Attract
Attracting customers sounds like a simple concept. But there's more to drawing in customers than optimizing your on-page SEO and blasting out new content.
Before you even think about your content strategy or invest endless hours studying how search engines work, you must decide who your ideal customer is. Spend some time developing a buyer persona, an avatar of the kind of customer who will keep coming to your site for information and will think of you first when they're in the market for the types of products you sell.
Consider the kinds of content that you can provide that match what your ideal customer is looking for on the internet. That's the point at which you perform search engine optimization (SEO). When assigning a ranking to your page, Google isn't limited to your keywords, but frequently searched keyword phrases give you a great way to expand your reach. Then, you can build unique content that provides value.
Convert
Once you have attracted a visitor to your site, you want to convert them to a lead. A lead is someone who wants more details about your brand and who gives you information (like their name, email address, and content preferences) in return.
How do site visitors become leads?
You can convert visitors into leads with a call-to-action, also known as the CTA. The CTA can be "Buy now!" But it can also be a request to be added to your marketing email list, download an ebook, or schedule a demo.
Quality leads also include enough information to power your outbound marketing efforts. Visitors who give you their email addresses and ask to be added to your email lists are interested in what you have to offer.
Close
The whole idea of digital marketing is digital sales, right? Once you have attracted your ideal customer and converted them into a lead, it's time for your sales team (or just you, if you are a sole proprietor working alone) to close the sale.
Keep in mind that you may have to move a prospect through your sales funnel. Many leads won't be ready to become paying customers at first. But polite persistence pays off.
There will usually be a back and forth process until your lead closes the deal and becomes a paying customer. Congratulations! You made a sale!
However, you need to continue delighting them to encourage them to buy more in the future.
Delight
The delight stage is where the fun of digital marketing starts. You have successfully guided your customer through the buyer's journey. Now it's up to your content marketing team to keep in touch and give them more information about the solutions they need. Your sales team must make sure your products are meeting their expectations.
Inbound marketing vs. outbound marketing
Inbound marketing is a sales tool that draws customers to your site with content and curated experiences that you have tailored to their preferences.
On the other hand, outbound marketing interrupts your customers with information they don't necessarily want. Inbound marketing matches your content to the intent of an internet search. With the right inbound marketing strategy, your site provides the information potential customers believe they need and the experiences they find satisfying.
There was a time when outbound marketing was all you needed. All you had to do, at least in theory, was buy a list of targeted email addresses and bombard potential customers with sales letters and offers.
Modern spam filters make email marketing without an opt-in process a thing of the past. However, this kind of push marketing was never particularly effective.
Other traditional tools of reaching customers, such as mass media campaigns, conferences, seminars, and print ads, are similarly outdated. Customers don't have to wait for you to come to them. They can actively search for you on the internet. But you can attract, convert, close, and delight your customers with the power of inbound marketing.
