Turning Strangers into Customers: The Power of Inbound Marketing in Lead Acquisition

Isn’t everyone a stranger until you get to know them? The concept of strangers is moot when you stop to think about it. Everyone you’ve ever known (unless they’re family) were strangers at first. So getting past the ‘fear of the unknown’ should be easier when you think about it like that.

So what’s the secret to turning strangers into customers when it comes to business? Through the power of Inbound Marketing, strangers can become loyal customers. Here’s how.

Everyone is looking for something and by providing people with what they are looking for, you naturally build trust and credibility. In doing so, they are more likely to choose your business when it comes time for them to make a purchase. Not to mention, Inbound Marketing is more cost-effective and produces better results than traditional advertising.

A Proven Methodology

Because Inbound Marketing is a method of growing your business by building lasting relationships with consumers, prospects, and clients, there are specific techniques used to make this happen. Using Inbound Marketing will enhance your brand via SEO, content marketing, social media, video marketing, and more. Remember, each person looking for something is on a Buyer’s Journey.

Understand the Buyer’s Journey

Think about the last time you bought a product. There was a time you didn’t even know that product or service provider existed, and you ended up paying for it. You went through something that’s called the Buyer’s Journey, even without being aware of it.

The Buyer's Journey is a framework which a buyer follows before making a purchase–moving through three phases: awareness, consideration, and decision. But before prospects become buyers, their interest must be captured in the three stages of Inbound Marketing. During these three important stages is where strangers become customers.

Making the Conversion

In this quest for conversion, HubSpot Inbound Marketing delineates three stages a prospect goes through to become customers. 

• Attract – In this phase, strangers will be invited and persuaded through strategic blogs, keywords, and social publishing.
• Engage – Once engaged, your structured content will provide insights and solutions that align with your visitors’ goals, wants, and pain points so they are more likely to buy from you, not just once, but ongoing. 
• Delight – Customer delight is the process of exceeding a customer's expectations to create a positive experience with your product or brand. Delight is about providing a remarkable experience to users through focusing on their needs, interests, and wishes. Discounts, gifts, promotion, or spontaneous outreach can all increase customer delight.

By going above and beyond, you can increase the chances of customers remaining loyal to your brand -- longstanding. The goal of delight is to leave these people so satisfied and happy that they go out and sing praises to your brand. They become your brand ambassadors.

Harnessing the Power of SEO

By using SEO strategies, you can help your website rank higher in search results and reach a wider audience. This can help you reach new customers, generate more leads, and increase your sales and revenue. SEO is a powerful tool for businesses looking to increase their visibility, credibility, and sales.

Keywords drive your SEO strategy. Keyword research helps you identify topics to write about and publish on your website to drive more organic traffic. Then, you can build a keyword list and create optimized content to target those keywords. 

Onpage optimization (AKA on-page SEO) refers to all measures that can be taken directly within the website in order to improve its position in the search rankings. Off-page SEO refers to SEO tactics applied outside of a website to improve its rankings. These tactics often include link building, guest posting, social media marketing, and more. The goal of off-page SEO is to get search engines (and users) to see your site as more trustworthy and authoritative.

Crafting Compelling Content

The role of content marketing is engaging, educating, informing, and winning prospects. Creating content that offers solutions, addresses pain points, and recommends solutions will win leads. The various types of content, such as blog posts, ebooks, video, and infographics must be interwoven throughout your inbound marketing plan. When you provide guidance on creating valuable, relevant, and informative content which resonates with your target audience, you will gain authoritative presence.

Social Media Engagement Strategies

Social media can be used as a powerful inbound marketing tool. First off, it’s important to select the right social platform based on your target audience. Creating engaging content and fostering conversations will build long lasting relationships on social media.

Lead Magnet Creation

Lead magnets will help build your social media customer base. A lead magnet is a free asset or special deal offered to customers in exchange for their contact details. It can be a discount code, webinar, white paper, ebook, template, or another resource. To gain access to the lead magnet, a consumer must provide their name, email address, and/or company information.

The Role of Data and Analytics

To refine your inbound marketing strategies, you must rely on the role of data and analytics. By tracking user behavior, engagement metrics, and conversion rates, you can gather data that determines what makes informed decision-making. Adapting strategies based on data insights will bring you much closer to answering the need or providing the solution your prospect seeks.

Conclusion

• Inbound marketing can turn strangers into customers by following the distinctive marketing techniques used such as: SEO, compelling, authoritative content, lead magnets, social media strategies, data and analytics
• These components will guide you through the three vital steps of Inbound Marketing: Attract, Engage, and Delight.

Let Witmer Group help you turn strangers into customers through our Inbound Marketing and HubSpot management services. Contact us today for more information or schedule a discovery call.