In this article we analyze Inbound Marketing Strategy, what it is, how it can help Companies in developing their Business.
In this article I explain how to implement a strategy that builds the right relationship with our customers and potential customers.
Find out why building loyalty means gaining lots of new customers–for free.
Inbound Marketing meaning
Inbound Marketing Strategy is based on creating valuable content for your users. It is a marketing methodology structured in 4 stages (funnel) that attracts customers to your website or social channels.
It differs fromoutbound marketing, which instead seeks to reach customers through business strategies such as advertising and telemarketing.
Before explaining in detail why retaining a customer can get our business off the ground, I analyze a totally opposite example.
Let’s start with what an Inbound Marketing Strategy is not.
The Poltronesofa case.
I have read several online articles by colleagues, to whom I have the utmost respect, explaining why Poltronesofà’s marketing strategy is successful.
If we look at the Business data, the strategy seems to agree with them.
The data I found online, referring to the year 2017, states a turnover of 315.3 million euros, with profits of 26.8 million euros, or about 8 percent.
So from the perspective of Business…. the strategy seems to be working.
From the point of view of ethics, no, because it teases the customer.
Respect for customers and people in the most general sense comes before business.
I have devoted an entire section of the site to ethical business, which is called Spiritual Business.
Now let’s analyze why their marketing strategy is not winning
I’ve lost count, I think it’s been four or five years that, they keep, incessantly, every two weeks, coming up with supersonic sales again, which of course expire very shortly, like there’s no tomorrow.
Those who know me, primarily clients, know that I do not like to implement marketing strategies that rely on discounts.
Of course, every now and then it is good to do them, perhaps for interesting promotions.
We all know that, at certain times of the year, they help to move merchandise around and generate cash flow.
For goodness sake, long live promotions.
I personally prefer to study marketing and communication strategies that focus on service quality and what is called the customer experience.
That is, the customer’s lived experience of the brand, its services and products.
You must love your customer, only then will they love your products and your company.
Of course, before making any strategy, it is good to study the positioning of the company, the market and the target audience.
In this blog you will find dozens of articles about these topics.
Today I want to focus on the Poltronesofà advertisement.
Because I don’t like their strategy
Because I feel that it teases the customer.
There is no point in doing continuous promotions, communicating that promotions are about to expire, when the next day you renew them. Always, constantly.
So much so that in 2014 Potronesofa was reported by Altroconsumo, to the Competition and Market Authority, which had then fined the company 500 thousand euros.
The Consumer Code, in fact, considers unfair any promotion that, contrary to the truth, tries to leverage the product that will be available only under special conditions and for a limited period of time. Such indications, in fact, induce consumers to make immediate choices, despite their real need, and deprive them of sufficient time to make an informed decision.
1) Promotion has become discounted
Sounds like a play on words. A promotion that always discounts … has become discounted!
By now there is no novelty in their advertisements.
The launch of the new collection still super discounted.
Capers. The launch of a new collection, for a Company, is an extremely important and strategic moment.
It is the result of months of work.
This is the time when people come into your store to see the novelty. Novelty is never a given!!!
So it is not a rewarding strategy, for the simple reason that it has no real deadline.
Every two weeks you have a new promotion.
They also do not apply the principle of scarcity.
The promotion is not on the first 5 customers, it is on the whole collection.
Cribbio would say Silvio.
2) Does not respect the consumer
As David Mackenzie Ogilvy says , “The consumer is not a fool. He is your wife.”
So you have to respect it.
To grow our businesses, it is essential to have a relationship of trust and respect with the customer.
I believe it is crucial to put the customer at the center of our strategies.
Let us always remember, that we entrepreneurs, in turn, are also consumers.
We give our customers, what we want and demand from our suppliers!
When you tell me the promotion ends in a week … I run to the store to take advantage of it.
If you come up with a similar one the next week where the only thing that changes is the message–let’s just say I’m pissed off.
Not only that. There are two elements that are incompatible with each other. Price and craftsmanship.
(source https://www.poltronesofa.com/it-IT/ChiSiamo)
If you sell “…ONLY SOFAS AND ARMCHAIRS, RIGOROUSLY HANDMADE IN ITALY” for 400 or 500 euros, it means that all Italian artisans are thieves. Simple as that.
Personally, I do not believe that thousands of artisans in Italy are working, robbing customers.
Inbound Marketing Techniques: Putting the customer at the center means creating a relationship of trust
If you have made it this far in the article you may be asking yourself, “What would you do?”
Personally, I prefer to adopt a value strategy that truly puts the customer at the center.
