The inbound marketing buzzword is probably something you have had to scope out as a budding marketer or business owner.
Conventional outbound campaigns drive their messages towards unfamiliar audiences. Still, inbound woo users and potential leads to reach out to a given business when they encounter problems that can be solved by their product and service offering.
Online, inbound marketing is about the steps you take to draw traffic, get noticed and engage potential customers. You no longer have to interrupt “clueless” customers, and you actively increase the number of leads who are likely to come looking for your products in the near future.
Many B2B companies in Singapore still rely on the traditional methods to promote their products. They still believe in the spirit of employing salespeople, give them products to market, having them make calls and visiting potential customers to close a deal. We are not saying that this method doesn’t work, it works but it’s very effective when you have enough capital and marketing lists. The problem is the conversions rates here won’t be as high as expected.
If you still depend on this traditional method, you need to consider another alternative that can generate more leads. Inbound marketing may be what you are missing to generate more traffic and boost your sales.
What is Inbound Marketing?
It is a business approach that attracts potential customers by creating useful content and tailored experiences that appeal to them.
The method focuses on drawing potential customers instead of blasting them with unsolicited content that isn’t of interest. It’s simply creating content that answers and solves their problems instead of second-guessing them.
To succeed with an inbound marketing campaign, you need a multi-pronged approach that goes beyond your business website. A killer strategy involves your social media profiles, blog posts, videos and any relevant content sharing platform.
At the same time, you need to borrow from the SEO realm to boost your chance of being found by customers when they search for your brand
Leveraging a robust marketing plan can assist your business in:
- Attracting prospects consistently
- Create trust on an ongoing basis
- Build and stamp brand credibility
- Improve sales and drive constant growth
As Google continues to perfect its algorithm and machine learning becomes more fine-tuned, people are finally starting to accept the fact that the only way to get quality traffic is by providing your audience with compelling and useful content. Unfortunately, even though many are equipped with this information, a lot of marketers still struggle with their campaigns. They work to craft the perfect content, but still, they find that their growth is nominal at best. Why is this?
Well, it all comes down to a lack of understanding. You see, though most understand the basic idea of inbound marketing, not many know how it applies to each area of online marketing. Let’s take a moment to examine inbound marketing via some of the most popular elements of online marketing, starting with the blog. We will also discuss how to inbound market for B2C, B2B, local, and international.
Digital Media and Inbound Marketing
Whether you know it or not, inbound marketing is apart of every form of internet marketing. From blogging to calls-to-action, most strategies have an end goal of generating more leads. Below are a few of the most popular strategies and processes.
Blogging and Closing Leads
While most people tend to think of blogging as just an opportunity to place AdWords and keyword phrases onto your website, it’s actually much more than that. Not only can blogging help to attract leads to your website, it also ensures that you close more leads. This is especially the case when you strategically align article with your sales process.
Social media is great for networking with other businesses and developing brand recognition. However, in terms of inbound marketing, it’s invaluable. Social media gives you the opportunity to understand your audience in a way that many other tools do not. They give you an up close and personal introduction to your potential customers and their personal lives. You can learn more about how they share your posts, engage in conversation with them and get a better look at demographics. All of this equates to your creating the most accurate buyer persona possible. In this way, you will be able to better predict which potential customers will actually become leads.
SEO So That Prospects Can Easily Find You
SEO makes use of both creative and technical elements in order to attract traffic and increase rankings. This encompasses everything from keywords to code structure and the way your site shows up on online directories. However, SEO also plays a huge role in inbound marketing. You see, it’s not easy to build website traffic without SEO. Inbound strategies use SEO to convert website traffic into paying customers. SEO makes it easy for your prospects to find you and inbound marketing makes their experience a memorable one.
Landing Pages for Quick Leads
Landing pages exist for no other reason than to secure your visitor’s information through forms in exchange for a special offer. The best landing pages target a very specific audience, such as people who read your blog, traffic from your email campaigns or the visitors who have clicked on PPC ads. What makes landing pages so valuable when it comes to inbound marketing is the amount of time it takes to convert a visitor to a lead. Having a dedicated page for each offer ensures there is no confusion.
Calls-to-Action and Identifying Customer Needs
Calls-to-Action, also known as CTA, include images, buttons, videos, or text which link to pages that contain special offers. The main goal of a CTA is to grab the visitor’s attention and persuade them to click through so that they can learn more about what you have to offer them. However, in terms of inbound marketing, it’s much more than that. You see, CTA gives you the opportunity to collect the visitor’s contact information, including names, phone numbers, and email addresses. In this way, you will be able to gather important information and learn their needs and interests which will help you to determine what kind of items they are interested in.
Email Marketing and Building Relationships
Many people have come to believe that email can only be used as a form of outbound marketing strategy, however, it also plays a crucial role in inbound marketing as well. You see, outbound emails tend to focus on specific sales and are usually used to get new business from “cold” leads. On the other hand, inbound email marketing is used in order to increase the value of lapsed or existing customers by building the relationship.
CRM and Locating Promising Prospects
CRM, also known as customer relationship management, usually involves a system which compiles all of the customer information into a single database. This makes it easy to manage and access. However, what most do not realize is that a CRM system is capable of more than just gathering, storing, analyzing, and tracking data. This system gives you the ability to personalize your customers’ experience. It will also give you the ability to find your most promising prospects and turn them into lead conversions.
Inbound Marketing Techniques
So now that you have a better idea of how each of these elements can be used as a form of inbound marketing, in what situations will you use them? When it comes to B2C, B2B, local, and international, each serves a different purpose which means techniques should be implemented very strategically. Let’s talk about each.
