HOW TO KICK-START YOUR INBOUND MARKETING
Great Inbound Marketing requires a serious commitment to understanding your ideal customers and creating incredible content for them. While you don’t need to throw money at earning your customers attention – you do need to put your head and heart into it.
It starts with your customers
Get to know your ideal customers. Spend some time exploring who your customers are and what matters to them. Go into detail and then go further – the more customer characteristics you define, the greater the chances of you striking a relevant chord with your audience. Go beyond simple demographics and try to create actual personas complete with there ambitions, concerns, etc.
Who are you and why do you matter?
Why should potential customers listen to you?
You need to determine what makes you unique and compelling before starting to tell your story. Once you’ve defined who your customers are, you need to figure out the difference you can make in their lives and craft your content in a meaningful, relevant and helpful way.
Your recipe for marketing success
Create a list of content topics that match what your customers are looking for.
Keyword research will provide you with the specific search phrases your existing and potential customers are using and is a great starting point for mapping out a content plan.
Some primary research with existing customers can also give you great insight into the purchase process of potential customers, including their: research process; considerations; concerns; questions; decision making factors; etc. – all of which are great topics to build your content around.
After creating a “core” list of topics, I like to use a mind map to expand these individual topics into a range of article/resource headings I can use as a basis for content creation. These article headings often get worked and reworked multiple times to incorporate great long-tail keywords and entice reader engagement.
Your article headings should also determine the format of the offers you include in your content, e.g. Webinars, eBooks, Whitepapers, etc.
It’s all in the delivery
You have to share your content far and wide but more importantly you need to distribute great content via the delivery platforms your audience is using.
Over 3 billion Google searches happen every day so it goes without saying that you need to have some great fundamentals in place. Building a great website, incorporating a blog and integrating with the social channels your audience love should get your content moving in the right direction.
Create a Calendar
Create and execute an amazing content calendar.
Content creation requires planning and dedication. A schedule for the creation and distribution of your content is critical to ensure you continue to Attract, Convert, Close and Delight your audience with remarkable content.
