Marketers should work to become much more attractive to potential customers searching for their goods and services online, advises Andrea Simon, Ph.D., corporate anthropologist and President/Founder of Simon Associates Management Associates (SAMC) in her article, “Maximize Your Inbound Marketing Now,” recently featured in PeerSphere Magazine (page 28).
“The online sales channel is on fire across many B2C and B2B industries,” she writes, “with no signs of abating.” Given this new reality, if marketers are not already pursuing and investing in a strong inbound marketing strategy, they need to change their ways, she states.
Inbound marketing: high-quality content that brings the right prospects to you
To do business effectively, you want to attract the people who want the solutions you are offering. Potential customers no longer wait for advertising to push out information about a product, service or other solution. Instead, they now search online. And you’d better be there, high up in the rankings, or you’ll quickly get lost in the shuffle.
Attracting interested buyers in an “inbound” rather than “outbound” way is the essence of inbound marketing, Dr. Simon explains.
Make sure searching consumers can find you online
These days, potential customers begin their search online and evaluate your offerings before they even enter your place of business or meet your salespeople. So what can you do to help them find you?, Dr. Simon asks. And what does your site need to look like so they ultimately select you? The answer lies in the buyer’s online journey.
The key to sales is understanding and capitalizing on the buyer’s journey
According to Dr. Simon, the typical “searcher” starts out with a general idea of what he might be looking for, using search words to find an array of options. If your site provides intelligent information about your solutions and is optimized with keywords that best match what that consumer is searching for, hopefully that searcher will click on your site to learn more.
Now your work begins, turning that visitor into a lead, then a satisfied customer, then an enthusiastic promoter of your goods and services.
Don’t get left behind in today’s world of online search
Don’t rely on old sales and marketing tactics when your competitors are embracing new ways to stand out online, Dr. Simon urges. In doing do, you run the risk of being on page 10 of a Google search, thereby becoming invisible to the people searching for the solutions you offer. And that’s one place you never want to be, she warns.
To read Dr. Simon’s article in PeerSphere Magazine (page 28), click here.
