Both more experienced inbound marketers, and those new to the field, will benefit from understanding the key factors behind an inbound marketing strategy. Here are 9 strategic essentials you should know.
If you’re already a fan of inbound marketing and know exactly why and how to run an effective strategy, then this article on the essentials of an inbound strategy will help you take your marketing to the next level.
But if you’re not quite sure what Inbound marketing is and why you need it, this post will help you get a bit more background information first.
Download our free infographic that’s packed with practical tips for successfully implementing each essential element outlined in this blog.
Inbound Essential One: Planning
Without knowing where you’re going, you’ll never get there. Great inbound marketing needs to start with a good reason for why you’re doing what you’re doing. Are you planning to win more sales? Create more brand awareness? Win the hearts and minds of your existing customers so they are more likely to choose you again, come renewal time? All of these, and many more strategies are a great starting point. The important thing is that you start with a plan in mind.
Once you’ve decided where you want to go, don’t stop there. A large part of planning is content planning. Content decides when and how you'll deliver your message. Here's where consistency is key. A regular stream of valuable content, be it weekly articles, monthly newsletters, social media posts or even a mix, keeps your audience engaged and coming back for more. Try different content formats, like infographics, reels or videos, and track the results to see what resonates best with your audience. Embrace a content calendar that accommodates various content types. Schedule evergreen content (topics with long-lasting relevance) alongside timely pieces that capitalise on current trends. Curating valuable content from other sources can also fill the gaps and keep your audience engaged.
Read more about how to curate content.
Helpful Spitfire Tip:
Make sure that the inbound agency you choose to work with has a rigorous process to understand your brand, help you define your strategy, and plan your content. Make sure you're comfortable working with them. Trust is a critical element of success.
Inbound Essential Two: Goals - Setting them, Measuring them
Part of your strategy is about setting goals, and measuring what you’re doing against those goals.
These goals underpin the tactics that you are using to engage with your buyers personas. Start with a guideline / benchmark – e.g. email open rate in your industry – and then measure yourself against those goals.
Then constantly assess whether you’re on track to meet those goals, or whether they need to be re-evaluated. In most marketing and sales environments, people do monthly reports. However, a month in the inbound world is already a long time. Weekly evaluation can’t be underestimated. The ongoing management of an inbound campaign has to happen every day – so you can constantly be optimising and improving your approach.
If your inbound marketing agency isn’t coming to you regularly, getting approval for changes that need to be made, you’re wasting time. And time is money.
Helpful Spitfire Tip:
Set goals, then evaluate them. Check them every single day. Research has shown that marketers who check their metrics more than three times a week are far more successful than those who check weekly, or even monthly. Seeing how you're doing, regularly, also reminds you (and your team) about what you're trying to do. It keeps you focused on what's important.
Inbound Essential Three: Your Customers
It’s also critical to know who your target audience is (who you’re trying to attract) and have an idea of what you want them to do once they’ve read all your awesome content. Start by defining your ideal customer – and your less than ideal customers, and turn these into personas. Your personas will look at the personality traits of who you really want to convince to buy your product or service. The next step is to think about what you want them to think, feel and do once they’ve come across every single element of your marketing: this will help you stick more clearly to your strategy, and create a consistent message. Here are few helpful hints about buyer personas and how to create them.
Helpful Spitfire Tip:
You might actually find that you have more of your less-than-ideal customers at the moment. That's okay. But if you don't want any more of them in future, change the language you're using, the offer you're making, or the way you're reaching them so you can reachmore of the customers you do want.
Inbound Essential Four: Content
There’s an old phrase that goes “if you build it, they will come”. When it comes to a great inbound marketing strategy that’s only part of the story. First you need to build the strategy, and then create the content, and then find the right ways to distribute those messages – then they will come. However, none of it happens without content.
When it comes to content, it’s the foundation that attracts, engages, and converts your target audience. But remember, just building a website and throwing content out there isn't enough. Your content needs to be IRATE: Interesting, Relevant, Appropriate, Timely, and Entertaining.
It all starts with understanding what they want or need and then how you can help them. Craft content that addresses their needs and wants directly, offering valuable insights and solutions. A great way to identify content themes is by collecting frequently asked questions (FAQs) and building blog posts or ebooks around them.
When crafting your content, include social media. This is a powerful way to amplify your messaging. Even the most IRATE content needs a push to reach your target audience. Social media platforms like Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook allow you to share your content directly with those who are most likely to find it valuable. However, social media is a two-way street. Use it to spark conversations, answer questions, and build relationships with your audience.
Helpful Spitfire Tip:
Customers love to have their problems solved, so think beyond the blog post. Experiment with different content formats to keep your content IRATE, and use social media to your advantage. Social engagement is a powerful tool, and your sales team can leverage social media to connect with prospects and promote your content.
Inbound Essential Five: Performance Marketing
Don't forget performance marketing when considering content. Inbound marketing is a marathon, but performance marketing can be your sprint to get noticed early on. By strategically leveraging paid social and SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) campaigns, you can target your ideal customers with laser focus and drive them towards your valuable inbound content. Paid social lets you promote your content directly to relevant audiences on platforms they already use, while SEO ensures your content ranks high in search results for keywords your ideal customer is searching for. This targeted approach jumpstarts your inbound funnel, attracting high-quality leads who are already interested in what you have to offer.
