Miami Web Design Agency

Although they were many and drastic changes that Internet generated in the Marketing techniques, in recent times one of the most significant changes was conceived: the Inbound Marketing.

Traditionally, the orientation of the various marketing techniques was from the company to potential clients, breaking into their daily life. The Inbound Marketing is here to change it: now the clients come to our company, attracted by solutions to their problems and needs.

This not so new technique (born several years ago by Brian Halligan) made radically change the orientation in which marketing flows.

Traditionally, the orientation of the various marketing techniques departed from the company to potential clients, breaking into their daily life. The Inbound Marketing is here to change it: now are the clients who come to our company, attracted by solutions to their problems and needs.

What Is Inbound Marketing?

For decades we have used marketing techniques that we have inherited from our parents and grandparents: advertisements in magazines, radio and television ads, mailings (promotions through traditional post), brochures, catalogues, Public Relations, Telemarketing. All the effort of these techniques was orientated from your company to your potential customers in an increasingly strong attempt to capture the  their attention and transform them into final clients.

With the advent of Internet the techniques altered slightly. It continued with the traditional strategy to seek out potential clients with marketing arsenal, but changing the "ammunition":  massive promotional emails, advertising on online directories, web banners paid, click payments and payments for search engines views.

This is known as the Outbound Marketing or, in other words, the marketing that comes from the company, aimed at potential clients.

Currently these techniques are becoming less effective for one simple reason: people are tired (worn-out in some cases, including this writer) of the constant publicity invasions to their everyday life. What are their potential clients starting to do? Just blocking them or ignoring them more and more. No one looks in the Yellow Pages for specific service neither is paying enough attention to the ads.

Internet is becoming increasingly important at the time to fill the needs of not only entertainment or education, but solutions to problems or needs of both business and personal.

It was like this as the Inbound Marketing emerged. Its concept is to alter the direction of flow marketing techniques, guiding them to be there, where the potential client searches for a solution to his problem or need, simply letting him to locate us. It is no longer the company that makes efforts to attract the attention of the Ideal Clients, breaking every day with more aggression in their daily lives, but simply one wants to be present there where any person who has some problem or need to cover, will look for the solution.

• Outbound Marketing or outgoing marketing
  
  • Telemarketing,  mail, trade sales, massive emails, advertisements in magazines commercials in television / radio.
  • Your company looking for potential clients .
  • Capture the attention of the people and create o not their need.


• Inbound Marketing or incoming marketing
  
  • Internet search engines (Google principally), bloggsfera and social Networks.
  • Potential clients searching for your company.
  • The people already have the need, simply it is necessary to be there where they look for a solution.

To understand clearly the concept, let’s see a simple example:

Let's suppose that you plan to go with your family for vacations to Buenos Aires. You have never been you do not know anybody. What do you do? You resort to Internet. Searching in Google you find an article on a blog of a Hotel in Buenos Aires. It explains what activities perform in that city, very useful information for you. Navigating a little more, you discover another excellent article in the same Blog: "Tips to enjoy Buenos Aires in family.” THAT is exactly what you planned to do and what you needed, so you don’t read it but you consume it in less than 2 minutes. Then you leave a comment on this article, consulting on more information about a particular activity. Within a few minutes they respond, providing more detailed information.

What will be the first place to consider staying with your family when you travel to Buenos Aires? There is no doubt that it will be this magnificent hotel that gave you so much information, very useful for you. "They know what one has to do with his family in Buenos Aires, it would be an excellent idea that I stay with them.” 

What has happened is Inbound Marketing. You found the article on Google, you were the one who entered the web site of the Hotel and it was you who auto- became convinced to stay there.

What are the techniques of the Inbound Marketing?

We have analyzed the change in the direction in which the marketing techniques flow in the Inbound Marketing. But what are these techniques?
Inbound Marketing techniques meet certain main characteristics:

• They are made through the Internet.
• Most of them are free to carry out but they require considerable time and effort.
• Derive traffic of a high conversion. What does this mean? Visitors who come to us through these techniques, have a greater predisposition to buy than a regular visitor.

The Inbound Marketing has the following areas:

• Blogging
  By creating articles orientated to the solution of  problems, doubts or needs of your Ideal Clients.


• Search Engine Optimization
  Optimize such articles to rank in Google, as well as the various sections of your website.


• Email Marketing
  By a subscription box on your blog and Facebook, you can develop a large database of clients and potential clients, by sending them all your Inbound Marketing material directly into their email boxes, to trigger in them interest for your products or services by a solution to a particular need or problem.


