Thanks to the web, inbound marketing has now overtaken the call center or telemarketing. Today blogs, social media, SEO activities and direct email marketing has become the most effective means of generating leads during the first step of the sales funnel.
L’inbound marketing risponde ad una filosofia diversa rispetto all’outbound: invece di bombardare il consumatore con messaggi ad una via, l’azienda si fa cercare da un consumatore interessato. È l’utente del web che cerca un’informazione su Internet e, tramite le tecniche di inbound marketing, ottiene delle risposte utili alle sue domande. Per fare un esempio pratico, è la tecnica che utilizzo con questo blog: attiro le persone interessate a temi relativi al web marketing per poi acquisire dei contatti e dei potenziali clienti.
The inbound marketing process moves through four steps: attract , convert , close and delight. The user at the beginning of the trail is a stranger and he is eventually turned into a promoter of the brand, product or service. The user at the beginning of the trail is a stranger and he is eventually turned into a promoter of the brand, product or service.
La prima fase è quella di attirare un estraneo e trasformarlo in visitatore. Non è importante generare tanto traffico sul sito, ma catturare gli utenti che possono essere interessati alla proposta che viene fatta. Lo strumento più efficace è la ricerca su Google che può essere sfruttata attraverso attività di SEO e pubblicità su Google Adwords. Altri strumenti sono i blog che offrono risposte esaustive e puntuali su determinati argomenti, i social media che consentono una comunicazione verso segmenti di pubblico molto precisi, i webinar, le infografiche e così via.
Then you need to convert visitors into sales leads, that is users who expressly indicate their interest through calls to action. For this purpose we can create landing pages, forms to submit requests or contact modules.
At this point we have a number of potential customers who have contacted us. We need to close the sale. How to turn them into customers? You must study in advance a list of the actions to take to respond to user requests according to company strategy, for example sending automated or personalized e-mail, phone calls, invitations or other actions. It’s important to respond and not to squander the request.
We finally made a sale. Is it over here? Absolutely not. Never to lose a customer obtained with such difficulty. The last step is to delight the customer and to transform it into enthusiastic promoter who continues to buy our products or services and recommend us to friends. We don’t have to abandon our clients and we have to involve him through direct email marketing campaigns, newsletters, promotions and targeted special offers, social media marketing and other actions that turns a consumer into a prosumer through a two-way communication between the company and the consumer.
