5 Ways to Generate Inbound Marketing Leads

According to HubSpot, Inbound marketing is a business methodology that attracts customers by creating valuable content and experiences tailored to them. While outbound marketing interrupts your audience with content they don’t always want, inbound marketing forms connections they are looking for and solves problems they already have.

 Now that consumers can easily research and find solutions that align with their needs and values, your sales process must adapt. This is important because 57% of a buyer’s decision-making process is already completed before a potential customer decides to speak with your sales team.

It’s important to adapt to a new way of selling by aligning your sales and marketing team to deliver a better customer experience through the use of inbound marketing. Inbound marketing is the most effective approach for converting web traffic into loyal customers.

Take a look at the inbound methodology graphics below. You can see the process and the tools used to “attract a stranger” then turn them into a “delighted promoter.” This approach is designed to engage with a buyer persona and to pull that specific audience toward your brand through the creation of quality content that adds value to them. It’s about empowering them through the sales “flywheel” and continuing to delight them through the use of content even after they’ve become customers. This value means that inbound marketing will be better than outbound marketing to deliver more qualified leads and a better ROI for your business. It also indicates that these customers will ultimately help drive future growth of your business.

Generate an increase in qualified leads by including these 5 important inbound marketing tactics in your marketing strategy.

1. Content Marketing – Help your business get found online by creating awesome content. Think fresh, relevant and original content for the most success. Here are some proven content marketing ideas that may work well for you:
   1. Educate potential leads with an eBook
   2. Hold a webinar that would provide value to your audience
   3. Create a white paper or guide
   4. Write case studies that your audience can relate to
   5. Blog, blog, blog – write posts that help customers find answers
2. Social Media Marketing – An inexpensive way to attract qualified leads. You can do organic and paid marketing on social media. Content can also be promoted through groups or sponsored ads.
   1. Share links of gated content like eBooks or white papers
   2. Run contests to attain leads and participants can share for even further reach
   3. Consider running a ‘lead generation’ ad through Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn
3. SEO – An ESSENTIAL component to ensure visibility of your website and its content on search engine results pages.
   1. Optimize your homepage and all content by using the right keywords
   2. Claim online listings to drive traffic and rank higher in search engines
   3. Build a blog, post consistently, and optimize every blog post
   4. Use Alt tags for your images so Google can identify them
   5. Use Google Adwords with these best practices
4. Website Design – Be sure you have call-to-action (CTA) elements located on one or more of your website pages to have the ability to convert a website visitor to a lead.
   1. Add CTA forms to pages that get the most traffic and your home page
   2. Measure the performance of each lead generator using website grader, to evaluate your lead generation sources and receive feedback on ways to improve your existing content.
   3. Offer eBooks for download on specific blog posts
   4. Develop a live chat service for your website
   5. Put leads into a ‘nurture’ workflow so once they fill out a form on your lading page they don’t forget about you, and deliver them valuable content that matches their interest.
5. Email Marketing – It’s not the old-fashioned lead generation method if you do it right!
   1. Send an email newsletter with high-value, relevant content
   2. Set up a ‘drip campaign’, a series of triggered emails when a visitor takes a specific action
   3. Gate some of your email content so a reader has to click on a landing page to receive the gold nugget of content.
   4. Make your emails shareable

In a nutshell, inbound marketing is all about getting found when a prospect is looking for you. The above ideas all include consistent ways to share your expertise and knowledge to help attract these prospects to your business, then to nurture them until they become a customer.

Unsure of where to begin? Need a marketing partner to help get you started or to help you set up some of these elements? As a Gold Tier HubSpot Partner Agency, we do offer HubSpot Portal Workshops and for anyone who uses social media, we offer Facebook & Instagram Ad Creation Workshops in our Marketing Training Room. Check out our Fall Schedule or set up a one-on-one consult by contacting us today!