Inbound Marketing > SEO

When you’re scrolling through Facebook are you more likely to click on the ad to your right? Or on the blog your friend posted?

I’m more likely to click the blog. Turns out the same goes for 80-85% of buyers.

I would like to formally introduce you to Inbound Marketing. The key to modern marketing success.
 

My work as a Project Manager (which encompasses content, marketing, design direction, etc...) at Bultema Group has incorporated Inbound Marketing (blogging, etc) and now we’re taking it a step further. This past week I attending the American Marketing Association (AMA) talk on inbound marketing by Pete Brand, CEO and Co-Founder of MINDSCAPE. His advice was compelling, informative and persuasive: Inbound Marketing is the way of the future, the new SEO. He explained the problem of paid advertising and SEO explaining “They are either solely focused on technical on-page SEO, building links through less than trusted sources, or cramming keywords into a page hoping they’ve cast their net far and wide enough to capture a few visitors each month.” We’re interested in the opposite: offering our customers value.

In many cases Bultema Group works with nonprofits and small businesses. In this case “sales” can be translated to “donations,” and for small business “leads” into actual profitability.

How is this accomplished? Here are the takeaways from Pete Brand’s talk:

Establish Client Goals [with a budget founded on analytics]. Discuss Persona of Buyer/Supporter.

Pete suggested having a conversation with clients, looking at ROI analytics and crafting the budget around these. Next up? Research, talk about and craft the persona of the buyer/supporter.

Ask: Who are you exactly marketing to? Put together an idea board of words, images, phrases, activities they may do, the issues close to their heart. Market accordingly. As Pete said “besides setting goals with your client, wrapping your mind around the persona is the next most important step” with proper inbound marketing.

Buyer/Supporter Leads. Serve Their Persona.

Serving the buyer is top priority. Ten years ago the seller used to hold weight and the buyer would have to succumb to what was offered and how it was offered. Not the case anymore. In fact, it’s a 360 difference. Buyers/Supporters holds all the cards; whether you’re a nonprofit or for-profit business, serve your customers and supporters. Serve the persona you pieced out, solve their problems and offer them value. Companies and organizations who blog and offer compelling value capture 126% more leads. Don’t just blog, though. Write compelling content.

Quality > Quantity.

Promote

Social media, social media, social media...you may be used to hearing this emphasis for awhile now. That’s because it’s the source of creditable content.

Have you heard the phrase “make your money work for you”? The same goes for inbound marketing. Creating compelling content, like blogs, may not increase your leads/profit/funding right away, but while paid advertising maintains the same return on investment with no growth, blogging grows over time. The key? Having the content shared in creditable online spaces. Like I’m doing now, with Mindscape’s content. This is the best promotion.

SEO is so much more today

SEO is changing. It’s no longer just showing up in search engine results, it’s a holistic process, approach and return on investment. It starts with inbound marketing.

Remember, 56% of all buying decisions are pre-decided based on compelling content (customer research) and 93% start in a search engine. This is where Inbound Marketing says, “Nice to meet you. Let’s create something good.”