I prefer to communicate in a direct, no-frills way.
If my product is made partially by hand, I say so.
If my service has performance that satisfies only a portion of potential customers, I say so.
Nothing would change, because a portion of the customers using that service would not be happy anyway.
Building trust means building customer loyalty.
Find out why building loyalty means gaining lots of new customers–for free.
Now let’s see how to attract new customers and retain them.
In the Agency we use HubSpot, a CRM that allows us to manage in an even more advanced and analytical way the content we publish online on our website and on our social networks.
Not only that. Thanks to HubSpot, we have introduced the Marketing Automation.
That is, an automated system that allows us to send only valuable information of interest to a user.
Marketing Automation is the cornerstone upon which Inbound Marketing Strategies are based.
L’Inbound Marketing develops its philosophy on total respect for the user.
Assuming that we cannot sell everything to everyone, Inbound Marketing is based on building the buyer persona.
La Buyer Persona reflects our ideal customer, the one with whom we want to relate.
Through inbound and buyer persona, we can intercept and relate to the users most akin to our business model.
And now let’s describe each stage of the funnel (buying process) that starts from publishing the content to converting the user into a Customer.
Inbound methodologies are built on 4 basic points: Attract, Convert, Close and Retain.
Inbound Marketing strategies: Attracting
Basically, all those activities and strategies that enable us to intercept the customer potentially interested in our products.
In this case, there are many activities we can carry out to increase the visibility of our website or e-commerce on search engines:
- Implementation of an SEO strategy based on keywords used by users to perform Google searches
- Publishing valuable content in the Company Blog that addresses the needs of the users (buyer personas) who have done the research
- Implementation of Article Marketing activities combined with a Link Building strategy to increase site polarity and visits from third-party sites
- Implementation of our eCommerce buying process of clear calls to action and additional opportunities for interaction with the Brand (WhatsApp, Live Chat, newsletter subscription form)
- Implementation of a social media marketing strategy that shares and amplifies the content published on our website.
These are just some of the activities we can carry out.
Clearly, all our communication channels must be designed or re-designed based on the buyer persona. To attract, precisely, our ideal customer.
Inbound Marketing Strategy: Convert
With marketing automation, we can send valuable content to our potential customers.
Let’s give some examples.
I am a garden owner. I could send lots of useful information on how to fertilize, or prune my plants.
I am a hardware reseller. I could explain how to effectively wipe a hard drive, or how to back up data.
We should not be afraid to share our know-how or experience. We are professionals, so our knowledge is definitely superior.
By producing useful and valuable content, we create a strong relationship with our customers and potential customers.
We become experts in their eyes.
And when they need an expert who will they turn to?
To that person/company who has been close to them for so long, dispensing so much helpful advice.
Inbound Marketing strategies: Close
It is the seemingly most important stage. That is, when a potential customer becomes a customer.
I say apparently useful, because it is the stage where the customer verifies the “promise of value” we made before the purchase.
When he came to the store and we told him that that sofa is made entirely by hand.
When he came in to buy a plant and we told him it will be everlasting.
When we sold him a new computer saying it was the most powerful computer on the face of the earth.
When we sell, we essentially make a promise of value.
Some would say, “We put our face on it.” We stake our reputation on it.
That is why I think the most important stage, in fact, is the next one.
Inbound Marketing Strategy: Delight = build loyalty
The sale does not end with collection, but also contemplates customer service.
After I sell the plant to the new customer, I will change that person’s status in HubSpot from potential customer to customer.
I will specify what kind of plant it took, and what kind of maintenance it needs.
At that point, the client will receive specific communications that will enable him or her to care for, in the best way possible, the new plant.
Clearly the same thing applies to the potential customer, who came to my site and purchased his new computer.
I will update his profile in Hubspot, to make sure that he receives communications that will enable him to make top use of the sound new Computer.
“Cremonese, but by doing this these people will never come back to me!!!”
Trust me, that is absolutely not true.
They will always need you. For a new plant, for a new hard drive, to change the monitor, etc…
Not only that. Here comes the most important aspect.
Delighting means building loyalty.
If we retain our customers, it means that they will speak well of us.
It is estimated that one happy customer talks about us, our products and services. to at least 5 other people.
Try to think of how much free publicity you can get!!!
Also, if a friend of yours recommends a good guy, the way he fixes computers no one else does, do you trust him or not?
Of course you trust, your friend told you….
Loyalty means acquiring lots of new customers–for free.
Bingo
Have a great day
Did you find this article interesting? Are you clear on what inbound is?
You can learn more by reading these articles.