Inbound Marketing Strategies

As part of my search for a marketing/communications position in central Minnesota, I attended Leighton Interactive's 100 proof happy hour at Marco today to learn more about inbound marketing. There were a few things that I think will be really helpful as part of any marketing strategy.

The most important thing that stood out to me was to have a quick personalized response to any call to action on a website. I think this is what has set Leighton Interactive and other good marketers apart from the rest. After a user puts in their information, a personalized email is automatically sent with more information or as a thank you. Then, the next step is to follow up in-person with that lead and try to close a deal. Here's where some businesses can fall apart. If you can get people to sign up, but you don't follow up, you've just wasted the effort made to get that contact. Personalized automatic responses and quick real-life follow up are important parts of an overall marketing strategy.

When I registered for the 100 proof happy hour, I immediately got a personalized email from the Managing Director at Leighton Interactive thanking me for registering. The morning of the event, I received another personalized email reminding me of the event. After registering, but before I was even at the event, I was made to feel important, and not part of a mass email reminder (although it was a mass email reminder). This is great marketing.

Another great strategy mentioned at today's event was to have multiple creators of content. It can be hard to keep coming up with ideas for useful content that people want to see, but multiple content creators can make things a little tricky. While this can be a useful strategy for some companies, in others, it might be more helpful to have a communications professional act as gatekeeper handling content made by contributors while working to keep the organization's voice, brand, and presence steady.

Finally, another useful inbound marketing strategy is to make sure to have a non-intrusive call to action on each page of new content that somehow relates to the content. For example, if writing a blog post about a new piece of technology, include a button at the bottom with "Would you like a technology assessment?" where site visitors can sign up and input their information. Follow that up with an automatic personalized email, a real-life follow-up with pertinent information, and then you're able to close the deal, make a new customer, and someone who will then become a promoter of your business and product/service.