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Inbound Marketing for B2C
Unlike businesses, the average end consumer tends to search for specific solutions that can solve unknown problems. Not only can B2C content marketing help meet these particular needs, but it can also serve to increase interest in your services and products. The key to marketing to consumers is to use a combination of blog posts, articles, infographics, and videos.
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Inbound Marketing for B2B
B2B marketing is similar to B2C marketing in that both require you to create content for real people who have real needs. However, the difference is that B2C has a shorter sales cycle. Businesses tend to take more time to research before buying. So instead of placing your focus on blog posts, articles, infographics, and videos, you should instead use a combination of email marketing, search marketing, social marketing, and content marketing.
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Local Inbound Marketing
If you want to experience success with local inbound marketing, then you’re going to have to be dedicated to link building. This link building must be focused on geo-specific keywords. This is because your potential, local customers will be using geo-specific terms when searching and this gives you an excellent chance to rank for that exact term.
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International Inbound Marketing
Marketing your business to target customers who reside in different countries can be challenging at times. However, international SEO does make it easier to target certain geographies. In fact, you can use the same content as you use with local inbound marketing in order to secure leads around the globe, however, its crucial that you make sure that it is well-translated. Social media also makes it easier to communicate with your potential international leads.
Top 20 Inbound Marketing Companies in Singapore
Agency |
MediaOne |
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About |
MediaOne is a top Singaporean digital marketing agency. It specialises in search engine marketing optimisation and a full range of digital marketing solutions. MediaOne ranks as an industry leader serving over 600 clients from different industries. The firm has a belt of global awards under its name. |
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Services |
· Digital Marketing Services · Singapore SEO Services · Search Engine Marketing Services · Programmatic Services · Social Media Marketing Services |
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Address |
4B Craig Road | Singapore 089664 |
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Telephones |
(65) 6789 9852 |
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enquiry@mm.com.sg |
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Website |
https://mediaonemarketing.com.sg/search-engine-marketing-google-ads-ppc-singapore/ |
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Operating hours |
Mon-Fri 930am-630pm |
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Clients |
· P&G · WWF · Edelman · Capitaland · Cambridge University |
Agency |
Huble Digital |
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About |
Huble Digital is a full-service digital marketing and consultancy firm that enables businesses to execute their digital marketing efforts efficiently. Huble Digital is a certified HubSpot software, technical development, implementation entity in Europe, Middle East & Africa. |
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Services |
· Search Engine Optimisation · Social Media Marketing · Web Development · Lead Nurturing & Marketing Automation, |
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Address |
140 Robinson Road, 1st Floor, Singapore, 068907 |
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Telephones |
(65) 6939 6451 (65) 9235 1421 |
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info@hubledigital.com |
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Website |
Agency |
DT Digital |
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About |
DT Digital assists businesses to achieve viral results using tech-savvy digital strategies. It helps companies to gain fast traction in the marketing realm. DT digital has immense expertise in the global and local digital markets. |
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Services |
· Mobile marketing · Social media marketing · Ecommerce · Digital marketing · Search Engine Optimisation |
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Address |
4 Robinson Road #04-01, The House of Eden, Singapore 048543 |
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Telephones |
n/a |
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cs.sq@dtdigitalasia.com |
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Website |
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Clients |
· CapitaLand Mall Asia · Cisco · Clarins Fragrance Group · Diageo · Estee Lauder |
Agency |
iFoundries |
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About |
iFoundries ranks as a result-driven digital marketing firm. It helps mid-size and growth ready enterprises to rise using marketing solutions and digital marketing tools. It presents cost-effective solutions that reduce startup overheads. |
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Services |
· E-commerce Solutions · Web Design & Development · Digital Marketing (SEM & SEO) · Content Management System |
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Address |
10 Ubi Crescent #02-51, Ubi Techpark (Lobby C), Singapore 408564 |
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Telephones |
(65) 6297 7751 |
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web-enquiry@ifoundries.com, |
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Website |
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Clients |
· Ariva · One15 marina · Singapore Cricket club · The Tanglin Club Singapore · Sportshub |
Agency |
Construct Digital |
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About |
Construct Digital has transformed into a leading digital marketing agency that offers a suite of market automation and marketing solutions. It relies on Hubspot certified technicians to implement, monitor and deploy full-service solutions on the HubSpot platform. |
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Services |
· E-commerce Solutions · Web Design & Development · Digital Marketing (SEM & SEO) |
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Address |
114 Lavender Street #11-85 CT Hub2 Singapore 338729 |
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Telephones |
(65) 6438 4886 |
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N/A |
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Website |
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Clients |
· American Express, · Gain City and · Fuji Xerox, · The Body Shop · IKEA |
Agency |
Aiden Creative |
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About |
Aiden Creative helps businesses by playing the role of a strategic partner instead of acting like the average vendor. It relies on skilled web developers and UX experts to create robust digital marketing solutions. |
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Services |
· Social Media Marketing · Search Engine Optimisation · PPC · Web Design & Development · Conversion Rate Optimisation |
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Address |
229 Mountbatten Road,#03-38 Mountbatten Square, Singapore 398007 |
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Telephones |
(65) 6364 8846 |
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contact@aidencreative.com |
