Session 14: All about digital inbound marketing

In session 14 of A Marketing Podcast I discuss what digital inbound marketing is from a comprehensive, full life-cycle, point of view. I dig into each section of an inbound marketing campaign, from advertising to ROI calculations.

Session 14: Show Notes

What is digital inbound marketing?

The use of content/value proposition to provoke a user’s interest and conversions through a conversion mechanism.

Can you do inbound marketing offline?

You can do it, however the idea behind inbound and allowing users to self serve on your content is much easy in the digital world. For example, things like catalogs for potential customers to take home and do their own research would be a form on inbound marketing. Typically this kind of offline tactic promotes an online action anyway.

The elements of a digital inbound marketing campaign

* Driving traffic to your campaign – advertising

* Your landing page – designed specifically for an inbound campaign

* A conversion mechanism – typically a form

* A value proposition – used to provoke conversion

* A thank you page – more important than you might think

* An email followup / sequence – capitalize on your conversion

* Tracking and reporting your campaign’s progress

Developing your campaign

Devise a very specific message or subject matter. I recommend starting with just one message and one landing page.

Once you get the first inbound campaign under control, you can develop additional messages and landing page.

Driving traffic to your campaign

Essentially two ways to drive traffic.

Advertising

* All sorts of online advertising can be used to generate traffic to your landing page

* Type of advertising depends on your marketing strategy

* Consider display advertising, and when you do, ensure that your creative on banners matches the messaging and offers that are on your landing page

Free and Organic

* Using methods that require no financial requirements

* Email list – send a link to your list

* Social media – post in your streams

* Webinars/podcasts

* Etc

Your landing page

This is where all the magic happens!

The landing page is the hub of your inbound marketing campaigns.

Keep it simple, so simple you should do the following:

* Remove your website’s main navigation from the page

* Remove any elements that are not  related to the core messaging of the page

* Remove any links that are not conversion links (trackable)

* A footer should have nothing but your copyright and company name

A Conversion Mechanism

The idea of an inbound campaign is to get conversions, or leads. The best way to do this is through a web form that provides as fewer fields as possible.

The best combination is simply:

* First name

* Email address

You could just do email, but I like to personalize my emails and having a first name allows me to do just that.

Depending on your campaign’s objectives and your business, you may add additional fields that are important to your customer profile information, and that your customer won’t see as a huge barrier to giving you their email.

Such as:

* Company name

* Title

* Maybe it’s truck type (if you’re a truck accessory business running a campaign)

A Valuable Proposition

You’re only going to get conversions through your inbound campaign is what you’re offering is worth giving your email for.

It doesn’t have to be a downloadable document, although they work well, it could simply be an offer that’s only available to those who signup through your landing page.

At a marketing podcast I have a several value propositions to ...