The Three Pillars of Using Inbound Marketing to Generate Sales Leads

Inbound lead generation is a proven and highly effective way to drive sales in almost any industry. It works for retailers, consultants, manufacturers, and B2C and B2B companies.

However, not all inbound marketing campaigns are successful. Unsuccessful campaigns typically omit one of the three most important elements of inbound marketing for sales lead generation:

These three elements are the basic building blocks of modern inbound marketing. Each one plays its role in converting curious strangers to die-hard brand ambassadors.

 

OPTIMIZING YOUR WEBSITE FOR LONG-TAIL KEYWORDS

If your on-page SEO is not structured in a way to drive traffic, you won't be seeing outstanding sales lead generation results from your webpage. Optimizing your website is a challenging task, but it can be broken down into manageable chunks. First, consider the on-page elements search engines derive the most ranking information from:

These should all feature relevant keywords that are as specific as possible. Each page should be focused on a single subject, and feature the keywords relevant to that subject – this gives you the ability to be very specific.

Keywords that include information such as size, location, type, or even product color are called long-tail keywords, and typically produce better sales results because they address customers who are late in the buying cycle. As WordTracker points out, someone searching for "family climbing vacations on Mount Shasta, California" already knows what he or she wants and is ready to purchase it. The same cannot be said of someone searching for "travel ideas.”

Use Google Trends to perform research and find the best keywords for your business.

USE GREAT CONTENT TO BUILD WEB PRESENCE

There is another important element to SEO that occurs off-page. Some experts, such as Brian Dean with Backlinko.com, believe it may be the most important element – backlinks. When another website links to your website, search engines give it more priority.

At this point you should be asking how you develop backlinks to your website. The most reliable way to do this is by generating excellent content related to your business or industry. People who find relevant, useful information about the things they care about are going to share it with their friends, colleagues, and internet followers.

Generating insightful, compelling content about your business will both draw leads to your website and convince them to stay – creating more opportunities for conversion in the process. At the same time, the content drives your site's rankings by attracting backlinks.

While blogging may seem like a domain best-suited for exciting industries like travel, entertainment, or technology, the benefits it offers are available to any industry. Even the most boring, cut-and-dry business can revitalize its appeal by crafting content showing people why it does what it does.

The blog for a B2B company may not become famous like that of an Instagram celebrity, but it will drive sales. The important thing is to develop a call to action for your posts and capture visitor information whenever possible. You can then use this information for future marketing programs. The most effective way to do this is through email – simply catching your customer's email address and sending regular updates on new products guarantees return sales.

 

MAKING THE MOST OF SOCIAL MEDIA

As blogging super star Neil Patel points out, B2B companies that blog generate 67% more leads per month compared to those that do not. Part of the way that they do this is by leveraging their social media presence to attract attention to their posts.

The strategy is quite simple. It starts with market research, moves on to developing a personal brand that appeals to your market, and ends with offering useful information to people looking for answers. Companies that do this can enjoy enormous success in their fields because social media gives them the platform they need to attract new clients and customers.

To use social media effectively, it's important to match you company culture with the culture of the network you're using. For instance, Facebook and LinkedIn have strikingly different cultures – one is fun and casual while the other is professional and value-oriented. Your presence on either network needs to match what its users are looking for.

This means that every business has its own "go-to network" where it engages best with followers. However, even if you are getting most of your leads from one network, it is still important that you maintain your presence on the others as well, because they complement one another.

 

THE FUTURE OF INBOUND MARKETING

As social media use continues to rise and people become more engaged with mobile devices, the inbound marketing landscape will shift. For one, voice search will become increasingly important as people liberate themselves from keyboards and touchpads, and video content already demonstrates greater ROI than text or graphics. Look to other players in your industry to see what type of content produces the best results.