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Website |
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Operating hours |
Mon-Fri 9am-3pm |
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Clients |
· Pearlie White · Pesta Raya · Pansing · Sapphire Weds · November One |
Agency |
Ate Integrated Communications |
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About |
Ate Integrated boasts over three decades of experience in the digital and social marketing world. It employs IT, marketing and content experts who help to create productive partnerships, marketing solutions and proprietary software. |
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Services |
· Public Relations, Marketing, · Design, Digital Strategy, · Content Creation, · Social Media, · Website development |
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Address |
391B Orchard Road, Ngee Ann City Level 22, Tower B, Singapore 238874. |
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Telephones |
(65) 6592 0554 |
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ask@ate.bz |
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Website |
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Clients |
· DBS · Louis Vuitton · Twg Tea · Vertu · American Express |
Agency |
iSmart Communications |
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About |
With an omnichannel platform and a full suite of marketing solutions, Ismart helps businesses to realise their sales and productivity goals. The firm is a pioneer in the marketing field, and they specialise in B2B lead generation for it and telecommunication enterprises in the ASEAN region. |
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Services |
· Email Marketing · Social Media Marketing · Digital Marketing (SEM & SEO) · Advertising |
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Address |
51 Anson Road, #14-67 Anson Centre, Singapore 079904 |
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Telephones |
(65) 6325 2615 |
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enquiry@ismartcom.com |
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Website |
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Clients |
· IT management Association · iDirect · Hong Kong Singapore Business Association · Mobile Learn Asia |
Agency |
ClickTRUE |
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About |
ClickTRUE provides customised marketing solutions for businesses with a convoluted sales funnel. The firm leverages online marketing and technology innovations to empower companies to achieve their sales and marketing objectives. |
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Services |
· Search Engine Marketing · Search Engine Optimisation · Social Media Marketing · Web Analytics Consultancy · Conversion Rate Optimisation |
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Address |
998 Toa Payoh North,#03-25, Singapore 318993 |
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Telephones |
(65) 6950 3366 |
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|
hello@clicktrue.biz |
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Website |
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Clients |
· Schneider Electric · Nikon · SPH Magazines · ADK Yolk · NTU |
Agency |
CommIT Consultants |
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About |
CommIT is one of the high ranking SEO services companies in Singapore. It has a stellar record of providing digital marketing and SEO services to diverse enterprises. Currently, CommIT serves over 1450 clients, and boats experience spanning more than 17 decades. |
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Services |
· Web Hosting · Email Hosting · Search Engine Optimisation · Social Media optimisation · Domain Name Management |
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Address |
Address: 14 Robinson Road, #08-01A Far East Finance Building, Singapore 048545 |
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Telephones |
(65) 9184 5834 |
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Email: hello@commit.com.sg |
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Website |
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Operating hours |
Mon-Fri 9am-6pm |
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Clients |
· Asia One News · Singapore Youth Flying Club · Singapore Press Holdings |
Agency |
Brew Interactive Pte Ltd |
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About |
Brew Interactive is a top-rated digital and marketing firm in Singapore. It provides end-to-end digital services with a customised approach. We help businesses to reposition and scale. It caters to clients from diverse industries. |
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Services |
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Address |
111 North Bridge Road, #08-19, Singapore 179098 |
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Telephones |
(65) 6814 2952 |
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info@brewinteractive.com |
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Website |
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Clients |
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Agency |
Biz Edge Consultancy |
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About |
Biz Edge adds value to its client in the digital marketing sector. It helps SMEs to harness the power of the internet to scale. Biz Edge specialises in digital marketing techniques and solutions at cost-effective rates. |
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Services |
· SEO Services · Social Media Marketing · SEM Singapore · Lead Generation · Online Marketing |
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Address |
64 Flora Road#01-08 Singapore 506911 |
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Telephones |
(65) 81726968 |
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Website |
Agency |
Happy Marketer |
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About |
Happy Marketer assists businesses to leverage their website design to achieve their sales, advertising and marketing goals. It provides proven solutions that enhance the visibility of its clients online. It’s a HubSpot Certified Silver Tier Agency affiliate. |
|
Services |
· Customer Relationship Management (CRM) · Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) · Content Marketing · Social Media Marketing · Digital Advertising |
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Address |
Guoco Tower, 1 Wallich St, Level 22Singapore 078881 |
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Telephones |
(65) 6653 8060 |
|
|
hello@happymarketer.com |
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Website |
|
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Clients |
· Citibank · Cambridge University Press · CNN · Air Asia · StarHub |
Agency |
Digital Media Nerds |
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About |
Digital Media Nerds is an SEO marketing outfit that provides SEO benefits based on unique KPIs. The firm delivers top-notch SEO results within six months. It guarantees to work for free if it doesn’t meet client expectation and goals. |
|
Services |
· Search Engine Optimisation · Search Engine Marketing · SEM |
|
Address |
62 Ubi Rd 1, #06-24, Oxley Bizhub 2, Singapore 408734 |
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Telephones |
(65) 6846 9189 |
|
|
info@digitalmedianerds.sg. |
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Website |
www.dmn.sg |
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Clients |
· Focus Music · Cheryl Tay · Klapsons · Le Doll · BHC Racing |
Agency |
Clickr Media |
