Inbound Marketing: An Insider's Look

Think about the last purchase you made.

Maybe it was a car or a new vacuum cleaner. Now, think of your process leading up to that purchase. Did you go into the dealership or store and pick out the first vehicle or vacuum you saw and then purchase it? More than likely not. You probably researched the item. Checked out websites. Read reviews. Asked friends for their opinions. You may have watched videos. Checked out the company's social media pages. Read a few blog articles. You may have researched through your computer at home. And, also used your smartphone for research. You probably thought a lot about your purchase beforehand. 

Inbound Marketing: An Insider's Look

So, what is inbound marketing? If you haven't heard of the term - click here to learn about it. As an Inbound Marketer, I wear many hats and have my hand in strategy as well as data, so it appeases both my creative and analytical side. We have a number of talented Inbound Marketers on our team at Leighton Interacive. As an overview, here is an insider's look at Inbound Marketing and some of the components it involves.

Buyer's Journey/Persona Research

(this is the digging in part to find out the details about who we are talking to - you)

• Research
• Interviews
• Journey creation

Blogging

(creating content to help you through your journey - finding out what you want to see)

• Content calendars 
• Writing content
• Editing/approving content
• Adding to the marketing platform (we use Hubspot as our inbound marketing tool)

Email Marketing

(getting the message you want to see right into your inbox)

• Planning & research
• eNewletters
• Segmentation
• Workflow set ups 

Offer Creation

(giving you offers to help with your purchase - this can be everything from creating ebooks to case studies to white papers and more!)

• Writing, planning, researching
• Landing pages, thank you pages and follow up emails 
• CTA (Call to Action) - the button on a website you click on to get the offer

Social Media Management 

(giving you access to updates and information that is valuable to you)

• Social media research and planning
• Getting messages out to followers
• Providing links to offers

Videos

(giving you visuals on what you want to see)

• Planning
• Analysis
• Placement

Feedback

(ensuring you have a platform for feedback)

• Surveys
• Review platforms
• Blog comments

Tips on getting customer feedback via social media. 

Website Review

(ensuring you have a place to go to 24/7 to get information)

• Provide the user what they are looking for
• Audits 
• Enhancements & optimize for the user 

Request a free website audit.

Monthly Reporting 

(reviewing the data on a regular basis to identify any areas for improvement)

• Review data/analysis from the month prior
• What's working
• Find any opportunities of things that can be done even better

Learn more about closed-loop reporting. 

SEO - Search Engine Optimization

(when you are looking up terms through search engines to make sure you can find the information you are looking for)

• Planning & research
• Keyword research
• Optimizing pages

 Learn a few great SEO tips.

Strategize. Implement. Analyze.

I challenged myself to think of three words that describe my role and the words that came to my mind were: strategize, implement, and analyze. In my role as a marketer, I help build strategies for the accounts I work on (alongside our cross-functional team who specialize in certain areas), we implement these strategies, and then we analyze the results.

Based on the results, we develop more strategies, implement those, analyze them, and repeat. The goal? To help you, the end user, with your decisions to earn your trust as a lifetime customer. 

I'M HERE AS A RESOURCE 

If you are a company looking to learn more about inbound marketing, I'd be happy to tell you more and get you in touch with our team at Leighton Interactive. If you are someone just looking to learn more about inbound marketing and what it's about, I'd be happy to connect on LinkedIn.