Inbound Marketing or Lead Magnet, literally "magnet to prospect", are new concepts that we hear more and more about in the marketing world, more specifically in web marketing, that is, say online marketing. First, to understand these two notions, we must begin by noting that the Lead Magnet is simply a practical method of Inbound Marketing. But, what exactly is a Lead Magnet in Inbound Marketing?
INBOUND MARKETING: WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
Traditionally or generally speaking, when it comes to marketing, the company that wants to sell its products or services goes to the customer, raises awareness and promotes its products often through advertising spots, media, etc.
This method of approaching the customer is called Outbound Marketing or Outbound Marketing. But outbound marketing by its main method sometimes seems "a little embarrassing" for customers because it requires too much publicity.
Innovative companies then adopted a new approach to marketing management: Inbound Marketing. She wants to be the opposite of outbound marketing because unlike going to the customer, his main method is to attract the attention of the customer who will then come to it.
Inbound Marketing can be explained as the marketing technique that consists in capturing the prospect's attention (potential future client) by publishing on its website or through social networks, quality content, visuals, newsletters so that it is highly identifiable. As stated above, in the traditional forms, it is better to pick the customer. The goal is to convert visitors into prospects and prospects into customers.
Inbound marketing, which is mostly a form of online marketing, has emerged because of other forms of marketing work less and less. The consumer sometimes feels overwhelmed by a large number of advertisements or too much-published content.
There is too much information to consult. He ends up not paying any attention to it or to bring himself an advertising blocker to prevent the visualization of any supposedly uninteresting information.
According to the website The newspaper of the Net "Inbound marketing" is a huge success today because advertising has invaded the media and the non-media, leading the public to a natural saturation.
Inbound Marketing has one main goal: to build customer loyalty and turn it into a brand ambassador. Thus, it helps to work on the brand image of the company and win new customers.
INBOUND MARKETING: HOW IT WORKS
The company broadcasts quality content through social networks or its site to attract the attention of the user who is still a stranger.
This is the purpose of creating the first contact. The latter has judged the relevant content, will consult the site of the company to learn about benefits.
By consulting the site, the user will find the coordinates and contacts of the company that will take into account its requirements and motivations to offer the desired product: it is the conversion of the site visitor Lead (commercial contact) go through what will be called Lead Magnets (often digital downloadable content).
After registering the Lead in a database (in a CRM for example), it will be provided with quality information. This is the engagement process that consists of better informing prospects (potential future customers) in order to transform them into customers.
We can later, through the habits of the prospect, determine if he can buy or buy on the site. The effectiveness of the site can then be deduced after data analysis of all its visitors.
Here for the short topo on Inbound Marketing, I have personally described the methodology of Inbound Marketing on my blog.
Since we can not talk about it without referring to the Leads Magnet, let's see how a lead magnet looks.
LEAD MAGNET: WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
To achieve a good return on investment, the company's Inbound Marketing needs to be effective in its Magnet leads. A Lead Magnet is then a crucial tool in inbound marketing.
It can attract web visitor and encourage the prospect to buy. It is defined as web content offered to a future customer in return for contact information.
A perfect Lead Magnet can increase the number of visitors to a corporate website, but not necessarily the number of Leads. The lead magnet, proposed by the Web Entrepreneurs is simply to encourage the visitor to a personal information exchange, which will later facilitate its conversion into a customer.
HOW LEAD MAGNET WORKS?
A lead magnet can take many forms ... it is often a high added value content for the user. This may be :
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A Report: This will provide useful information in the form of tables, graphics, etc. This may be a study or even an infographic. This data can be valuable to a decision maker.
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A white paper: The white paper is a document, not commercial in the sense that it will not present your products, but of reference. It provides neutral and objective information, detailed answers to specific problems.
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A checklist: A checklist or checklist is a document allowing you to remember the steps of a procedure to follow. It must allow accompanying the future customer in the resolution of a problem or a task.
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A template: It will be a document like a calendar, a form template or a mail that will allow prospects to save time.
It is essential to adapt your magnets leads to the expectations of your customers to maximize its success:
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Make proposals for solutions to a problem that a prospect may encounter;
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The lead magnet must reach the customer easily and quickly while trying to meet his expectations;
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Ensure protection. That is, lead magnets should not appear directly in the search engines.
We can say in conclusion that the success of a company on the web necessarily passes today through the adoption of Inbound marketing strategy, which will also depend heavily on its first image given to potential future customers through the Lead Magnet.
Warning! We must avoid confusing Inbound Marketing and Content Marketing which are two different approaches. Inbound Marketing aims to generate incoming leads.
