three inbound advertising developments to grasp in 2021
Inbound marketing isn't easy.
There are innumerable strategies for driving more traffic.
You can write more blog posts and e-books, use better keywords, and schedule it to post on social media.
To top it off, inbound marketing trends change almost as quickly as SEO tactics.
This means that it is becoming more and more difficult to keep track of things and not fall behind.
In a day you post great content and lock it behind a form. The next day, you find that forms are not working.
It can be tricky, but ultimately, you need inbound marketing to grow your business.
This is one of the best ways to get new leads to your website without paying a lot of money on ad spend.
How can you keep up in such a fast paced, ever changing and growing environment?
There are some trends that will drive content marketing in 2021 and beyond.
The effectiveness of these methods has already been proven and they are gaining traction. So it's a good idea to jump on board and prepare for the mission before they really take off.
Let's take a closer look at the basics of inbound marketing, then go over three inbound marketing trends you need to use today.
What is inbound marketing?
The term “inbound marketing” was coined in 2006 by HubSpot.
They defined it as:
An approach that aims to attract customers through content and interactions that are helpful and relevant.
Instead of competing for ad space and buying slots, focus on developing your blog, SEO presence, and social media platforms.
The goal of inbound marketing is to drive visitors naturally (inbound) to your content or website instead of reaching them using outbound methods like advertising.
HubSpot's inbound methodology is used to visualize the process of inbound marketing:
The first stage is closed Attractthat focuses on driving traffic back to your site.
The goal at this stage is to drive relevant traffic that is most likely to turn into a lead or prospect.
You can achieve this with great SEO, blogging, social publishing, and a lot more.
The second stage is Convert.
Convert is all about turning those website visitors into leads by collecting content information.
You can do this by offering white papers, tips, or e-books in exchange for email to add to your list.
The third stage is called Conclude.
This phase focuses on converting the right leads from the right traffic into customers.
Marketing automation, email, CRMs, and closed-loop reporting play a huge role in closing these deals and attracting more customers.
The last phase is about "inspiring" your current customers.
joy creates a better relationship with current customers through social media, surveys, CTAs, and nurturing emails.
You want to do this to create higher lifetime values and loyal customers.
After you've had a basic refresher course on the technical aspects of inbound marketing, you can focus on the biggest trends to master before 2018.
1. Blogging is (still) king
Content marketing is one of the most effective strategies for generating leads quickly.
If you don't blog consistently, you may lose huge ROI increases.
In addition, the blogging market is growing rapidly. Millions of posts are published every day for a reason:
Blogging drives traffic.
That's why I still recommend blogging.
Blogging works. But it takes time when you are out of traffic.
When you guest post to websites run by industry experts, you're bringing relevant traffic back to your own website.
That's why I blogged as a guest for years:
I did it for two main reasons:
- Awareness of my brand on websites that have a large following
- Bring relevant traffic back to my own website
It is a mutual exchange:
Site X receives great content from Producer Y (you) in exchange for Site X's audience and promotion.
If you're still not convinced, what if I told you that guest blogging generates amazing inbound sales?
Jon Cooper generated tons of hits in a single guest post on Moz:
From this traffic he received countless inquiries and requests for new services.
In fact, he got so many that he had to turn them down due to limited resources and high demand.
Gregory Ciotti generated 36,733 email subscribers through guest blogging.
The case studies are endless for good reason:
Guest blogging works. It controls traffic and incoming leads.
How do you start?
Go to Google and search for your preferred industry website.
Let's go to the search engine journal, for example.
Search their website and make sure your target audiences are lined up.
For example, SEJ is a diverse site.
It has topics on almost everything marketing-related, so it will likely do well for most marketers.
If you like PPC they have tons of content about it. When your focus is more on SEO, you can talk about it too.
Go to their website and see what kind of engagement people get on their posts:
If the commitment to each post looks good, then it's well worth your time.
The last thing you want to do is guest blog on a website with 1,000 visitors per month who don't like or don't share the content.
That would be an enormous waste of time.
When you find a website with high engagement, come back to Google and do this basic search to find out the guidelines for guest blogging:
You can also switch the "Guest Post" part if nothing is displayed. To attempt:
- Guest blog
- Guest blogging
- Write for us
- Contribute
This is a quick way to find new ways to blog guests.
Click the link and you will immediately be given information on how to participate in guest blogging for your desired site:
Many websites allow you to fill out a form to submit your article idea for review.
Do this process for your favorite sites to get your guest blogging quickly.
Notice: Always give examples of your best content.
Just rinse the process out and repeat. They'll get the relevant traffic back to your website in no time.
Guest blogging is one of the best ways to get quality traffic.
However, you can't just put together an old 1,000 word blog post.
That won't drive traffic.
Follow this next trend to get better traffic from your guest blog posts (and your own blog posts).
2. Long, detailed content is better
Guest blogging is fantastic.
Blogging on your own website is also amazing for driving inbound traffic.
But not just any blog post is enough.
You can't put a rotten 500 or 1,000 word post together and expect your business to become the next Facebook.
It just won't happen.
Instead, you need high quality, high quality, and consistent blogging to transform your business.