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About |
Clickr Media is a far-sighted digital marketing agency that helps businesses with their web marketing, media planning and web integration services. Clickr uses a laser-focused approach when implementing search engine marketing, social media marketing and analytics for its clients. |
|
Services |
· SEM · SEO · Social Media Marketing · Online Display Advertising · Blog Marketing |
|
Address |
2 Alexandra Road#06-04 Delta House Singapore 159919 |
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Telephones |
(65) 6566 9556 |
|
|
enquiries@clickrmedia.com |
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Website |
|
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Operating hours |
Mon-Fri 930am-630pm |
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Clients |
· Home Shoppe · Kordel’s · Universal Music Singapore · Zone 1511 · HL Assurance |
Agency |
Sky Digital Agency |
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About |
Sky Digital relies on a full stack of digital marketing tools, technology and talent to assist businesses to transform. It offers holistic, strategic and consultancy solutions that help enterprises to stay ahead of the competition. |
|
Services |
· Digital Marketing · Email Marketing Workshops · Social Media Marketing · Agency Training · Digital Marketing Strategy |
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Address |
6 Raffles Quay, #15-00 Singapore 048580 |
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Telephones |
(65) 9296 3877 |
|
|
hello@skycrm.asia |
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Website |
|
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Clients |
· Hygieia · E-biz · Global Technologies · Allon · Fitness Two |
Agency |
Hashmeta |
|
About |
Hashmeta is a leading digital marketing company with experience in web marketing and web design. It offers highly effective marketing solutions and User experience. |
|
Services |
· Social Analytics · Social Media Marketing · Content Marketing · Influencer Marketing |
|
Address |
30A Kallang Place #11-08Singapore 339213 |
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Telephones |
(65) 6205 5931 |
|
|
contact@hashmeta.com |
|
Website |
|
|
Operating hours |
Mon-Fri 9:00 AM – 6:00 PM |
|
Clients |
|
Agency |
Innova |
|
About |
Innova is a progressive web marketing firm in Singapore. It provides clients with a range of enterprise-friendly web solutions. Innova enhances your online capabilities and helps you to strategise and adopt creative web designs, killer online strategies and technology solutions. |
|
Services |
· Web Design · ecommerce · Content Management Systems · Search Engine Optimisation · Search Engine Marketing |
|
Address |
Singapore Post CentrePost Office PO. Box 798Singapore 914027 |
|
Telephones |
Phone: +65 9366 9060 |
|
|
enquiries@innovaconcepts.com.sg |
|
Website |
|
|
Clients |
· Home Fix · Excel · Sensational · Avivar · Toto |
Agency |
OOm |
|
About |
OOm is a Singaporean digital marketing firm that specialises in SEO and SEM marketing. With 14 years in the industry, OOM has assisted clients in and out of the county in rallying their online potential to achieve their sales and marketing goals. |
|
Services |
· SEO · SERM · SEO Reseller Program · Social Media Marketing Solutions · Social Media Management |
|
Address |
141 Middle Road #05-04 and #06-05 GSM Building, Singapore 188976 |
|
Telephones |
(65) 6391 0930 |
|
|
support@oom.com.sg |
|
Website |
|
|
Operating hours |
Mon-Fri 9am-6pm |
|
Clients |
· Union Power · SingTel · J Group · Direct Asia Insurance · D’Resort |
Agency |
Carbon Interactive |
|
About |
Carbon Interactive provides an integrated suite of digital marketing solutions to its clients. It employs a team of marketing strategists, creative and IT experts. It helps new businesses to achieve fast growth using robust initiatives and campaigns. |
|
Services |
· Digital Strategy Consultancy · Web Design and Development · Management Consultancy · Social Media Marketing, · Content Strategy and Development |
|
Address |
50 Ubi Avenue 3, #04-05 Frontier ePark@Ubi, 408866 – Singapore |
|
Telephones |
(65) 6293 4373 |
|
|
info@carbon.com.sg |
|
Website |
|
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Operating hours |
Mon-Fri 930am- 630pm |
|
Clients |
· Sentosa · Kipling · Changi Airport · MP&Silva · Paper One |
The inbound marketing buzzword is probably something you have had to scope out as a budding marketer or business owner.
Conventional outbound campaigns drive their messages towards unfamiliar audiences. Still, inbound woo users and potential leads to reach out to a given business when they encounter problems that can be solved by their product and service offering.
Online, inbound marketing is about the steps you take to draw traffic, get noticed and engage potential customers. You no longer have to interrupt “clueless” customers, and you actively increase the number of leads who are likely to come looking for your products in the near future.
Many B2B companies in Singapore still rely on the traditional methods to promote their products. They still believe in the spirit of employing salespeople, give them products to market, having them make calls and visiting potential customers to close a deal. We are not saying that this method doesn’t work, it works but it’s very effective when you have enough capital and marketing lists. The problem is the conversions rates here won’t be as high as expected.
If you still depend on this traditional method, you need to consider another alternative that can generate more leads. Inbound marketing may be what you are missing to generate more traffic and boost your sales.
What is Inbound Marketing?
It is a business approach that attracts potential customers by creating useful content and tailored experiences that appeal to them.
The method focuses on drawing potential customers instead of blasting them with unsolicited content that isn’t of interest. It’s simply creating content that answers and solves their problems instead of second-guessing them.
To succeed with an inbound marketing campaign, you need a multi-pronged approach that goes beyond your business website. A killer strategy involves your social media profiles, blog posts, videos and any relevant content sharing platform.
At the same time, you need to borrow from the SEO realm to boost your chance of being found by customers when they search for your brand
Leveraging a robust marketing plan can assist your business in:
- Attracting prospects consistently
- Create trust on an ongoing basis
- Build and stamp brand credibility
- Improve sales and drive constant growth
How Does It Work?
Businesses big and small are bound to capitalise from a well-drafted marketing strategy. It’s a highly effective marketing method that drives sales while fulfilling customer needs.
Before you formulate an marketing strategy, you must delve into the workings of the strategy. It comprises of four phases namely:
- Attract
- Convert
- Close
- Delight
The right marketing strategy empowers your business to make significant progress at any of these four stages of a customer’s journey.
Here’s an overview of these stages.
Attract
With Outbound marketing, you can target any possible lead out there. Inbound marketing gives you the benefits of attracting a specified audience that yearns to do business with your brand. It’s easy to create customer-centric content that informs your customers and compels them to come to you when they need answers.
Convert
After drawing in a targeted cluster, you need to focus on turning them into leads. You encourage them to exchange their contacts in return for content or an ebook. You can rely on tools such as landing pages or calls to action.
