Marketing Local Business Online - How Do I Implement Inbound Marketing?

What comprises Inbound Marketing?

Marketing Local Business online is where qualified customers are looking for you.

Not long ago in a HubSpot blog post, Rick Burnes suggested an intertwined relationship between three main Components of Inbound Marketing. This is how I see it:

    Inbound Marketing Content
        Content is the substance of Inbound Marketing.
        Content is the information that attracts prospects to your Local Business.
        Content includes the Call To Action that converts prospects into customers.
    Inbound Marketing Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
        If people don't know you exist, how are you going to do business?
        SEO makes it possible for potential customers to find your content.
        Marketing Local Business online must include both Search Engine Marketing (SEM) and SEO if you want your Local Business found.
    Inbound Marketing Social Media
        Social Media amplifies the impact of your content.
        Widely distributed content will be discussed.
        Socialized content taken seriously becomes authentic.
        There is more trust when a person has a choice.

It's critical to remember that Social Media have two sides:

    What you say about your business, and
    What others say about your business

Why is Inbound Marketing vital for your Local business?

    Inbound Marketing has remarkably high Value.
        It costs less than buying traditional ads, Pay-Per-Click, mailing lists, print, etc.
        Blogs, Twitter and other Social Media accounts are free to start, albeit they do require time...
        In general, you may expect considerably higher Return on Investment (ROI) than traditional advertising.
    Inbound Marketing is effective, arguably more effective than outbound marketing.
        Targeting specific markets is easier by controlling keywords used to search for you.
        Prospects qualify themselves by the keywords they choose in their searches.
        Pre-sold customers search, find you and ask to buy, because they find what they want.
    Inbound Marketing has great timing insofar as you are there to be found.
        Prospects search for you online.
        Searching prospects are considering a purchase now, which is why they search.
        Prospects considering a purchase are more receptive to your message, because they are ready to buy.

Seth Godin recently remarked,

    "One of the key drivers of permission marketing, in addition to the scarcity of attention, is the extraordinarily low cost of dripping to people who want to hear from you."

What are the Prerequisites to Inbound Marketing?

You need to do your homework and fully understand those looking to buy what your Local Business offers. Your Market analysis must include the following, and you need to revisit each of these regularly:

    What groups of customers exist? These are your markets.
    Which customer groups do you prefer to serve? These are your target markets.
    What do they need?
    How do their needs change? Pay close attention to market trends.
    How do they use these products and services?
    What price are they willing to pay?
    How do they want to receive what they buy? How important is distribution to your Local business?
    What do you offer that meets those needs? How will you exceed expectations?
    Who are your competitors?
    What are your competitors doing about your target market?

Exactly how are your customers searching for what you offer? It's not enough to know how you describe your offering. What matters most are the exact words prospects use to search for it.

Simply -- make it easy for potential customers to find your Local Business.

    "The Internet means you can treat different people differently, and it demands that you figure out how to let your permission base choose what they hear and in what format," instructs Godin.

How is Inbound Marketing Done?

Setup your web site to attract visitors naturally through Search Engines, the Blogging universe, and Social Media sites. Do NOT forget your Call To Action to convert visitors once they arrive on your web page! The Inbound Marketing process is really quite straightforward:

    You provide content of interest to people wanting to learn or know something, and you make it findable.
    You share similar content from other people who do the same or similar interesting things.
    Interested readers come to see you as an authority in your field by reading and revisiting you online.
    When somebody considers a purchase related to your expertise, they will come to you. They have come to trust you.

Inbound Marketing is like Word-of-Mouth with people passing recommendations online. Seth Godin sums it up like this:

    "Real permission works like this: if you stop showing up, people complain, they ask where you went."

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