WHAT IS A LEAD?
First thing’s first: what exactly is a lead? A lead is any person who indicates interest in a company’s product or service in some way, shape, or form.
Leads typically hear from a business or organization after opening communication (by submitting personal information for an offer, trial, or subscription) … instead of getting a random cold call from someone who purchased their contact information.
Let’s say you take an online survey to learn more about how to take care of your air conditioning unit. A day or so later, you receive an email from the HVAC company that created the survey about how they could help you take care of your car. This process would be far less intrusive than if they’d just called you out of the blue with no knowledge of whether you even care about HVAC maintenance, right? This is what it’s like to be a lead.
And from a business perspective, the information the HVAC company collects about you from your survey responses helps them personalize that opening communication to address your existing problems — and not waste time calling leads who aren’t at all interested in heating and air services.
Leads are part of the broader lifecycle that consumers follow when they transition from visitor to customer. Not all leads are created equal (nor are they qualified the same). There are different types of leads based on how they are qualified and what lifecycle stage they’re in.
WHAT IS INBOUND MARKETING?
As Hubspot, an inbound marketing and sales platform, defines it as inbound marketing is a philosophy, a methodology, and a set of tools. So what does that mean for your business? Inbound marketing is about using marketing to bring potential customers to you, rather than having your marketing efforts fight for their attention. Sharing is caring and inbound marketing is about creating and sharing content with the entire world. By creating content specifically designed to appeal to your ooh la la customers, inbound attracts qualified prospects to your business and keeps them coming back for more.
INBOUND SETS YOU APART FROM YOUR COMPETITION
Almost every businessperson has asked themselves “How can I keep my customers interested?” at some point. The way businesses have had to evolve in recent years in order to attract and convert leads is dramatically different than it used to be, thanks to inbound marketing.
INBOUND MARKETING SOLVES PROBLEMS
Inbound marketing solves the problem of a pushy salesperson. Traditional marketing pushes your message and product on consumers, regardless of whether or not the customer is ready to buy it or not. Inbound is just the opposite. Inbound marketing is focused on attracting customers through relevant and helpful content and adding value at every stage in your customer’s buying journey. With inbound marketing, potential customers find you through channels like blogs, search engines, and social media.
Unlike outbound marketing, inbound marketing does not need to fight for potential customers attention. By creating content designed to address the problems and needs of your ideal customers, you attract qualified prospects and build trust and credibility for your business.
INBOUND IS ALL ABOUT CREATING MARKETING PEOPLE LOVE
Inbound marketing has given life to old, outdated business practices of sending pointless e-mails, hounding people with phone calls, and hoping someone will walk in after seeing a sign out front. This fresh twist on marketing’s purpose is to make the customer truly feel like the business cares about them – not just about making a profit.
Inbound marketing is about empowering the customer, and who doesn’t love that?
INBOUND MARKETING ALLOWS YOU TO TRACK YOUR CUSTOMER
…But not in a creepy way. At KM Guru Marketing, we are obsessed with Hubspot. This tool allows you to attract visitors, convert leads, and close customers. Like Hubspot says, “Create content, optimize it for search engines and share it on social media. Then engage your prospects with landing pages, calls to action, personalized email and a personalized website. That’s how you market to humans. That’s inbound marketing.” If you are looking to attract visitors to your website and turn them into happy customers, contact the Gurus today! We are happily serving clients in cities like Springfield, MO and Fayetteville, AR, and we would love to help you, too!