The term “Inbound Marketing” emerged in 2009 as an innovation by two specialists and researchers in the field of digital marketing, Dharmesh Shah and Brian Halligan, who laid out the basics of this strategy in their book titled: “Inbound Marketing: Get Found Using Google, Social Media, and Blogs.”
Also, the founders of HubSpot, one of the most famous companies offering Digital Marketing Tools & Software since 2006.

what does inbound marketing mean?

The word “inbound” is synonymous with “incoming,” and in essence, it means marketing by attracting the customer and letting them come to you voluntarily. This means that marketing with this strategy relies on using distinctive methods to attract the customer and engage in dialogue with them, so that they initiate the interaction with you due to their trust in you. This is contrary to traditional marketing methods, which sometimes rely on pushing the customer with the aim of convincing them to buy without any communication or constructive dialogue. Inbound marketing relies more on the Pull Strategy rather than the Push Strategy.

How do you attract the customer from the outset and engage with them so that they initiate the interaction or purchase?

The methods used, as implied by the book’s title, involve using social media, blogs, and optimizing your website for search engines. In other words, you need to be present online wherever the customer might search and on all digital marketing channels. You must have strong, engaging content that encourages interaction and communication. Therefore, inbound marketing is closely related to Content Strategy, and the term Content Marketing has emerged as the most important and fundamental part of any Inbound Marketing Strategy.

Inbound marketing:

also focuses on the post-sale stage. So, after attracting the customer, engaging with them, convincing them, and making a sale, how do you maintain communication with them to ensure their satisfaction and delighting.
In summary, inbound marketing is a better way to sell, market, and serve the customer. What is good for the customer will certainly be good for the business, leading to its growth and long-term development.

Inbound marketing:

is a comprehensive strategic approach aimed primarily at building customer trust in a company and enhancing long-term profitability by maintaining current customers and acquiring more customers using the internet as a means to achieve its goals.

The basic steps of inbound marketing?

1- Attract

In this stage, the focus is on attracting targeted traffic, not just any visits but those likely to convert into leads or real people. The inbound marketing strategy does not focus on quantity but rather on quality.
Here it is your role to reach out to him and communicate with him, through good content that targets this person wherever they may be. Be the one who has solutions to his problems, be the one who has the expertise to help him overcome these challenges.

What are the important tools in this stage?

Blogging:

Producing educational content that targets the ideal customer for you. For example, if you are selling “external surveillance cameras,” your target customer might be institutions, governments, and hotels. Here, we mean decision-makers in these establishments. You could be helping the hotel owner or the head of the technical support department at the hotel. Search for their problems and write about them. Help them improve their lives through your expertise. Be a partner in their success.

Social Media:

Each channel has its different uses. Focus on your customer and choose the appropriate channel for them and for the content you provide.

SEO:

You must use it to attract a targeted audience. Trust me, you won’t benefit if you have a high visit rate but don’t use it or if you have 10 million followers on Facebook. You will eventually realize that it is largely detrimental if they were not targeted from the beginning.

2- Convert:

Here you convert visits (prospects) from mere numbers and statistics into real people you can interact with. The simplest form of conversion is Email. Assuming you’ve done a good job in attracting targeted customers, let’s convert them into real people you can email, greet, and engage with.

What are the important tools in this stage?

Landing Pages:

These are pages that contain the magnet and often take the form of a Form + Download. Usually, they have fewer choices than those available on the website to avoid distracting the visitor.

Call to Actions:

These are used according to the action required from the visitor, such as (Click here to download this) or (Send now), and so on.

Contact Forms:

This is where the visitor fills in their information. Its forms and difficulty vary depending on the purpose. For example, if the purpose of filling it out is to imagine a book, it is not logical to request a lot of data at this stage. And vice versa.

3- Close:

This is simply converting the lead into a customer through various tools that encourage the lead to interact with your company. For example, sending a certain segment of leads a free consultation offer. In other words, converting a potential customer capable of buying into a customer who wants to buy, and here the sales task begins.

What are the important tools in this stage?

Email Marketing:

It is the most prominent and best tool in this stage. I know the bad reputation of email marketing and the amount of spam that has affected its reputation , but here we are talking about a customer who has become your friend for some time, and email is the only logical means of communication with him at this stage.

Personalization:

It is speaking to each customer individually, addressing their problems, and sharing their challenges, both in word and deed. This is your job!

4- Nurturing:

Your customer is your ambassador wherever they go. If you are looking for quick profit and see the customer as a revolving checkbook, know that they will not continue to deal with you and will not recommend anyone to deal with you. You must continue to build a strong relationship through strong and continuous content. And the important tools in this stage are all of the above! But continuously.