The Inbound marketing process can be distilled into 4 simple steps, so it becomes easily understandable and you know what details to implement.

1. 4 Simple Steps Of Inbound Marketing
By Douglas Hsu
We’ve already discussed why inbound marketing* is so effective in generating leads,
but you might say: “Help! How exactly can I implement inbound marketing?” Maybe
not, but you’re a clever person and you know your business could use inbound
marketing to better promote itself. It’s easier than you think.
We’ll break down into 4 simple steps.
Step 1: Attract: Strangers → Visitors
Reel them in!
For this to happen, the people who are
interested in your product would have to
find you. In order to stick out from the
depths of the vast Internet, you’ll have to
sway the search results in your favour.
This can be done through Search
Engine Optimisation (SEO) which is
basically getting your website to be on
the first few search results on Google,
although how to do this exactly will be
discussed another time.
Integrate content
The beauty of inbound marketing is the integration of your various marketing online
platforms. From the content of your landing page (your ‘main’ website) or from the
search engines, link them to your blogs and to your social media.
Appeal to buyer personas
Of course, you’d want the people visiting your site to be those most likely to become
interested, or in marketing lingo, “leads”. These ideal customers are called buyer
personas, and they are whom you build your whole business around. Hence, your
website and your marketing have to cater to this specific type of buyers.
So to recap: Market your product such that your ideal customers find you on search
engines and share your content using integrated platforms of blogging and social
media.

2. Step 2: Convert: Visitors → Leads
Get their contact information
Once your website gets visitors, you’ll
want to convert them into leads by
obtaining their contact information. It is
important to know whom you are dealing
with; hence, contact information* are
imperative. You’ll at least need their
names and email addresses. This will
give you a clear idea of what type of
buyer personas you are working with.
Trade content for information
You can’t just go begging visitors for their contact information; nobody gives away
something so personal so easily! You’ll have to offer something to them in return.
Since you roughly know what kind of visitors your website appeals to (buyer
personas), you can cater content directed at them. The content may come in the
forms of e-books, whitepapers, success stories and tip sheets etc.
Calls-to-Action
This is the button or link that encourages an action from the visitor, such as
"Download ebook". The calls-to-action must be appealing and noticeable.
If clicked, the customers should be brought to a landing page, where the offer from
the call-to-action is fulfilled, and their contact information is collected using forms.
Once their information is collected, your visitors are now leads.
* If you ask for too much contact information, you may put your visitors off. This
could be counterproductive for your marketing. So limit the amount of contact
information you request for to about 3 fields, (e.g. First Name, Last Name and Email
Address) at least for the first time. For leads at different points of your marketing
funnel, different form lengths may work better; test the effectiveness of various form
lengths and styles using A/B testing.

3. Step 3: Close: Leads → Customers
The use of cookies allows tracking of
actions taken by the leads, such as what
content they have downloaded, what
pages they have visited, etc. so we can
be aware of their behavior. Using “Lead
Scoring”—the numerical representation
of sales-readiness—for each of the
actions taken by the leads, you can
reduce uncertainty in the marketing
process.
Relationship building
People want to interact with other people, not some automated reply system. By
nurturing a personal relationship with the lead, you can make them more ready to
buy.
Email
As you get to know your buyer personas, you can send them email to follow up on
them with relevant and useful content, which they may be interested in based on
their prior downloaded content.
To go the next level, personalization of the email and messages can make the
prospects feel like he or she is talking with a real person, and more trust between
you and them is established. Personalization of email should be tailored towards the
lead, e.g. if a visitor downloads a whitepaper of a certain topic, send him/her emails
of similar and relevant information.
Pitfalls
“More email means more content!” you might say. However, ensure that you do not
make the customer feel suffocated or pressurized to make a decision. This defeats
the purpose of building a relationship with the customer and could potentially put
them off your product.
Once the customers are interested and ready to buy, close the deal.
Step 4: Delight: Customers → Promoters
Kudos! You’ve convinced your leads to purchase the product you are marketing. But,
this doesn’t mean you can forget about them, and all good inbound marketers will
continuously provide content and service for their customers to ensure that they are
happy with the product. From an objective point of view, if these customers are so
pleased with the product, they can in turn promote it.
Real-time customer interaction

4. This can be done via channels such as:
Smart calls-to-action: Offers that vary based on buyer personas or the readiness of
the leads.
Social Media: Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, etc. to provide real-time customer
service and keep customers up to date.
Email: This platform provides the opportunities for marketers to send them relevant
and useful content.
Based on what is already known about prospects, you can market them with
products that are likely to be of interest to them. Having read this post, you now
know how to implement Inbound Marketing, so get cracking!
* Inbound Marketing is a form of digital marketing that involves SEO, Social Media,
blog and landing pages to generate sales leads.