Close
At this stage, you can resort to lead nurturing or market automation to convert your leads into promising prospects. You can choose to educate and encourage them to venture deeper into your sales funnels with the idea to get them to close a sale.
Delight
Inbound marketing emphasises the after-sale stage. It seeks to offer experiences that make your customers remember your brand long after they make a sale. Social media and email marketing are ideal tools to use to keep your new customers engaged. A delighted customer is your best reference, and they quickly become your brand ambassadors.
How Is Inbound Marketing Different From Other Marketing Forms
Unlike the outbound marketing strategies such as TV, radio, and print which solely operate by utilizing the pushing techniques of marketing, inbound marketing allows the marketers to immerse themselves in what conversations the potential clients are already having among themselves. The chief goal is to convert the customers once they reach and engage your content. Instead of seeking to create a need or a want, inbound marketing seeks to satisfy a need or want that is already in existence in the market. So when clients bump into your content on the web, they immediately feel compelled to join and engage it.
Here is what constitutes inbound marketing:
- Inbound marketing is currently considered to be the most effective internet marketing technique. Studies show that this internet marketing strategy guarantees you the best return on investment (ROI) or lead conversions rate compared to the traditional marketing methods.
- Whether you are running a big company or a small company, it is an effective marketing strategy for increasing lead generation, website traffic, customer retention rates and sales.
- The first and most important online marketing strategy is to be found. Internet users need to find your products when searching for them online. You may be doing a good job generating leads, but a poor job converting them.
- The companies that are doing well in generating leads also invest a lot in lead conversions. They understand how to create content that attracts customers to view their products, fall in love with them and slowly turn them into potential customers. The most important thing here is to build a relationship that is based on trust.
- You need to start by providing important information about your business. Prospective customers will be able to find you without even having to search for your company. They will think of you as an expert in the industry, and come back to your website again and again.
Strategy
A compelling strategy requires elaborate planning. It sets your priorities right and enables you to measure progress. There are two critical steps involved. They are:
Setting SMART goals
To fuel your strategy, you must be measuring success. This is possible if you set the right goals from the onset. Without the right benchmarks, you’ll be shooting in the dark. The goals you set need to be:
- Specific
- Measurable
- Attainable
- Realistic
- Timely
Remember, the smart goals that have worked for other ventures may not be your best, and you need to set goals that rhyme with your businesses.
Set key metrics
If you expect your inbound marketing strategy to work, you need to set metrics that project your expected results. It’s important to modify, tweak and optimise the strategy regularly. Also, you need to keep an eye on your marketing KPIs to tell you what’s working and what needs an overhaul.
The State of Inbound Marketing in the Singapore Marketplace
In the Singapore marketplace, inbound marketing is not a free strategy. However, it takes minimal financial commitment compared to PPC or other conventional marketing strategies. Any marketing processes need capital. However, there are numerous strategies you can leverage without paying a dime. For instance, you can save money using YouTube videos, blog posts and your social media profiles.
The good thing with inbound marketing for small businesses in Singapore is that almost every entrepreneur can hack it regardless of available capital. Singaporean companies have access to sufficient technology need to drive a good campaign. As such, there’s no reason why small start up’s should fail to initiate and realise success from this marketing strategy.
From a social media perspective, Singaporean SMEs need to leverage the readily available platforms to drive an inbound strategy. It’s easier to resort to platforms such as Twitter and tools such as Google analytics to draw customer attention, traffic, and additional revenue streams.
Using a non-intrusive approach, Singaporean enterprises regardless of size, can capitalise on the direct business to customer engagement to demonstrate how they can solve client problems. Indeed, valuable content is the right bait to drive the customer deeper into the sales funnel.
Benefits
Investing in an inbound marketing strategy comes with many benefits. Here are some:
Strengthen Brand Awareness
Potential customers are always combing the web in search of answers, solutions or specific topics of interest. If your inbound marketing efforts consistently position your content among the top search results, it’s your best chance to showcase your brand and increase its visibility and strength. Topping search results overtime pays off for your brand in the long term.
Establish yourself as a thought leader
Potential customers want to learn and associate with leading brands in different niches. To establish that trust, you need to prove your expertise and industry knowledge. Using marketing techniques like blogging, webinars or social media events can set you up as a thought leader. Potential clients will regard you as a credible brand.
Increase lead and opportunity generation
Students have found out that businesses that blog regularly generate over 60% more leads monthly. Others who prioritise market automation enjoy a 50% increase in qualified leads. When combined with the right calls to action, your businesses will realise more leads and opportunities.
Generates quality traffic and leads
An inbound strategy fosters relationships that lead to more conversions. Your valuable content will draw website traffic. The more you post informative posts, the more your leads are likely to return and feel more obliged to buy your products. As long as your landing pages and CTAs are compelling enough, your sales funnels will never dry up.
It’s long-lasting
The primary function of an inbound strategy is to establish lasting brand and customer relations. As long as you know the formula to sustain the relationship, your leads will always have you on their list. If you’re leveraging the right SEO tools and tactics, your rankings will rise and keep the traffic streaming for the long term.
Mistakes That Can Happen
Not Having a Clear Marketing Plan
As Benjamin Franklin once said, “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.” One of the main reasons why traditional outbound marketing strategies fail or deliver mediocre results is due to lack of proper planning. Research shows that only 32% of B2B marketers in the world have a well-structured content marketing plan. Almost 50% of businesses that are involved in one or multiple forms of digital marketing do not have a concrete strategy.
Lack of a clear marketing plan means that the entire strategy in based on trial and error. One of the reasons why most do not have a plan is because they have no clue of where to start. For starters, this form of marketing is comprehensive and entails not just content marketing, but also social media marketing and email marketing in Singapore.
