Getting potential customers to come to you is the holy grail of any marketing campaign. Inbound marketing is the methodology that can help you achieve exactly that. And here is why it’s useful…
It was a sunny Saturday afternoon and I was playing in the garden with my two young children when the doorbell rang. We were expecting friends so off we all ran to answer the door full of anticipation and excitement. Unfortunately, the person standing in front of us wasn’t someone we knew, but a stranger selling conservatories. His first question ‘would you be interested in adding a conservatory to your home?’ sent the kids running back into the garden. I wasn’t rude but I was firm in my reply – our garden is without a doubt too small for a conservatory. This didn’t satisfy the salesman though. He proceeded to tell me about the options available for a smaller garden. Once again, I insisted we didn’t want to lose any more garden space and politely told him we weren’t interested in any of his products. He then asked me about a front porch and when he could see I was losing patience and wanted to get back to my children, rushed out his final pitch to ask if I wanted any new windows and why I should consider his company to supply them. Even as I was closing the door, he asked if someone could call me in a few days to double check I didn’t want any of the above! The only way to put an end to the awkward, cold experience of this particular cold call was to close the door.
Of course, not all cold calls are the same. Sometimes you are met with a salesperson that asks one question and takes no for an answer. Sometimes you might even be interested in what they have to offer and are grateful for them coming to you. However, I think it’s fair to say that most of us, most of the time, prefer to be the proactive ones when it comes to making a purchase. We don’t want to be bothered at a time that’s not convenient to us, we want to be in control and do our research when we’re good and ready.
Promoting your brand in the right way
That’s where inbound marketing comes in. As a company selling something – whether you’re selling to consumers or other businesses, whether you’re selling products or a service – you still need to make sure your name is in front of people. But how can you make this happen without partaking in any kind of cold calling? There are ways to get around this conundrum. Digital marketing such as content generation, SEO and social media is a great way to get your brand noticed. Singularly or collectively they can be used to drive traffic to your website and generate leads.
Blogs are a fantastic method of inbound marketing because they populate your website with new content on a regular and hopefully frequent basis. As a result, they improve your search engine ranking and give you something fresh to talk about and share on your social media channels. If you haven’t yet added a blog to your website, or you haven’t kept its content fresh and up to date, now might be the time to start. I’d love to hear what you think about cold calling and whether you think inbound marketing can generate the results you’re looking for.
