Marketing the mousetrap
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by Neil Lakeland chairman, Chartered Institute of
Marketing, Kent branch
Ralph Waldo Emerson is often quoted as saying: "If a man can
write a better book, preach a better sermon, or make a better
mousetrap than his neighbour, though he builds his house in the
woods the world will make a beaten path to his door."
Unfortunately, we all know that this is not the case. Unless
people know about your mousetrap, and need the benefits of a
mousetrap, they are not going to visit.
However, whereas a strategy of outbound marketing used to
suffice - advertising, exhibitions, and telemarketing - the last
few years have seen the rise of inbound marketing as the strategy
of choice.
For those of you who are not aware of this term, "inbound
marketing" is the discipline of converting people who have already
heard about and engaged with your company (i.e. warm leads) rather
than trying to attract lots of people in the hope that some will
convert.
While it is not a new concept (inbound marketing used to be call
"pull" and outbound "push"), the explosion of social networking
sites such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, together with the
trackability and customer insight that a web analytics package
gives companies, has meant that it has taken off and is now firmly
embedded in most companies' marketing strategy.
This is principally because inbound leads have been proven to be
61% less expensive than outbound ones.
So, how can you use it to grow your business?
The single most important aspect of inbound marketing is
ensuring that your company can be found.
You therefore need to make sure that your website is optimised
and visible for the relevant keyword searches (including any
long-tail phrases that you want to own).
This is an ongoing process, and checking how it is working
should be on any marketer's task list at least once every
month.
When that is completed your next step is to create content which
is good enough to bring people into your sales funnel.
This could be through a company blog which is optimised and
linked to your website, writing whitepapers, or hosting webinars on
topical subjects that are then available for download from your
website or becoming known in LinkedIn groups as the authoritative
voice within your specialised area.
Whatever method you choose (and the above examples are not
mutually exclusive, I would suggest a strategy based on a mix of
the different tools), the final critical step is to track the
results of your effort through web analytics.
If you don't have one installed on your site I recommend
downloading Google Analytics since it is relatively powerful - and
free.
Successful marketing depends on a total understanding of your
customer and with digital you can get close to this.
By setting goals and defining your sales funnel you can track
what inbound channels are working for you and refine the ones which
are not performing as you would expect.
Tuesday, October 11 2011
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