Each form of marketing in this holistic strategy enhances brand awareness, converts leads into buying customers, and generates sales.
Having Unrealistic Goals
As Hubspot inbound marketing course advocates that you need to have set realistic goals that are measurable. If the goals are not measurable, you will not be able to work efficiently or monitor the results you get over a period of time. The goals should be:
- Specific: Every inbound marketing goal should be attached to a specific metric. For example, write 5 more blog posts per week instead of writing more articles. The deadlines should also be specific
- Measurable: Set numbers to measure the success of your marketing strategy
- Attainable: The goals should be attainable.
- Timely: Strive to stick to the deadlines otherwise, if you keep extending the deadlines, your goals will lose their credibility and the entire campaign will fail
Taking Shortcuts
As a new business owner in Singapore, you are definitely eager to see tangible results from the money invested in the business. As a result, it is easy to be lured to shortcuts that promise quick sales or spike in profit margins. Some of the common shortcuts that entrepreneurs regrets taking when it is too late including buying followers on popular social media networks in Singapore such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, buying reviews and email lists.
At first, you might succeed in fooling the target customers that you are huge on social media, it is only a matter of time before they discover the truth. When that happens, potential customers who are part of the genuine followers will also leave.
Concisely, deception will ruin the brand reputation you have worked so hard to achieve, and it will be extremely difficult for you to regain ground in the competitive Singapore online business landscape. For instance, some people will not hesitate to bash your brand online if you bombard them with newsletters that they did not subscribe for in the first place.
Avoid taking shortcuts by looking at other genuine ways of gaining traction online. For example, you can complement your Singapore marketing with an outbound marketing campaign even though the latter is that powerful. Some outbound strategies such as display advertising, sponsored ads, and PPC advertising will help increase your brand visibility online and increase traffic. Once the target audience is on the site, you can request them to join your mailing list and follow your social media pages.
Doing Inbound Marketing without a Professional Blog
A professional blog filled with stellar content that resonates with the needs and expectations of the target audience is required. Continuously posting fresh content on your blog will position your Singapore business for success by expanding your clientele reach.
Note that a new blog post is a new page on your website that will be indexed by Google and other search engines. The more pages on your site that are indexed, the more organic traffic you will get from search engines. This increase in traffic will eventually translate into more sales and brand awareness both online and offline.
Make sure each post has several CTAs to assist the target audience to take the desired action. For example, you can decide to place banners at the bottom and top sections of each post.
Blindly Creating Content
Now that you understand the importance of blogging to your business goals and milestones. The idea to start writing blogs on any topic that is related to your niche keeps popping. Don’t otherwise you will be wasting your time and resources. Just like any other moving part in an inbound marketing strategy, you need to have a robust blogging strategy.
Take time to research the type of content your target audience may be interested in before you embark on writing. Here are tips on how to do it right:
- Map out buyers lifecycles and personas
- Compile a list of high-value keywords
- Ask customers the kind of content they would want to be published in the blog
Compromise Quality for Quantity
As mentioned earlier, it is easy to be lured into quick fixes and shortcuts if you are not conversant with inbound marketing. One of the guaranteed ways of ensuring your campaign delivers the expected results is by publishing content online regularly and consistently.
A recent report by Hubspot showed that companies that upload at least four blog posts on their websites every week get 4 times more traffic than those that publish four articles per month. Do not get it twisted though; the number of articles you publish is not the main factor that determines the success or results that you achieve. You have to make sure that the articles you publish contain quality content that is relevant to the target audience, well written, and search engine optimised to improve your site ranking on SERPs.
The point we are trying to put across is that in the context of Singapore inbound marketing, quality trumps quantity. The same statement applies to consistency. Adjust your schedule accordingly to be able to publish 3-4 articles per week or more depending on your niche and the goals you want to achieve.
Ignoring Mobile Optimisation
Singapore takes pride in having the highest smartphone penetration in the world. More than 70% of Singaporeans use their smartphones to browse the internet. The number of smartphone users in the world is expected to hit 9.038 billion by 2020.
Based on these statistics, it is imperative to make sure that your marketing campaigns are mobile friendly. Making your website mobile friendly will resolve this problem completely and help expand your clientele base. You can do the test using the free mobile-friendly tool by Google. The tool will also pinpoint other areas of your site that need to be tweaked.
Ignoring Metrics
Ignoring metrics is one of the reasons why most inbound marketing campaigns fail. More often than not, the companies fall short of achieving goals because they failed to monitor the strategies and make certain adjustments.
As you continue to implementing various strategies such as email marketing in Singapore, it is imperative to check the results achieved regularly to know if you are doing the right thing. For example, look at the number of recipients who take the time to read your emails and take the desired action.
As mentioned earlier, if you don’t monitor results, you will not be able to tell if your marketing campaign is working. There are plenty of tools that you can use to monitor the campaign accurately. On the same point, tracking results using too many metrics at once is not recommended as you risk losing focus.
The metrics that you track depend on the goals you want to achieve.
Not Polishing your Email Lists
Email marketing campaigns offer the highest ROI compared to other digital marketing strategies. If you have ever purchased an email list now is the time to delete it. As an inbound marketer, you need to have a list of genuine email addresses.
The first step to inbound email marketing is to check the validity of your lists. A five-question sniff test will help you identify addresses that should be expunged from the list. Once you have a healthy email list, you will notice a sharp drop in bounce rate as you will be sending emails to potential customers who are interested in your brand and expecting to hear from you.
Doing All Tasks at Once
There are a number of tasks that you need to do for your inbound marketing strategy to be effective in generating leads. Trying to do all the tasks at the same time will make it challenging for you to get the expected results. Having high expectations from your campaign is a good thing that will motivate you to keep on keeping on, but you need to take one step at a time.
