As a CMO, you know today’s consumer is more empowered than ever. Not only are they finding more and more ways of avoiding disruptive marketing, but actively seeking the media content that they do want to consume. As an undergraduate at Northwestern in Medill School of Journalism’s Integrated Marketing Certificate program, with an interest in Inbound Marketing, I have found two articles detailing the do’s and dont’s of effective inbound marketing. Based on these two article, I have drawn three recommended action items that I think would truly maximize your company’s marketing efforts.
In “5 Key Inbound Marketing Considerations for Marketing Managers” Kerry Butters from XEN life discusses five essential strategies and tactics to employ for a successful inbound marketing campaign. She encourages (1) high quality blogging to drive cross-channel traffic and build trust with consumers, (2) developing a well-informed and holistic strategy, (3) implementing marketing analytics to prove ROI and inform budget allocation, (4) mobile advertising to reach the widest audience, and (5) using banner ads that are valuable to the consumer, visually attractive, and relevant to a particular site’s visitors.
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On the other hand, in “5 Catastrophic Inbound Marketing Mistakes That Can Risk Your Brand in 2016” Vibhu Satpaul from iamwire highlights some of the mistakes to avoid when it comes to inbound marketing. He writes against (1) publishing content that is not directly relevant to your consumers, (2) ignoring the importance of keywords in consumer search queries, (3) not blogging regularly enough or disregarding it from your inbound marketing strategy altogether, (4) excluding call-to-actions or links to further information to help consumers in their decision process, and (5) not basing an inbound marketing campaign on an appropriate buyer persona.
After reviewing these two articles, and from my experience with this topic as an undergraduate in Northwestern’s IMC program, I have developed three recommended actions items to help make your marketing campaigns more effective and increase profitability:
- Educate and entertain. Aim for high quality blogging by educating and entertaining your audience with thoughtful pieces, avoiding self-promotion, having industry expert or specialist writing your content, and posting fresh content regularly (in order to increase your site’s visibility).
- Construct a persona. Develop an appropriate buyer persona by seeking to understand the unique needs and challenges of your target audience and develop a focused content strategy based on these insights.
- Use smart keywords. Make sure to insert the keywords that you know your customers are using in trying to find solutions to their concerns.
About the author: Tania Argüello is an undergraduate student at Northwestern majoring in Communication Studies and pursuing the Medill School of Journalism’s Integrated Marketing Certificate. Upon graduating in June 2016, she is interested in pursuing a marketing position in a creative, advertising or branding agency. For more content or just to chat about the marketing, branding or communications, you can contact her at LinkedIn or Twitter.
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