Content and social media marketing, SEO, marketing automation - at first glance it seems impossible, but all these marketing measures can be summarized under the umbrella of a single marketing philosophy: Inbound Marketing. Does this term no longer make you shrug your shoulders? Then you've probably already done your research! You know that it's a strategy with which you can accurately address potential customers online and get them excited about your company and its products. If you can see yourself and your company as an inbound marketer, it's time to think about the next steps: What are actually the basic requirements needed to get started in b2b inbound marketing?
1. the mindset
Inbound marketing is a philosophy that means a radical rethink for some companies. Because to be honest, many people still think of marketing as conventional outbound measures such as trade fair appearances, print and online advertisements. But as the name suggests, this couldn't be further removed from inbound marketing. Instead of "finding", the focus here is on "being found".
For this to succeed, you first need to come to an understanding: It should not be the company or the product that is the focus of communication, but first and foremost the target group. What you therefore need is a sound knowledge of your B2B buyer personas on the one hand, but also the empathy to put yourself in their shoes on the other. What information does the user need so urgently at the current stage of their purchase decision that they approach the company all by themselves and leave their contact details?
Some people may initially find it difficult to abandon product-centric communication in favor of target group-centric communication (what to do with the great claims and brand promises?), but the rethink will pay off - in the form of highly qualified leads for your company. Whether C-level or executive marketing manager: everyone should understand why this paradigm shift is necessary in order to live it in the next step.
2. the team
Inbound marketing is very diverse because it combines several areas of online marketing. Accordingly, you need a task force of employees to successfully plan and implement your b2b inbound marketing activities:
- The team leader and strategist: they hold all the strings in their hands and have an overview of their team, the various campaigns and the associated goals.
- One or more content producers: What's a blog without valuable content? That's why you need at least one employee with the right knack for topics and texts. In addition, a graphic designer is also a great advantage. This way, infographics, the various CTAs or even small videos can be produced directly in-house.
- A web designer/techie: There should always be a contact person who makes sure that the website works perfectly, looks appealing and is user-friendly.
- An analyst: The analyst will tell you which landing pages, content offers or social media posts perform best. He draws the right conclusions that help your team to continuously optimize your inbound marketing activities.
So if you are thinking of assigning a single employee to your inbound marketing for the time being, always bear in mind that this person should actually be a jack-of-all-trades. In theory, it could be done, but one person who has to do a bit of everything can never be as effective as four experts working together seamlessly. This is precisely why it makes sense to ask yourself: do we want to manage our inbound marketing (completely) in-house or outsource it to an inbound marketing agency?
3. the internal structures
It is often preached that companies should stop thinking in silo-like structures in favor of an improved, integrated way of working. And this approach is also essential for the success of an inbound marketing strategy - especially for marketing and sales. This is where the relationship is often tense, even though both teams are actually pursuing the same overarching goal: Acquiring new customers and retaining old ones in order to ensure the financial success of the company.
Of course, each team still has its own area of expertise when it comes to inbound marketing: while marketing takes care of the top of the funnel, sales tends to focus on the bottom of the funnel. Now comes the big but: the part of the funnel where the leads generated by marketing are passed on to sales is particularly critical. The collaboration must be right here! In concrete terms, this means that sales must be able to rely on marketing forwarding sales-ready leads and the marketing team must be able to rely on these leads being processed accordingly. How do you achieve this? By creating transparent processes at this exciting point in the funnel:
- Both teams need to speak the same language: The same definitions apply to the different lead stages and the same understanding of what is a good fit and what is a bad fit for the company.
- Both teams must continuously exchange information and analyze and optimize joint processes.
4. the website
The first point of contact for your potential customers on the Internet is naturally your company website. It should provide relevant information for your target group and, in the next step, turn visitors into leads. So far so good - but for this to succeed, your website must fulfill a few basic requirements:
- It has to be found: The be-all and end-all here is SEO. A clever keyword strategy and following a few SEO tips are half the battle. However, depending on the industry, initial investment in Google AdWords campaigns may also be worth considering.
- It must offer valuable content: A dedicated blog section is best for this. Independent of specific product pages, a blog can address topics that revolve around the actual needs of your target group.
- It should offer the opportunity to leave your contact details: In order to be able to identify your prospective customers and get to know them better over time, they must of course be able to leave their details as a first step. It is particularly practical if the data record is transferred directly from the form on the landing page to your CRM system.
There are also many other things you can do on your website to positively influence traffic and lead generation. We will be happy to tell you what these are and how you can turn your homepage into a customer magnet:
