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Monday 16 May 2011

Increase Your Sales with Intelligent Inbound Marketing

Business is tough right now, particularly for small organisation. Increased sales is vital for businesses but a constant flow of opportunities is even more vital to a modern business. You need to create a mechanism that keeps your business moving forward. This is why you need to learn and utilise the power of inbound marketing
The traditional way to increase sales was through advertising, in all of its many forms.  This means pushing your message outwards to as many people as possible, since the law of averages dictates that at least some of them will buy.  Although this undoubtedly works, it can be very haphazard.  Consumers have become increasingly sophisticated at recognising and blocking out unwanted advertising - and make no mistake, most advertising is unwanted.  It's often said that only 20% of advertising works, but nobody knows which 20%!

Inbound marketing is a more refined way to promote your business, since it more accurately reflects the way that modern consumers look for goods and services.  As the name suggests, it's designed to bring customers to you, rather than you going out to find them.  The basic principle is that potential customers are already looking for what you have to offer, you just have to help them find you.  This is done by providing targeted, useful information that will show up in the search engine rankings.  Inbound marketing tactics include social media, blogging and search engine optimisation and marketing.

The emphasis is usually upon providing information and value, rather than direct sales messages.  However, it would be a mistake to believe that inbound marketing has nothing to do with sales - it does.  It's just more subtle about it!

So how can these techniques help you to increase sales?  In the first place, they act to qualify your leads.  Somebody who wants to buy a widget is highly likely to go online to do some research first. They find your blog, which you've optimised for the search terms that your potential customers are likely to use.  Here they read your useful article on "10 Tips To Get The Most Out Of Your Widget" from your web site.  This immediately demonstrates that you know what you're talking about, so they click the relevant links to land on your main site.  This will also be optimised for the relevant search terms and contain valuable information that demonstrates your expertise, reliability and trustworthiness.

At this point, it's highly likely that your visitor will buy there and then, since they're already in the mindset to do so.  Even if they don't choose to buy at that point, you have a chance to develop an ongoing relationship with them.  Perhaps they subscribe to your regular "Widget News" newsletter, or your Twitter feed, where you share further interesting articles, tips and resources.  This keeps you in the customer's mind, until the point where they are ready to make a purchase. 

In this way, inbound marketing techniques will help you to increase sales.  At no point have you demanded "buy from me" in direct, advertising style.  Nevertheless, everything is geared towards turning an interested visitor into a satisfied paying customer. Igneous Marketing can help your business develop an inbound marketing strategy, visit our site today.

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