Helpful Spitfire Tip:
When crafting your paid social and SEO campaigns, keep your buyer personas in mind. Tailor your messaging and keywords to resonate with their specific needs and interests. This will ensure your campaigns reach the right people and convert them into engaged followers and leads.
Inbound Essential Six: Advocacy
Your greatest asset for inbound marketing? Your own employees and satisfied customers! A structured advocacy program goes beyond simple brand loyalty – it turns them into active brand champions. This isn't just about social media mentions; it's about fostering an environment where everyone, from the C-suite to the front line, feels empowered to spread the word.
Internal buy-in is crucial. Executive leadership needs to be on board to provide resources and support for advocacy initiatives. Empowering employees as brand ambassadors through training and tools not only strengthens your brand but also leverages their networks and expertise to reach new audiences. Similarly, happy customers are your most credible storytellers. Structured referral programs and opportunities to share positive experiences incentivise them to become vocal advocates, boosting your brand reputation and attracting high-quality leads.
Helpful Spitfire Tip:
Identify your most passionate employees and customers. Develop targeted programs that equip them with the resources and messaging to become effective brand advocates.
Inbound Essential Seven: Change Management
What does the rest of your company think about marketing? Be honest. Do you think they’d all love to get involved in marketing if you gave them a chance? The answer might actually surprise you. In truth, anyone in your business could be part of your marketing team – and as many of them as possible should be part of your team. A great inbound marketing strategy isn’t just about the marketing team – it’s also about the people just on the edges – particularly your salespeople.
Any great strategy is likely to get more buy-in when stakeholders are consulted – the same goes for your inbound marketing strategy. Don’t forget that salespeople are an essential part of your extended marketing team. If they know what you want to achieve, why, and how it will help them – you might even be able to convince them to help you produce content (and it gets their names out there, too).
Ultimately, making sure everyone across the business understands your customers, across all levels – and that they understand how the strategy will help their business AND their strategy, benefits your marketing team and your business overall.
Helpful Spitfire Tip:
Get people excited. If they know how your inbound strategy is going to make a difference in their lives they're more likely to get on board. Ask for their input, opinions and help. You'll be amazed how much it'll win them over.
Inbound Essential Eight: Nurture your Prospects
An essential element of a great inbound marketing strategy is producing the right content and making it available at each stage of the buyer’s journey – then it’s a simple matter of helping people along that journey.
But in order to know what info they need, when, you need to understand how to nurture people based on their behaviour. Start by looking out for commonalities and outliers in the source, i.e. what information has brought them to your website, blog post or landing page. For example, if they’re coming from paid search are they behaving differently than if they clicked on a message shared via social media? Ask yourself – what is convincing them to convert? Then you need to speak to them in a very different way at each stage. For example – people may need introductory-level information at the marketing qualified level (MQL) than at the Sales Qualified Level (SQL) stage – where they’d want information about costs, delivery timeframes and how to avoid risks.
Helpful Spitfire Tip:
Nurturing your prospects down your purchasing funnel takes a lot of thought and requires a lot of content. Don't be overwhelmed, but realise that you can filter them by persona, source, lifecycle stage, job description, industry or other variables. Choose the right ones that make sense for your business and then tantalise them at each stage of the journey.
Inbound Essential Nine: Data and Reporting
Your inbound marketing strategy thrives on data. Clean, accurate data is the fuel that powers insightful reports and helps you measure progress towards your goals. Investing in data hygiene—regularly cleaning and organising your data—ensures you're making decisions based on reliable information.
The key lies in setting the right metrics. Key metrics are the quantifiable measures that reflect your inbound marketing goals. These goals can be a combination of data points, such as aiming for a certain percentage increase in qualified leads (website visitors who have shown interest) while maintaining a conversion rate (percentage of leads who become customers) of a certain percentage. Regular reporting on these metrics allows you to track progress towards your goals and identify areas for improvement.
Don't just focus on individual data points; look for trends. Analysing trends over time is crucial. Are there consistent dips in traffic on certain days? Do specific content types outperform others? By understanding how your data points fluctuate, you can anticipate future performance and make adjustments to your strategy to maximise your return on investment (ROI).
Helpful Spitfire Tip:
Don't get overwhelmed by the sheer volume of data available. Start by focusing on a core set of metrics that directly tie back to your inbound marketing goals. Once you get more comfortable, you can gradually expand your reporting to encompass a wider range of data points. And don't be afraid to get creative with your data analysis!
In conclusion, inbound marketing is more of a marathon than a sprint – and more of an adventure race than a marathon. Along the way you’ll learn a whole new range of skills you might never have known you possessed, but it will be completely worth the journey at the end of the day.
Get started with your inbound strategy by looking at how you qualify your leads. Our guide to navigating lead scoring will help accelerate your smarketing campaigns.
