I am very curious by nature, I like to take things apart and put them back together then break them and put them back together again. When I see something that I have not heard about I search out all the information that I can find.
Recently I saw the topic “inbound marketing” on several blog sites, a term that I had not heard before. If you read the first couple of sentences in this blog you already know what I did next – I did some research! Here are the five steps that make up “inbound marketing”:
- Create great content for a product or service.
- Optimize that content so that search engines all pick it up very quickly.
- Promote that content through social media, blogs, forums and other online services.
- Convert those people that visit your web site into customers!
- Analyze, analyze, analyze! Utilize a service such as Google Analytics to see what is working and what is not. Get good metrics in place to track everything about your campaign.
In other words, “inbound marketing” is what we do every day here at Anchor!
Once you complete the steps above, the fun really starts: looking closely at all of the pieces of the puzzle, taking them apart, then putting them back together again. Here are some tips for each of the steps:
Create – You’re excited about this product or service and your future customers should be too! Create dynamic content that grabs the interest of your target demographic.
Optimize – Utilize key words and other SEO techniques to rank higher in search engine rankings.
Promote – Tell everyone! Blast links to your content and talk about it on all of the social networks (Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Linkedin…etc.). You want people to know? Then get the word out!
Convert – Turn people who hit your web site into customers! Make it easy for them by giving them a clear call to action: buy now!
Analyze – This part is tedious, but one of the most important parts of “putting everything back together.” It is in this process that you learn that the red “buy” button seems to be working much better than the blue “buy” button, or that any “buy” button works better if it is placed higher on the page.
If you were to put this into a drawing it would look something like this:
If you’d like, take this system apart and put it together again piece by piece – for almost any marketing situation. Better yet, give us a call here at Anchor and let us help!
