Inbound marketing provides improved service and tries to build trust by offering potential customers information they value via company-sponsored newsletters, blogs, and entries on social media platforms. (Wikipedia)

Whew!  Are you going, ahhhh. Not another thing to master? Or why do I even need to bother?

But you know what?  I bet you are already doing some of this and don’t even realize it.  Another way to say it– inbound marketing is about drawing customers to your products and services by using content marketing, social media, SEO and branding. As Coaches, Holistic Health Practitioners, and Entrepreneurs we like to share knowledge and help our clients.  Sharing is caring. And at its core– that’s exactly what Inbound Marketing is.

See what I mean, you are already doing at least one of these and probably more than one. The key is are you using them effectively to build awareness and attract new business.  

The benefits of inbound marketing are numerous when done effectively:

Shape your brand and influence customers future purchases

Increase social media shares and likes

Improve search engine optimization results

Get customers to know, like and trust 

But there is a smart way to manage your inbound marketing and ensure your clients are getting the content and help they need to be based on their customer journey.Have you ever just met someone and sent them a friend request on Facebook or Instagram. And, within seconds you get a request to like their business page?  Do you go— ICK! I don’t even know you that well. Yep, those spammy ways are really prevalent in this online world. People asking you to buy their product without even introducing themselves— it happens.  And, I’m not saying it’s necessarily wrong. It’s just not my style And, not something I recommend.

You’ve heard the phrase– Know- Like-Trust factor.  This is where managing your content strategy will help you build that relationship with your clients.  Based on where your client is in their journey with you— you utilize different content to foster that relationship.  Pretty simple. But step that a lot of folks don’t take the time to understand. They jump to making offers to strangers– which is a sustainable approach.

Strategies to use when you are trying to attract strangers or a cold market.  This is easily linked to creating and publishing content via your social media channel(s), blogs, podcasts that are relevant and provide intense value for your clients/customers. It can be topical to what’s going on in the world, seasonal, industry-specific. To ensure you are writing about topics your audience wants, a simple keyword research will help you understand related to your industry, niche, and ideas on how you can help your audience. If you are looking for keyword research tools that are free before you start paying for some of the other sites.

• Google’s Keyword Planner-  Keyword Planner is a tool that provides keyword ideas and traffic estimates to help you build a Search Network campaign. Search for keyword and ad groups ideas based on terms that describe your product or service, your website, or a product category related to what you’re advertising.
• Answer the Public-is a keyword tool that visualizes search questions and suggests autocomplete searches in an image called a search cloud.
• Wordstream Revamped Keyword Tool- they revamped it and made it faster, easier and more accurate tool. 

If you want your audience to find you invest in either learning the basics of SEO strategy or hire someone to manage this for you.  You want to be found through organic searches and the best way to do that is to fully understand and create a robust SEO strategy.

Engaging your audience is really targeted throughout the convert and attract stages of our inbound marketing strategy.  Think of this as they found me, now how do I really amp up the value I am providing them and provide added service to help them solve their key problems. You want to continue focusing on their problems and providing solutions through a free checklist, webinar, newsletters. 

Last is turning them into raging fans during the delight phase.  This is when they have bought services or your product and cannot wait until they hear from you again.  You can make sure you are connecting by actively listening to your audience, poppin a survey into your emails/social media channels, and fun chatbots.

To grow your business, you don’t have to do all of these tactics.  Pick one that fits your values, your skillset, and that you can commit to– and rock it!! Once you have it down, think about how you can automate the tasks or hire a VA–especially if this isn’t something you love.