Outbound marketing is getting harder.  At best response rates are falling, but in many cases calls and emails are simply getting blocked.

Today's savvy buyers know that they can access the information that they need via the internet, so the key to an efficient, cost effective marketing strategy is to incorporate inbound marketing into your operation.

Inbound Marketing is a marketing strategy, including but not limited to practices such as content marketing, social media, and personalised interaction with customers, which enables CMOs to solve their biggest marketing challenges, whilst using advanced up-to-date tools that reap the highest ROI for the business.

And even better – Inbound marketing costs 61% less per lead than traditional outbound methods! (HubSpot).

An Inbound strategy is doubly important in the B2B technology sector, as technology buyers demand a wealth of information at every stage of buyer’s journey - distributing relevant and helpful content to your target market narrows the gap between buyer and sales objectives.

Here are three top tips to help technology marketers get to grips with inbound marketing and see a rapid return on investment.

1. Develop your personas

How well do you know your customers? What are their greatest business challenges? What drives them? What challenges do they face on a daily basis?

If you do not know the answers to these questions, it is time you did some research.

Establish your buyer personas by interviewing customers, sales and the customer service team to determine your buyers’ roles, decision process and pain points. You can use your personas to:

• Develop targeted messaging that addresses the needs of your ideal buyer

• Adapt lead generation & lead nurturing forms to further segment and qualify sales opportunities.

• Develop and map content that is relevant to the buyer persona and their stage in the buyer’s journey.

2. Sales and Marketing Alignment

Creating a better collaboration between Sales and Marketing should be an essential goal for any business in order to maximise the ROI from their inbound marketing efforts.

Proper alignment of sales and marketing departments makes businesses 67% more likely to close deals and can generate a 20% growth in annual revenue.

Alignment of goals, procedures and outcomes helps Sales and Marketing work together to improve their processes for customer acquisition i.e. lead generation, lead nurturing, lead qualification and sales closing.

3. Leverage marketing automation tools

The vast majority of technology buyers conduct their own extensive research online before making a purchase. To really engage with your buyer, a framework has to be in place that pulls all your valuable content together; providing quality leads, making use of processes, detailed analytics and automation to drive those leads through the pipeline.  

Studies show that businesses that use marketing automation to nurture prospects experience a 451% increase in qualified leads! (The Annuitas Group)

Whether you are a software firm, a mobile app developer, an IT firm or a web-services business, inbound marketing techniques can help you to get your products and services found online and nurture top of the funnel prospects into long-term clients.

Take a look at our eBook Inbound Marketing Techniques for Technology Companies and learn how moving away from the traditional outbound marketing model, and leveraging proven inbound marketing techniques, can help your business drive sales and maximise return on investment.