Attract, Engage, Delight: The Inbound Marketing Methodology Explained

1. Introduction to Inbound Marketing

Outbound marketing is often characterized by traditional advertising methods such as cold calling, TV commercials, and print ads. Inbound marketing on the other hand is focused on attracting customers through valuable content and personalized experiences. This approach contrasts sharply with traditional marketing methods that often rely on interruptive tactics by instead focusing on building relationships and creating meaningful engagement with potential clients.

Inbound marketing strategies are based on the 3 stages of attracting, engaging, and delighting customers, which creates a holistic approach to building lasting relationships.

2. The Attract Stage: Strategies for Drawing in Your Audience

Let’s start with the first stage of the inbound methodology: the Attract stage. The attract stage is all about drawing in your audience. After all, it’s going to be difficult to sell them on your product if they never cross paths with your website or social media channels. The strategies and tactics you use during this first stage are all about helping potential customers find your brand, because, in the famous words of Will Rogers, “You never get a second chance to make a first impression.” It’s important that the first impression attract a potential customer to keep learning more about you, and inbound marketing can help you achieve that goal.

Content creation is a huge part of the Attract stage, and the content you develop should be informative. People don’t want to be sold to – they want to be educated. They want solutions to their problems and information that is relevant and helpful to them. Quality content helps create a connection with an audience, especially if they see that you’re willing to share free advice. Some strategies for the first stage of inbound marketing are SEO and social media in particular. SEO can help make your company more visible in Google, making it easier for potential customers to come directly to you.

SEO is a big part of Inbound marketing, but it can also include content marketing, social media engagement, and targeted advertising strategies that help to attract potential customers.

3. The Engage Stage: Techniques to Keep Your Audience Interested

Personalised communication is at the heart of the Engage stage.

Once you have already attracted potential customers through informational materials, the next stage is engaging them. Keep in mind that they don’t necessarily want to speak to a salesperson at this point, and many of them may be in the research phase for months before making a decision. Getting to “know” your audience, giving examples that resonate with them, and connecting with them emotionally are effective tools to get your audience engaged.

Interactive content

Adding elements that get the user involved in your materials is also helpful. The more involved they are, the longer they are spending time with your website or other materials. Whether it’s a form for them to download materials or a tool they can use right on your page, it’s helpful to your audience and sets the stage to show you can solve their problem.

User experience

Building reports or white papers to give actionable next steps are also crucial. Rather than providing a high-level overview, get your audience comfortable working with you. Audiences see the value in working with a company that makes complex things easier for them, and these types of engagements let the audience see you can deliver that value.

In the Engage phase, it’s essential to be focused on moving your ideal customers into the next, and final, phase of inbound marketing. This is the advocate phase, which involves turning these customers into your biggest fans. After-sale experiences and offers to “introduce us to your employer” for a referral commission are just two of the many offers that can be implemented during the engage phase. Don’t get complacent in this phase and rest on your laurels, though. The Engage phase is also ripe for bounce-back promotions and continuous contact.

4. The Delight Stage: Building Customer Loyalty and Advocacy

The third and final stage of the inbound methodology is Delight. It’s all about building customer loyalty and advocacy as a business. At this point, your customers have made a purchase and need to be reassured that they have made the right decision. After that, it’s all about nurturing and retaining them for ongoing purchases or repeat business. Consistent, post-purchase engagement is the key to making this stage successful. This stage covers more than just customer support. It also involves loyalty programs and nurturing customers to become brand advocates. To delight customers and effectively execute the Delight stage, inbound businesses focus on being helpful, continuing to work to deliver exceptional customer experiences, staying connected, and listening to and acting on customer feedback.

5. Case Studies and Examples of Successful Inbound Marketing Campaigns

There are several amazing companies and individuals doing exceptional inbound marketing. Five that particularly impress us are:

1. AdRoll is a great example of a multichannel social inbound marketing strategy. They share blog articles, case studies, webinars, and posts from their team across a variety of social networks. They also use SlideShare and video content. One e-commerce company saved $51 for every dollar they spent with AdRoll.

2. BufferApp is a content marketing powerhouse. Their blog posts are shared and re-shared across the world daily. They work with some of the biggest influencers in the industry. On average, the number of unique visitors to the blog each month has grown 10% month over month for 113 consecutive months. The blog now sees over a million people visit it each month.

3. Shopify is a great example of how to use and gate content. You have to ‘sign up for a free trial’ to access the (20-minute) webinar. Shopify’s main blog focuses mainly on innovative e-commerce businesses and appeals to business owners, while tutorials in their Help Center target people searching for technical support. With plans starting at $29 per month, more than 500,000 people use Shopify to sell online.

4. BuildDirect is a phenomenal example of the impact of a successful content strategy. Their blog’s traffic is a fourth of their entire website’s traffic. Their latest blog article received 3369 views, 60 shares with a bounce rate of only 57.23% while the average time on page was 2 minutes and 27 seconds. Their traffic is mostly North American, and the site is earning a whopping 11% conversion rate on organic content traffic. Busy, the blog attracts 2.5 million visits a month and 400+ million monthly page views, double its closest competitors.

Interested in Inbound Marketing?
First you need an inbound platform like HubSpot – let’s talk

So hire an agency first to understand how to do it effectively and in a way that benefits your business. Contact us here