Nel precedente post ho esaminato le differenze esistenti tra Inbound marketing e Outbound marketing. Oggi approfondisco il discorso relativo all’inbound marketing.

Secondo la società di ricerche di mercato Marketing Sherpa, le imprese che operano nel B-to-B stanno rispondendo alle nuove tendenze dei compratori, che ricercano sul web le informazioni di cui hanno bisogno prima di prendere una decisione d’acquisto,

making their companies easier to find online. They do so by providing the content that potential and current customers want. In return, they have a chance to capture a lead, make a sale, or meet another marketing goal. This is the key concept of inbound marketing.

Le componenti principali dell’inbound marketing sono tre: 

• Content marketing
• Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
• Social media

Fonte: HubSpot Blog 

In particolare:

1. Content is the substance of any Inbound Marketing campaign. It is the information or tool that attracts potential customers to your site or your business. 
2. SEO makes it easier for potential customers to find your content. It is the practice of building your site and inbound links to your site to maximize your ranking in search engines, where most of your customers begin their buying process. 
3. Social media amplifies the impact of your content. When your content is distributed across and discussed on networks of personal relationships, it becomes more authentic and nuanced, and is more likely to draw qualified customers to your site.

Nic Windley ha sintetizzato molto bene queste tre componenti:

Content marketing: where content is created and distributed through numerous channels both on site and off site.

Search Engine Optimization: where content is prioritised and served based on a searchers query using search engine optimization (SEO) and paid search marketing like Pay per Click.

Social Media Marketing: where content is shared and discussed within communities online.

Content marketing 

Gli strumenti utilizzati dal Content marketing sono: Blog, articoli, white paper, video, podcast, webinar, seminari, eBook, ecc.

Perché il contenuto possa essere utile, nel contesto di un Piano di Demand generation, si dovrebbero seguire queste sei regole:

1. il contenuto non dovrebbe avere fini promozionali;
2. il contenuto dovrebbe essere pertinente e significativo, e non generico, e soprattutto molto utile a che lo deve leggere;
3. il contenuto dovrebbe fornire una soluzione a un problema che chi sta leggendo deve affrontare nel breve termine;
4. il contenuto deve essere scritto e presentato bene;
5. il contenuto deve essere importante per l’azienda che lo propone;
6. il contenuto deve essere supportato da dati statistici e numerici, da testimonianze, da prove.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Nell’articolo già citato di Marketing Sherpa troviamo quest’ottima descrizione:

Search engine optimization helps ensure that your company is easy to find by the most relevant prospects. It’s no secret that designing your website and its content to rank well in search engines is a great way to attract potential customers.

Ma come si deve procedere?

Come ha sintetizzato molto bene Maria Pergolino, responsabile marketing di Marketo: 

First, you need to decide which terms you want driving traffic to your site. If not, you may end of lots of traffic, but no new business … To make sure you are getting the right website traffic, create a list of the keywords someone looking to purchase your product, or learn about your industry, would use. Then identify which content on your site you want to rank for each of these pages. Optimize these pages for the terms you identified.

Social Media

Come ha scritto Marketing Sherpa:

Connecting with your audience in Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and other social networks is one the most popular content marketing tactics. Messages and interactions are a form of content that can pull in and satisfy a relevant audience.

Social Media can be an excellent place to repurpose content. For example, you can start discussions around your newest white paper in a LinkedIn group, and you can send 140-character nuggets of wisdom via Twitter (if that’s what your audience wants).

E come Maria Pergolino evidenzia:

People will often find your social media content via search. This means that even if your content wasn’t  rettweeted, or socially forwarded to others rigth away, it may still end up driving to your website.

Conclusioni 

Una giusta sintesi di questo argomento può essere fornita da questa parole di Brian Halligan, Ceo a HubSpot: 

I advocate doing “inbound marketing” where you help yourself “get found” by people already learning about and shopping in your industry. In order to do this, you need to set your website up like a “hub” for your industry that attracts visitors naturally through the search engines, through the blogsphere, and through the social media sites.

 

 

 

Buon weekend!