Otherwise, you will overwork and spread yourself too thin – you will not see any substantial results from the inbound marketing campaign. Prioritize the tasks by identifying the channels that are performing well and those that need to be improved.
For example, if your Instagram marketing campaigns are performing well but your email campaign bounce rate is high, focus on rectifying your email campaign first.
Essential Strategies for Every Startup
Inbound marketing strategies cost less, and they bear immense benefits in the longer term. Here are some crucial marketing strategies for Singaporean startups.
On-site content marketing
On-site content marketing drives new readers to your site. It helps in customer retention since it keeps existing readers engaged on site. To score high, you need to ensure a supply of consistent, high value and original content. Additionally, content marketing fuels your social media and email campaigns, not to mention it drives your search ranking higher.
Off-site content marketing
An off-site content marketing campaign works like an on-site version only that your highly valuable, targeted and informative content appears on another site or publications. This means that you’ll generate new audiences who read and feel compelled to follow your brand. Referral traffic automatically boosts your brand reputation.
Search engine optimisation
On-site and off-site content marketing boost your online visibility. On-site content attracts quality backlinks. These translate into higher SERP ranking. However, there are more intricate SEO dynamics that need to be implemented to boost traffic. These include optimising website speed, optimising for mobile and keyword targeting.
Social media marketing
Social media marketing remains a crucial strategy for businesses that want to improve visibility. It provides a platform that you can leverage to engage a global customer base. By syndicating your content on these platforms, you offer additional reasons that keep your followers active around your brand. Remember, social media has the potential to amplify the input from other inbound marketing strategies.
Influencer marketing
Influencer marketing relies on “influencers” in your niche. These are the thought leaders who can stimulate your followers to take a particular action. On social media, they have the power to cross-pollinate your audiences with others from a different vertical, which can result in more traffic.
Email marketing
We have come a long way from the era where we used to consume outbound only marketing materials on television, radios, and OOH. Today, we can send personalized marketing material based on user activity and 360-degree customer information through inbound marketing. Outbound content was common for everybody, and there was no detailed analytics available. When we think about platforms that use customer data for sending relevant promotional sales material, Google and Facebook ads are the first to cross our minds.
But email marketing has been doing its job fantastically for almost two decades now, and it’s going stronger than any other channel. In fact, as an executive at an email agency proudly boast the fact that it delivers 4X more ROI than any existing marketing platform, and today we will take a deep dive into the role of email in your inbound marketing strategy. Let’s get going.
What Is Inbound Marketing And How Email Can Help
Inbound marketing is a digital marketing method that helps grow your organization by attracting a specific kind of audience and generating relevant leads and building lasting relationships.
Image credit: https://popupsmart.com/blog/how-can-email-marketing-fuel-your-overall-inbound-strategy
Inbound marketing can be conceptualized in four stages, namely:
- Attract: Create brand awareness using blogs, your website, social media and attract new leads.
- Nurture: Use marketing tools like email, copy, rich multimedia, forms, landing pages, and CTA buttons to nurture those leads.
- Convert: Use trial offers, consultations, automation workflows, and email-CRM integration to encourage them to make buying decisions.
- Delight: Utilize surveys, social media, and emails to cement relationships.
As you might have noticed, emails fit exceptionally well in all four stages of inbound email marketing. Also, emails fall under the category of consent based marketing, unlike intrusive direct marketing. Let’s better understand the role emails play in your inbound marketing strategy.
#1 Email Marketing Is Most Acceptable And Adaptable
Everyone loves emails. According to Statista, at least 80% of internet users in America, hailing from all age groups, also use email. Globally, 4.147 billion people use emails which is more than half of Earth’s population. The reason behind email’s success lies in the fact that email is a common link between all the web entities, including social media, as emails are universally accepted as credentials. Moreover, email is one of the most trusted mediums for official communication. But the best part of email lies in the fact that when users join your mailing list, they willingly and explicitly opt-in to receive emails from you. At our email marketing company, we find that this aspect makes email marketing the best tool for inbound marketing as it is both acceptable and adaptable.
#2 Email Marketing Provides One-On-One Window
On platforms like social media and Google SERP, a lot of other brands, including your competitors, fight to grab the attention of prospects. But emails provide you with an opportunity to communicate with your subscriber directly. Also, as you continue to communicate with your subscriber, you will gain more knowledge about their preferences. The more you communicate, the clearer understanding you will get of their buyer journey. An average person checks their inbox 15 times a day. Thus, you will get ample opportunities to convert and delight your subscribers. From my understanding of working at my email marketing agency, this is a double-edged sword since failing to calibrate your efforts with their expectations may end up in your subscribers losing interest in you.
#3 Emails Give You An Opportunity To Send Highly Customizable And Personalized Messages
No doubt, email is popular, and it also allows you to interact with your subscriber on a one-on-one basis. But what makes email perfect for inbound marketing is the ability to customize and personalize them at every stage based upon the user’s requirements. You can refer to professional email examples and use automated workflows to identify what your subscribers want to consume and send exactly relevant information. Sending personalized and meaningful content helps establish your image as a personal advisor instead of a marketer trying to make a sale.
#4 Email And Lead Nurturing Are A Match Made In Heaven
Inbound marketing is all about a series of focused interactions. You can use these interactions to provide content that is insightful to your subscribers. A good buyer seeks to benefit from your thought leadership and not receive promotional offers that may lead to impulsive buying. Fundamentally, inbound marketing is focused on building lasting relationships and converting your leads into your brand advocate. This is exactly what drip campaigns in email marketing are all about. Drip email campaigns focus on consistently sending small yet insightful pieces of information as visible in all professional email examples. This is why email is the best platform for lead nurturing.
