FAQ Friday: 4 Key Marketing Tips using the Inbound Methodology

Marketing is always changing, constantly evolving and innovating new ways to attract customers. In today’s FAQ Friday, let’s take a moment to look back at the inbound methodology and four key marketing tips to effectively use inbound for your business.

How does engagement heavily influence my marketing strategy?

Engagement is the driver of your marketing machine. After all, if you don’t have engagement you don’t have much in the digital world. The importance of this lesson is the types of engagement you want to create and ways you can engage with your audience. Here is a list, in no particular order, on some ways you can start creating engagement with your audience:

• Blog: Create blog posts that address the pain points of your audience as well as tips on how to solve them.
• Email: Use email to deliver personalized messages right into your audience’s inbox.
• Live streaming: With Facebook live and Periscope, host live Q&A sessions, giveaways, or even a behind the scenes of your brand.
• Podcasts: Host interviews on key topics in your industry that your audience is interested in.
• Social Media: Be human by being sociable and joining in on the conversation using one or more of the following platforms:
  • Google+
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
• Surveys: Get insight into your brand by capturing customer testimonials and other insight about their entire interaction with you and your brand.
• Videos: Be visually informative by creating an entertaining and educational video series for your audience.

A great brand is a story that’s never completely told. A brand is a metaphorical story that connects with something very deep – a fundamental appreciation of mythology. Stories create the emotional context people need to locate themselves in a larger experience.—Scott Bedbury

Tips to boost your engagement:

• Avoid asking everything at once! No one likes to be inundated with questions, requests, or tasks you ‘need’ them to take care of so ‘you can continue to help them.’
• Develop an engagement strategy. Do you want to increase engagement on a particular distribution channel, or are you looking to drive traffic to your website, blog, or a specific piece of content? This is where strong and structured goals come into play. Always keep your strategy and goals in line with each other. That way, all your marketing efforts will directly contribute to achieving your goal.
• Promote! Promote subscriptions to your blog, email list, podcast, or other channels. This also includes cross-platform social media invites.

What is the importance of frequency on my marketing strategy?

Frequently posting new information to your audience is so crucial especially in regards to engagement building. If you are looking to get an audience that comes back to your website or social media, give them something to come back to. For example, if you can only get out new material once per week or once per month, schedule it for the same day of the week or same day of the month so that visitors know when to expect new content from you.

The easiest way to turn off your community members is to broadcast the same message across multiple channels. Instead, determine the kind of content that interests the members of your community in a way that is useful to them.—Joe Pulizzi

Tip on how to establish frequency in your strategy:

• Build consistency. Whether it’s once a month or twice a week, building that consistency with your audience is equal to building a steady relationship with your audience. Meaning, if they expect you to give them X,Y, and Z on your website, their email, or social media once a week, then be sure to show up for your audience by providing them with that content.
• Create a posting schedule. Posting more than once per week is ideal. So grab a calendar and create a schedule that works for your team. And, be sure to share your schedule with your audience. That way they know when and where your content will be available online.

How do I effectively create marketing solutions for my business?

Marketing is not what it used to be. Your content must be innovative, educational, and creative. There is a content overload epidemic attacking the content consumer, and as marketers we have to excel at presenting interesting, accurate content that is presented to the right person, and the right time.

Tip on choosing effective marketing tactics for your strategy:

• Think of your brand as an education playground, not a megaphone. With marketing tactics, choose different elements that keep your tone and style consistent across the board.

How do I effectively outreach, connect, and engage with my audience?

Your audience is paramount in your content marketing and inbound marketing success. Understanding your audience is even more crucial. Focus on content and its relationship to the needs and pain points of your audience.

Your content should speak to them in a way that addresses their concerns while delivering it via their preferred channel of communication and on their optimal timeline.

The most exhausting thing you can be is inauthentic.– Anne Morrow Lindbergh

Tips on how to know if you are in fact engaged with your audience:

• Find out if your content satisfies the needs of your audience. This includes your customers, leads, and all others who come into digital contact with your brand.
• Consider your audience members that have a parallel life to the services or products related to the content that you are creating. In fact, always keep details like this at the forefront of your content creation.

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