Basics of Inbound Marketing

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  • Wish your potential Buyers came looking for you? 
  • Want to sell when Buyers are ready? 
  • Want to start with Inbound Marketing for your Business?

If your answer to these questions is yes...keep reading!

By the time you finish reading this, you should have answers for the following:

  • What is Inbound Marketing?
  • How is Inbound different from Outbound Marketing?
  • What are the 3 key elements of Inbound Marketing Fundamentals?
  • What do we mean by Buyer Personas? 
  • How can you create Buyer’s journey for your Business?

What is Inbound Marketing?

Inbound Marketing is a fine play of the Attract, Engage & Delight methodology (as devised by Hubspot) and the Marketing Tripod. So, you attract, engage and delight your right audience or potential Buyer by offering right or contextual content at the right time or right stage of the Buyer's Journey.

With this methodology, Businesses aim to achieve their objectives while providing value to the customers and building trust.

While you achieve your Business goals, the intent with Inbound Marketing is to add value and not selling. No selling sounds weird. Right?

So, to put it simply, Inbound Marketing involves techniques to make sure that your ideal buyer comes looking for you as you genuinely provide value and solve Buyer's journey challenges.

How is Inbound different from outbound marketing?

Unlike Inbound Marketing, in Outbound Marketing your brand initiates the conversation with your potential buyers and reaches out to them with ads and content which may or may not be of relevance to them.

What are the 3 key elements of Inbound Marketing Fundamentals?

Inbound Marketing fundamentals are the basics which must be understood before you start your Brand’s Inbound journey and can be divided into 3 key elements:

  • Company Purpose & Goals
  • Buyer Persona
  • Buyer’s Journey

Speakers like Simon Sinek have stressed a lot upon ‘Knowing your WHY’ and this takes us to the first element of Inbound fundamentals; 

Company Purpose & Goals

Knowing its why is critical for every Business and this doesn’t change with industry or geography or anything else. Knowing the real purpose of your company should be the first step in your Business journey. Why do you do what you do? How, what & where can follow.

For instance, for Tesla, the brand purpose is to accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy and not to manufacture cars. For Apple, it is to empower creative exploration and self-expression and not to sell laptops, mobile phones and air pods.

So, have your Brand purpose figured out, write it down and share it with your employees, customers and all stakeholders. Your Brand purpose must be consistent when it comes to how you, your employees or your customers view it.

While drafting your Business goals make sure that they are SMART i.e Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant & Time-Based. Let’s look at an example to understand this:

Let’s assume that your Goal is: To grow your Business. You can derive your SMART goal from this broad goal. Let's see how:

  • Specific: I will acquire 3 new clients for my marketing consulting Business
  • Measurable: I will measure my progress by how many new clients I bring onboard
  • Attainable: I will ask my clients for referrals, have more testimonials on my website, launch a social media marketing campaign and network with local Businesses
  • Relevant: Adding more clients will allow me to grow my Business and increase my revenue
  • Time-Based: I will have 3 new clients within 3 months.

Your SMART GOAL can now read something like this:

I will acquire 3 new clients for my marketing consulting Business within 3 months by asking for referrals, having more testimonials on my website, launching a social media marketing campaign, and networking with local businesses. This will allow me to grow my Business and increase my revenue.

Simple. Right?

Once you have figured out why your business exists and what your SMART Business goals are, it will be easier to talk about who your audience is. This brings us to the second element: 

The Buyer Persona

Buyer Persona is a brief you put together to highlight facts & informed assumptions about your ideal Buyer. Customer surveys, Historical data, Data about the customers of your competitors & educated guesses can help you draft Buyer Personas for your Business.

Check out more about Buyer Personas & request a Free Template here.

The last element in Inbound Marketing fundamentals is 

The Buyer Journey

Buyer journey describes the stages which a Buyer undergoes before he/she makes a purchase. Today’s Buyer is very well informed thanks to the plethora of information available at the click of a button.

A Buyer typically undergoes 3 stages in his Buyer’s journey. These are: Awareness, Consideration & Purchase.

A Buyer in awareness stage is aware of his problem/pain point or need and is gathering more information about it. In Consideration stage, he is able to define his problem and is looking for possible solutions. Towards the end of the Buyer’s journey, the Buyer reaches the decision stage wherein, he evaluates and finalizes the solution & the solution provider.

Let’s understand this with the example of a Small Business Owner who is struggling with the organic ranking of his website. In awareness stage, this Buyer will research about organic rankings on SERPs and SEO. Once he has gathered enough knowledge about the subject and reaches the consideration stage, he would wish to understand SEO tools & tactics and how he can improve his page rankings. Finally, in the decision stage, he will evaluate available SEO tools/consultants and make the purchase decision.

While creating Buyer’s journey for your Business, keep in mind your ideal Buyer and answer questions like: How are your buyers educating themselves on their challenges contextual to your business? What categories of solutions do your Buyers research? What criteria do Buyers use to evaluate the available offerings? Do they like trials? And so on.

The process of knowing your WHY, WHO your Ideal Buyer Personas are and HOW they buy is invaluable as you commence your Inbound Marketing journey. 


Keep Learning & Keep Growing.

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