The Marketer’s Guide to the Galaxy

5 Types of Inbound Marketing

What is marketing? Well, a rather dry and dull answer is that, “Marketing is a business ethos that ensures focus on current and potential customers.” Our Marketer’s Guide to the Galaxy – 5 types of inbound marketing will give you more to go on than that.

What the heck does that even mean? Marketing can be dry and dull if you let it. But let’s just not. Here’s what it boils down to: your inbound marketing strategy can go completely off the charts of whatever we think marketing is.

In Douglas Adams’ book The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Arthur Dent is faced with the imminent destruction of his home planet. In his (understandable) panic, he fails to grasp that there is so much more out there than his little planet Earth. The same could be said for your current marketing strategy. You have probably thus far been cursed with tunnel-vision as to what you can do in terms of marketing. I’m here to tell you that there is so much more out there than just your what’s in front of you. Hence, The Marketers Guide to the Galaxy.

The Answer to the Ultimate Question of Marketing, the Universe, and Everything

What is the ultimate question in inbound marketing? You want leads, of course. Targeted, qualified, legit leads. Leads mean business, and business puts food on the table. Growing your business beyond your brick-and-mortar location and putting it out in the digital world is what is going to get you there. But remember this: you can’t put a line in the water without a worm on the hook.

What are 5 Types of Inbound Marketing?

Sure, marketing is a business ethos – a general principle that directs your company. But at the core, it’s about getting customer’s attention, and once you have it, doing something about it. Your company’s image is at stake – you cannot do your marketing halfway. The options are endless – it’s just a matter of what is best for the industry you are in, your audience, and your marketing goals. Including many different forms of marketing makes your company all the more attractive to potential customers.

Your website itself is what grabs the attention of your potential customer. If it’s well laid out, has all its working parts, and looks nice, people are going to stick around. Clean graphics and images, polished content, and clear design are the things that people notice. As stated above, you cannot do things halfway. Slapping together a shoddy website and hoping for the best isn’t going to cut it.

SEO

The content on your website itself is what keeps people interested – but you have to get them there in the first place. This means getting it to rank high on search engines by investing in organic search marketing (SEO). Say you have a construction company in Podunk, Minnesota. You want people who live in or near Podunk to be able to find you, right? You do this by tailoring your keyword-rich content to include terms that they might type into a search engine when looking for a company like yours. In the example of the construction company, you want to include terms such as: “contractors in Podunk Minnesota” and “construction companies in Podunk MN.” Get the idea?

Content Marketing

Content marketing encompasses a huge amount of components of marketing. It includes all written content – whether that is your website’s content, blogs, white papers, e-books, social media, and more. You may hear terms like content curation and content creation. When it comes to marketing, you want to create as much original, fresh and relevant content as possible – and make it easy to find. A well-written blog post or e-book can go a long way in establishing thought leadership and topic authority.

Email Marketing

Getting email leads is easy – anyone can get a list of email addresses. But when sending out your company emails, it’s imperative to capture the readers’ attention right away. This starts with engaging subject lines for your emails. You don’t want your emails to end up in your customer’s trash folder, unopened – that gets you nowhere. You are not “in the clear” once they open the email, however. For the reader to stick around, you need a layout that is pleasing to the eye; this includes color, graphics and amount of content. Calls to action are the bread and butter of email marketing, though. The end goal is to get the customer to click over to your site, creating an active lead.

5 Types of Inbound Marketing, This is just the beginning…

Getting leads isn’t just about having a website. Establishing, growing and cultivating your digital presence is where it’s at. Pouring every spare minute into your marketing strategy isn’t always feasible – or smart. So, it’s wise to have some help from someone who can guide you along the way. Our Marketer’s Guide to the Galaxy – 5 Types of Inbound Marketing, is a tool for you to take on your travels.

Our parting message is this: so long, and thanks for all the leads.