It helped me transform Crazy Egg by increasing blog traffic by over 200%.
I blog several times a day now and have never seen better traffic.
However, if you think 500 or 700 words is enough, I have news for you.
It is not so.
According to Backlinko, the average blog post on Google is 1,447 words.
Google's new passage indexing also rewards longer, more detailed content by ranking well-written passages regardless of the entire page.
It's like in the gym:
If you do not enter the time, the results will not be displayed. No pain no gain.
It is similar with inbound marketing.
You can't write too little and risk getting little to no traffic.
But you can't write 100 posts a day either. There is just not enough time.
You need to find a happy medium that is data-driven in driving.
Data from 11.8 million posts indicates that longer posts rank higher in the Google search engine.
If you're still writing short blog posts, your traffic is likely not as high as you'd like.
You probably won't see the benefits people rave about visiting inbound blogs.
How do you create a longer blog post?
It is actually not difficult! All you have to do is invest your time and effort.
Here are some actionable ways to get your blog posts up to 1,500+ words without adding useless fluff.
Add walkthroughs or step-by-step content
This is the best way to add good length to your posts. Instead of writing fluff that doesn't add anything, you need to focus on adding value.
Here is an example.
Use great images that make use of captions like boxes, highlights, and arrows.
When you're writing an article like "The Best Ways To Use SEO", you're not simply listing the best options.
Show people how to implement these strategies.
If you're writing an article about remarketing, show them how to start a campaign:
Detailed, actionable steps are what people are looking for.
Think about it:
Are you looking for something like "SEO Guide" on Google to improve your SEO?
Of course you do.
So, if you don't provide step-by-step ways to improve SEO, you can kiss that traffic goodbye.
Reuse content
By reusing content, you can get the most out of great content and add value.
For example, let's say you have several posts related to SEO tactics, such as:
- Local SEO tips
- SEO hacks
- Link building tips
You can combine these to a list post as follows:
"25 SEO Tips to Get More Leads Today."
I do this all the time to create longer, more detailed guides:
Take existing short posts and combine them into a single guide that covers everything.
Grow your posts without doing any new work and I guarantee your traffic will increase.
3. Forms are less effective
You read that right. Shapes are a thing of the past.
The original HubSpot inbound playbook was launched in 2006.
It's almost 2018 now. And the same tactic just doesn't apply.
Trends shift, patterns change, and most importantly:
Consumer behavior is evolving.
You can't do the same things that worked in 2006, or we would fill all of our blog posts with keywords at number 1.
Qualifying leads is an important aspect of any company. We all live from driving inbound leads.
But what if those leads have to wait to speak to you and even go through a long form?
They just don't convert that fast.
Drift tested the response times of more than 400 sales teams to determine the average response time to leads:
The majority of the masses responded more than 5 days after initial contact or they never responded.
This is terrible considering your chances of contacting a lead drop 10x after just five minutes.
Response time is one of the most important (if not the most critical) factors in whether or not you convert a lead into a customer.
Unfortunately, most businesses fail.
It's about leads who convert, are interested in your service and, of course, are directed to your website.
The fact is, people hate filling out long forms for content that should be "free".
Either keep the form very short by simply asking for an email address, or try something new.
How else can you collect leads? Chat bots.
In fact, Drift put its business on the line to test this.
They have removed forms from their location for a full year.
Guess what happened.
They generated more inbound leads than with forms.
That little message above had a 63% CTR. Of the people who clicked on this message, 63% converted with a sales rep.
I know this is a lot taller than most of the forms still on my website.
People don't want to wait 24 to 72 hours to speak to someone about their problems.
Problems are an "in the moment" situation. They need to be fixed as soon as possible. That's why we google everything.
We need a solution now. If you can't fix the problem right now, you risk losing that head start.
Start implementing a live chat system on your website ASAP:
It's free, easy to set up, and helps you respond to leads immediately instead of sending boring emails 72 hours later.
Don't risk losing leads because you can't email them fast enough.
Help them resolve their problems quickly and you can expect inbound leads that convert at higher rates.
Just make sure you write a convincing, natural-sounding chatbot script, and allow leads to reach out to a living person if they are frustrated.
Conclusion
Inbound marketing has changed a lot since HubSpot was launched in 2006.
There are now tons of ways to control incoming traffic.
You can blog posts, publish ebooks and guides, research the best keywords, and have better social strategy.
Inbound marketing is complex and constantly changing.
When consumer behavior changes, our marketing tactics need to adapt.
Don't give up if your old inbound strategies don't work.
Instead, start blogging guests.
This is one of the best ways to grow your business and get your brand ahead of the relevant traffic.
Write longer, in-depth, data-driven blog posts that help people.
The top content on Google doesn't have 1,000 words. So, you can't expect to master inbound marketing by putting together a mediocre blog post.
Finally, focus on generating leads without disturbing consumers.
Try using live chat systems instead of forms.
Inbound marketing requires that we change our tactics to reflect changes in consumer behavior.
Don't fall behind.
If all of this feels too much to do on your own, please feel free to contact us. We can help you develop a strategy that works for your brand.
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