer?

5 … 4 …. 3 … 2 …

As marketers tackle branding—whether introducing a completely new brand or rebranding an existing company, product or service—the most focus is rightly on defining what the brand means. But there is another step that too many people overlook: defining the customer.

Who is buying your product or service?

When planning a complete inbound marketing campaign, it is essential to plan out the content you will use at every step along the way.

There are a lot of moving parts to keep track of when creating a new brand identity.

Planning your inbound marketing content starts with an overall strategy, but then involves determining precisely how to present each message or collection of information.

Improve the results of your content by considering how your intended customer’s brain processes different formats.

Developing inbound marketing campaigns requires carefully planning content for each stage of the sales funnel (aka buyers journey). Regardless of which specific method of segmenting you use (see three ways to consider the sales cycle here) the first level of content most prospects encounter will be designed to build awareness and introduce readers to your key areas of focus.