The 4 essential laws of inbound marketing

In the complicated world of inbound marketing, four laws form the basis of what business leaders must know about lead generation from digital marketing. Knowing these four laws and implementing action items within each law will simplify the inbound marketing process for business leaders and drive qualified sales leads.

These inbound marketing laws turn the marketing programs of a few years ago on their head, so they don’t come naturally to many marketers. In addition, they are not always common-sense programs and require marketing discipline. The first step is awareness and an understanding of the law’s strategic importance to your company.

Law 1. Meet the needs of your digital researcher

In the old days of traditional selling, prospecting phone calls were made to shake the trees and generate leads. This is no longer effective as calls are screened and inquiries are easily ignored by very busy prospective customers.

Your prospective buyers do not want to be sold; they want to research and discover their options and make contact when ready. They do this by reading digital content and finding companies and solutions that fit their perceptions of value and benefits. This is at the core of content marketing and inbound lead generation. The better you understand the benefits they are researching and pursuing, the better you can post content to increase leads.

Law 2: Loyalty is earned and nurtured

People desire brand loyalty because it makes their lives more convenient and simple.

Because prospective customers have so many options when buying a product or service, they search and strive for brands they can be loyal to and follow. Prospects want one company to solve their specific needs in specific areas. They don’t want to shop around for a new resource.

Loyalty must not only be earned through the benefits of your product or service, it must also be nurtured through value-added, stay-in-touch programs. At the core of creating a loyal customer base and loyal followers is your digital content.

Law 3: Simplicity wins customers

The most popular website in the world is also one of the most simple websites in the world. That website is Google. If Google can keep its website extremely simple, surely your company can too! And by the way, Google has a lot of content too.

Simplicity helps people research your company and build loyalty. Use a clear tagline of 10-12 words to describe your company. Include no more than three major content areas on your website home page.

Law 4: Keep it mobile

Mobile usage continues to grow and it has not yet peaked in B2B markets. Google reports mobile usage is growing and more important than ever. We estimate mobile traffic in B2C markets to approach 60% in 2018 and to exceed 50% in B2B markets this year. Conversions are a challenge in mobile, as people research on mobile and convert on desktops and laptops. The goal is to simplify the mobile user experience and capture more mobile conversions and leads.

Action items

• Make a list of the most important problems you solve for prospective customers.
• Make a list of the key benefits you provide your target markets.
• Prepare a content schedule including topics from these two lists and distribute the content through email newsletters, blog posts and social media.
• Stretch these topics out for one year.
• Write a 10-12 word tagline for your website home page.
• Feature no more than three key content areas on your website home page and keep your main navigation to five items or less.
• Write content designed for mobile.
• Use a responsive and mobile-friendly website template.

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