• Social Media
  Interact with clients and potential clients through various social networks. Currently the most popular are Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. The strategy of your company in these networks must be like a help place or people to turn to when in doubt, problems or needs. 
  You should be there and solve such concerns for free. Everything returns, Inbound Marketing in the long term, rewards.


• Word of Mouth
  Help free to others and they will help you. Let the word of mouth run and spreads. Stimulate it creating articles, sharing experiences, helping to solve problems, grant and make public your knowledge. Will be awarded.


• Webinars
  Webinars are an immense source of future Clients. A Webinar is a course online, simple as that. The difference is that the assistants to the course are not physically present, but the attendance is online. Do courses online or webinars on your products, on various special techniques, share your best kept professional secrets and your Webinars quickly will overflow of assistants.
  Worried because your competition will find out those secrets? Who cares? If all is in the Internet, you just have to look for it, I assure you those most important professional secrets that you have are and they are public for months or even years. Do not have secrets; share everything as we do in FJ Solutions with these articles.


• Infographics
  We all like Infographic. They are simple, you read and the information is clear and simple in the eyes of most neophytes.
  The infographic are just graphics about certain topic or problem or need 


• Public Relations
  Public relations are just the Facebook led to real life. Socialize with friends, acquaintances, colleagues. Share information and try to help as many as possible. The Inbound Marketing will reward you either with real clients or referrals.


• Questions and answers websites
  Many web sites are of questions and answers, in where the potential clients leave their doubts or problems about their products or services right now. You simply have to be there and answer them. This will grant you new visitors and contacts.
  The ones I like best are Yahoo! Answers y LinkedIn Answers.


• Forums
  Enter the principal forums in your field and begin to interact with colleagues and potential clients. Comment, participate, answer and also ask.
  As I said to you: the Inbound Marketing is free, but requires dedication and time.

Which are the benefits of Inbound Marketing?

The Inbound Marketing has great benefits for your company, both in attracting new clients and also in reducing the cost to attain them.

• Does not require large budgets
  Although it takes time and dedication, the Inbound Marketing does not require large amounts of money to carry it out. It simply requires ideas and some time to implement them.


• More efficient
  The traditional marketing loses day by day, more efficiency due to the constant advertising invasion to the life of potential clients. As if this were not enough, potential clients who leave us are people not very interested because they were attracted by several techniques that aroused their interest. Many of these people do not even have the need of our solution.
  The Inbound Marketing, on the other hand, not only does not invade the lives of people, but it also provides potential clients with a high conversion rate because they are people who currently have the need or problem (for this reason they came to us) and saw in us the solution.


• Goods, not costs
  When you create useful content, really useful and focused on your Ideal clients, then you will be creating a good. Why do I say a good? Because the solution in the form of content (a video, a presentation, an article on your blog) will  be forever circulating and "working" on the Internet, over the months and years.
  But if you make an advertisement on a radio or television program for example: How much time lasts the advertising? How much time is it working?
  The time you invest in creating Inbound Marketing’s solutions is not used once and then discarded, but it remains in continuous operation.

If we consider that the Inbound Marketing requires little capital investment, is more efficient and what one creates is always working sending us potential clients interested in our solutions ... What are you waiting for to change from the old Marketing to  the Inbound Marketing?

How to start implementing the Inbound Marketing in your website?

The first thing you need to do is identify your Ideal Customer.

By having the Profile of your Ideal Client you will become aware of those problems, doubts and needs he currently has, as well as where is he on the Internet: what browser does he use? (Google, Bing, Yahoo!), is he taking part in Forums? Does he use Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn? Does he read their mails through Smartphone?

Once you are aware of what your Ideal Clients need and where and how are they looking for, it is time to think about your Content Generation Strategy.

Apply the various Inbound Marketing techniques previously detailed. Do not spend time in places where your Ideal Clients are not, start with the places they frequent most.

As your business gains more clients and the increase in your revenues allows you to hire more staff, you’ll begin to have more free time. This will result in a new Stage. At first, you went to those places where your clients were ... in this new phase, you should visit new places to experiment with the techniques of Inbound Marketing.

Surely will be a surprise, maybe you’ll change the direction of your business and need to change the form or characteristics of your products and/or services. Why, you ask? Because I assure you that you’ll find a new Ideal Client much more profitable than you could ever have imagined.

Take 5 minutes and assimilate this new information you are beginning to know. Think of the time and resources currently being invested in the Outbound Marketing and the results that have been obtained.

Think carefully.

Finally I want to leave with a question that I’ve done to me often: Traditional marketing is dead or still has life?