Inbound Marketing

Two main goals for digital marketing

1. answer customers questions and needs beyond basic product info 2. create trustworthy, original, and interesting content that improves its authority by encouraging other websites form other organizations to link to the website -content should contribute to a company's brand reputation

Basic steps of inbound marketing

1. attract -blog, keywords, social media 2. convert -form, calls-to-action, landing pages 3. close -email, signals, workflows -sales management 4. delight -events, social inbox, small content -customer management strangers - visitors - leads - customers - promoters

Forces driving the increased importance of inbound marketing

1. diminished influence of advertising 2. the rise of consumer search

Three questions for the "attract" and "convert" phases

1. how do consumers find me 2. what content should i create to attract potential customers 3. how do i optimize my website for engagement

Two key ranking factors

1. relevance -how closely Google can match a consumer's search query and a particular web page -based on factors like page title, page content, and meta tags 2. authority -measure of importance, based on the number and authority of other pages that link to it -measured using algorithm (PageRank)

Inbound marketing requires what two key actions?

1. website has the content, keywords, and meta tags that improve relevance to a particular search query -needs to anticipate the keywords and search queries consumers may be using 2. firm needs to find ways to gather inbound links from other websites to build its authority

Inbound marketing

a way to engage consumers by creating content (including blogs, podcasts, white papers, and SEO) so that a company, its brand, products, and services, is found when consumers search for information

Inbound marketing vs outbound marketing

rather than seeking potential customers through advertising (like outbound), inbound marketing positions the company as a target consumers search for outbound marketing seeks to achieve the best ad placement on the search results page -inbound marketing focuses on ensuring that (in keyword searches by search engines) organic links for a firm rank higher than competing links