#5 Emails Are Actionable And Measurable
Inbound marketing requires you to have detailed analytics in order to stay on the right path. You will be required to consistently track that your messages are in line with your subscribers’ current needs. In case of any deviations, you will need to quickly take corrective actions and align back to their needs. Email follows a similar line of action and provides you with all parameters required to keep a tab on the relevance of your messages. Email provides the following metrics to assist you in inbound marketing and as an email marketing company, we use the same for evaluating inbound strategies:
- CTR
- Open rate
- Conversion rate
- Forwarding rate
- Bounce Rate, and a lot more.
Towards the end, I would like to stress using pillars of the inbound methodology, i.e., attract, engage, and delight, to empower your business. Keep this in mind while running an inbound email marketing campaign, and conversion will become a byproduct of adding value to your subscribers’ buyer journey. I shared these insights on the basis of my broad experience at my email marketing agency and I hope this article helps you better understand the role of emails in inbound marketing.
Considerations for Creating Content
Content is an essential component of any inbound marketing strategy. It’s the bait used to attract readers and leads, and it keeps them glued to your brand. Here are guidelines for creating content for a successful marketing campaign in Singapore.
Must offer value to the user
Content cannot be used to harp about the brand and its products strictly. It’s essential to create content that resonates and fulfills a reader’s needs. It needs to be attractive and shareable. Compelling content can be entraining and emotive.
SEO optimised
When creating content, it’s crucial to consider SEO optimisation. It’s essential to consider how the keywords impact on its positioning in search engines.
Content needs to be versatile to conversion funnel phases.
When creating content, the original idea is to cater to the user’s needs in a generalised manner. The best content needs to adapt to all stages of the customers journey. It can range from general product descriptions to testimonials or detailed product guides and influencer opinions.
Content around the brand rather than products
Content creation needs to be guided by a brand’s image, values, and mission. The idea is to create user-centric content. Always use the “80/20” strategy with 80% of material focusing on the consumer.
Regularly published content
With inbound marketing, the best approach is to create and distribute content automatically. It’s essential to keep the flow constant such that readers have a reason to keep coming back. In the end, whatever content you choose-video, text or blog post, you need to remember that it’s the base that attracts visitors to your brand progressively.
Steps to Create an Effective Strategy
Inbound marketing is an all-encompassing method. It requires you to be conversant with different fields including social media, search engine optimisation content writing, email marketing, and web design among other areas. When creating an inbound marketing strategy, you must know what to do, what to include and what works best for your business model. Here are steps for creating a practical inbound marketing strategy.
Identify Your Audience
Your inbound strategy address a specified audience. Avoid being general and point out the traits of the demographic you’re targeting. You’ll need to evaluate pertinent details to help you craft the right content for your audience.
SMART Goals
When setting smart goals, avoid generalisation and define specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and timely objectives. With these in mind, it’s easy to address other inbound marketing objectives you intend to attract traffic, drive conversions or wind your business.
Create Unique Content
Unique and original content helps you to build credibility and attract new leads. Consider content that provokes your target audience, answers their questions and caters to their pain points. Consider the content channels and platforms that engage your audience most.
Create an On-Site Content Strategy
The aim of creating content is leveraging it to draw traffic to your site where you work on converting them into customers. Remember to incorporate the same with easy site navigation, regular publishing and value-packed content on the website.
Keep it Social
Your target audience will determine the social media channels to use. Different demographics prefer different social media platforms. If you’re marketing to corporate executives, going for LinkedIn is ideal. Take care not to stretch yourself thin and stick to at least three channels.
Understanding the Five Core Principles
Inbound marketing principles play a guiding role whenever you want to implement your strategy effectively. Though the inbound methodology may have experienced new trends, the five principles haven’t changed. They’re abbreviated as:
- Standardise
- Contextualise
- Optimise
- Personalise
- Empathise
Standardise- make it scalable
A brand has to tell a remarkable story that revolves around its values, processes and market solutions. Standardisation here is ensuring that the brand story is the same across scalable platforms.
Contextualise-make it relevant
Contextualisation is about tailoring experiences to resonate with customers at the right time and place. It addresses the persona’s pain point through the right channel all along the buyer’s journey.
Optimise-make it better
The optimisation should help to streamline the standardised brand message and processes. There’s a need to identify gaps that help you to make improvements. You can use data to enhance your inbound strategy in the future.
Personalise- make it extraordinary
Instead of nagging prospects with automated email or cold calls, making a customer feel special or appreciated increases the chances of turning that prospect into a long term customer.
Empathise- Make it emotive
Big prospect’s data can make a company forget that they are dealing with humans. By showing them that you care about their pain points and challenges, prospects are likely to forge a lasting relationship with you–their problem solver. Also, appreciating their voice fosters a long-term engagement based on the delight factor.
Conclusion
When compared to other internet marketing strategies, inbound marketing is said to be cost-effective and reliable. It’s one of the most reliable ways to interact with your visitors and convert them into leads. What’s more, it allows you to measure how your business is doing using metric like conversion rates, website traffic, on-screen time, click-through rates, and many more. If you are tired of using the traditional methods to market your company, try inbound marketing today and enjoy all the benefits that comes with it.
Get in touch with us for comprehensive digital marketing services in Singapore.
Co-Author Bio
Kevin George is Head of Marketing at Email Uplers, one of the fastest growing custom email design and coding companies, and specializes in crafting email templates, PSD to HTML email conversion and free HTML email templates. He loves gadgets, bikes, jazz and eats and breathes email marketing. He enjoys sharing his insights and thoughts on email marketing best practices on his blog.
