The art of inbound marketing for your small business

You may not have heard of the term “inbound marketing,” even though it’s one that affects dozens of the decisions you make each day.

Think of the last time you downloaded an app, subscribed to a YouTube channel, clicked on a Facebook post, or bought something on Amazon. These are all a result of successful inbound marketing tactics — in fact, Forbes recently labeled inbound marketing as “the No. 1 killer of cold calls.”

Here’s how you can use inbound marketing tactics to successfully market your small business.

Step 1: Attract customers. First, you need to develop a list of “buyer personas,” or people who you think will buy your products. For instance, one persona could be ‘an elementary science school teacher in California’ and another could be ‘a mid-level executive who wants to start her own company but is afraid and unsure of where to start.’

Then you need to decide how best to reach them. Where do they spend more of their time — Facebook? LinkedIn? Twitter? Social media is a great way to incorporate SEO into your site, as is blogging — whether it’s a written blog or a YouTube vlog. Brainstorm where your potential clients browse the most, and create content that will attract and entice them into clicking on your site.

Step 2: Convert your website visitors into leads. Next, you need a way to turn your website visitors into paying customers. You do this by capturing their information, so that you can follow up with them later.

How do you best capture your audience’s information? By providing something valuable for them in return. Offer a newsletter, a white paper to download, or a relevant webinar to subscribe to. People are more willing to give up their email addresses if they know they are getting a deal out of the exchange.

Step 3: Close the deal with analyzation tools. Keep track of how well each of your social pages is doing as well as your Google rankings. Use of marketing automation tools and a CRM, like Salesforce, is also essential to creating and keeping a wide customer base.

Salesforce operates within the cloud, and provides small business owners with an interface for case and task management. The Salesforce customer portal allows you to talk to your clients through social media, and provides analytical tools and services like email alert, Google search, and a customer database.

At 17Grapes, we specialize in the implementation, optimization, and support of Salesforce. Call us today at (801) 245-0500 or email us at [email protected] to see how we can transform your small business into an inbound marketing success story!