Through this post, we’ll take you through what you need to know about inbound marketing strategy for startups. We’ll discuss what inbound marketing is, the benefits of inbound marketing to your startup, and most importantly, the most effective inbound marketing strategies you can apply to help your startup grow! So do you want to know all about inbound marketing strategies for startups? Scroll through to learn all about it.
What is inbound marketing?
Before we begin, let’s define inbound marketing. Inbound marketing is essentially a strategic approach that entails creating valuable content to attract target customers and prospects and develop long-term relationships with them.
Your audience is looking for solutions to their problems, and it is up to you to tailor your content as a solution at each stage of the buying cycle. This content could be blog posts, e-books, webinars, social media posts, slideshare, videos, and so on.
Inbound marketing is all about being creative, connecting with your audience’s problems, and helping to solve them.
Inbound marketing strategy for startups: why is it necessary for them?
You may ask, “Why is inbound marketing necessary for your startup?” Isn’t traditional advertising enough? Well, the two types of advertising campaigns come with their own pros and cons. With content marketing, it can take a minute to see significant results. On the other hand, many startups tend to want quick, tangible results to grow their business rapidly. It might be something you would want for your business too.
However, there are some key benefits of inbound marketing for startups, so it is best for them to start investing in it as soon as possible.
The Stages of Inbound Marketing
By understanding the stages of inbound marketing, you can improve your website copy and land the right customers faster. The four stages are: attract, convert, close, and delight.
Stage 1: Attract
The first stage of inbound marketing is attraction. This stage is dedicated to finding and attracting the target audience. At this stage, you have to figure out the answers to these questions:
- How can I get people to find your website?
- Am I adding a lot of related keywords to the blog posts?
- Am I using targeted hashtags?
You need to answer these questions and make adjustments accordingly. That way, you can rank higher in Google searches and gain more visibility on your target audience’s social media feed.
Stage 2: Convert
When we talk about marketing, we often think about user conversion. After all, the ultimate goal of marketing is to find new users and “convert” them. This is mainly done by providing something in exchange for their contact details.
Stage 3: Close
Nurture your leads or prospects until they are ready to buy your product or service. This usually happens through mail or newsletters, as well as other channels such as social media marketing and even content marketing. One of the many ways to get to the final stage is through automation. For example, automatic emails that remind users about abandoned shopping carts can encourage a busy customer to return to your site and complete the purchase.
Stage 4: Delight
This is the last stage, and at this point, you can take steps to remind existing customers about your business. This step can help you build a loyal customer base and keep your startup going. You can take steps such as sending a thank-you note or personalizing follow-up emails. letters, discount offers, etc.
Inbound marketing strategy for startups: benefits
1. It’s cost-effective
One of the main challenges for any startup is limited capital, which often results in a limited marketing budget. On the other hand, mass external marketing such as advertising has become not only expensive but also highly ineffective in today’s digital marketing era.
This is where inbound marketing can be an affordable solution. As discussed, the basics of inbound marketing are content marketing and SEO, and both can be very affordable and even completely free if you do it all yourself.
Startups with limited marketing budgets can grow quickly by investing in inbound marketing.
2. Helps build credibility for your startup
One of the biggest challenges of starting a startup is that no one knows you, so it is naturally harder for startups to attract new leads and customers. Inbound marketing is all about consistently publishing high-quality, relevant content, and content is now the best way for us to build credibility as a leader and industry experts.
Marketing the right way can be a great way for startups to use social proof and get people to buy from them.
3. Produces sustainable results
Inbound marketing aims mainly at creating long-term relationships with consumers.
For example, when a blog post lands on the first page of a Google SERP, it can drive organic traffic for months or even years, even after it stops publishing. Compare that to traditional advertising, where you don’t feel any impact when you stop running the ad. Again, this will come down to the cost-effectiveness and ROI of your marketing process. When you can deliver relevant, high-quality content to your potential audience, the rest becomes easier.
4. It can attract the right traffic and prospects
While the main part of inbound marketing is building awareness, there is another important benefit: it is designed to attract the right traffic and leads that are right for your business.
Targeting is a key advantage of inbound marketing over traditional marketing channels, and by ensuring you get highly relevant and qualified leads, we can also improve the cost-effectiveness and ROI of your inbound marketing campaigns.
5. Enables effective communication
In today’s social media world, inbound marketing isn’t just about getting your content found by your audience. At the same time, we can listen to their conversations on social networks.
Inbound marketing strategy for startups: best strategies
1. Use video
Unless you have been living under a rock for a decade, you know for sure that we are in the video age.
Because it is engaging, it has become the focal point for almost all social platforms. And, when done correctly, video has the potential to attract and convert more customers in less time.
Starting with video is not as difficult or expensive as you might think. You can now create an entire video series with your iPhone. But before you point and shoot, make sure your story is correct.
2. Blogs are still in
We mentioned that video is the most popular medium. But that doesn’t mean every other medium is dead. Well, at least not yet. Sure, video is the most popular now. But still, blogging and written content are widely sought after and valuable. To get the eyes your content requires, however, you must create great content. Your content needs to be able to grasp the audience.
3. Build attractive, downloadable offers
Free downloads have been shown to generate leads that convert into sales in inbound marketing.
Make sure to create an appealing, downloadable piece of content that your audience actually wants. In this case, knowing who your ideal customer(s) is or are and what they want is incredibly important.
4. Social media
Social media is a tool that you cannot forget. It provides one of the easiest and most affordable ways to reach your ideal customers. However, to ensure that you can get results, you need to have a strategy for converting followers into leads. By using social media to increase your brand’s awareness, you can attract more ideal customers and generate more leads and sales.
5. Email marketing
Some think that email marketing is dead. However, that is definitely not true. Email is still one of the best and most effective tools for generating leads and converting them into sales. According to Litmus research, brands using email marketing can generate a 38-1 ROI. However, for the email to work during your startup, you need to have a well-thought-out plan. You need to know how to funnel leads from the top to the bottom of the funnel. The digital marketer offers a complete program called “New Email Tracking Machine.” It’s about email. Using email to convert more leads into paying customers
6. Use influencers to promote your content
Influencer marketing is booming! So how do you position your startup business to be more successful with the help of influencers? You are going to need to find the right influencers. While some influencers charge for promoted content, not all will. The key is to find influencers who have access to an audience full of your ideal customers. When you do, start creating content to share and tag them. But be strategic. You will need to give them a great reason to pay attention to your mentions and tags.
Wrapping up
There you go! We discussed all inbound marketing strategies for startups. You got the chance to learn the basics about inbound marketing, the stages of inbound marketing, and why your startup needs inbound marketing. Also, we presented the best inbound marketing strategies you can apply to your startup business. Through inbound marketing, you will be able to effectively increase visitors, leads, and buyers.