Latest from the Intellegentia Blog

Inbound marketing delivers results that other marketing tactics just can't match.  There is great value in creating quality content that aligns with potential buyers’ interests, and then distributing that content through various online channels, such as blogs and social media, to attract potential consumers to your company.

Here are 4 key reasons why Inbound is crucial for a more successful business:

In today’s buyers’ market it is crucial to have an understanding of the processes the buyer goes through when making a decision. The buyers’ journey takes them through a number of stages and you need to ensure you are there to educate and provide the relevant resources and content your buyer needs as they move through the process.

Is your content marketing up to scratch? Many businesses are struggling with their content as it is almost entirely focused on the final purchase stage of the customer lifecycle. They focus on company information and product information and wrongly assuming that everyone is ready to make a purchase right there and then.  Whereas in fact statistics show that only about 4% of visitors to your website are actually ready to buy. 

The buyer has a lot more control in the modern sales process than ever before, undertaking a lot of their own research on the internet and through other means before contacting your company.

In fact 60% of buying process is done before the buyer even makes contact with your company.  

So it’s more critical than ever to thoroughly understand your target customers as your inbound marketing strategy needs to be developed with your target audience in mind.  Marketing is responsible for guiding the customers through the buying journey.  

Envisioning the type of person you are targeting and gaining a deeper level of insight into their goals, pains and motivations will help you develop a highly targeted and cohesive marketing strategy. Each persona will act differently and need different things at each stage of the buying process.

Figure out what your buyer needs help with, what challenges and problems are they looking to overcome and what sort of information and what content will be best suited for these Buyer Personas.

A new breed of marketer is emerging as top B2B Technology Marketing roles are becoming more aligned to those of Chief Marketing Engineer (CME). 

Historically, when developing a campaign, marketers started with the creative side of things.  Now the focus is on data first.  Reading signals from data and analytics, targeting and segmentation of the data based on the specific needs of your buyer persona to lead nurturing and moving your prospects through the decision cycle.  Gone are the traditional advertising, event management and outbound methods of yesteryear. 

But wait… what happened to marketing creativity?

You might have a watertight inbound marketing strategy, with a consistent output of engaging content, regular social posts and a widespread social media presence, but if you are not using solid, clearly defined buyer personas as the foundation for all of this work then you will struggle to move forward with your marketing strategy.

It is absolutely crucial that your inbound marketing strategy is developed with a target audience in mind – clearly identifying and defining your target buyers is the first step to a successful inbound marketing strategy.