Web Marketing Strategy From 10,000 Feet

Graphic By HubSpot Software - http://www.hubspot.com/inbound-marketing

When laying out a web marketing strategy (e.g., inbound marketing strategy), it's easy to immediately jump in the weeds and try to define Facebook or LinkedIN specific tactics instead of stepping back and looking at your inbound strategy from 10,000 feet.

While those details will be important during the planning stages, you really need to back up a bit and understand the components and "process" of an inbound marketing strategy and really understand who you are marketing to at each stage.

1 - Attract Complete Strangers Through Top Of Funnel Tactics

In inbound marketing, most leads start as complete newcomers to your site/blog/social site/etc.. How did they find you? Through the various tactics that you've implemented at the Attract Stage of the inbound process. The most important piece of this stage is the content that you are producing, sharing and ranking for in search. When these complete strangers end up on one of your web properties, you now have a visitor.

Some important metrics to monitor in this stage include:

• New and returning visitor counts
• Page rank for desired non-branded and branded keywords
• Likes, Followers, Circles in social media
• Retweets, Favorites, Shares, Likes, Comments, +1s in social media

2 - Convert Visitors Into Leads

Once you have a new website visitor, what can you do to convert them into a lead. A simpler way to look at this in an inbound marketing sense is:

What can we do to entice a website visitor to provide us with some information about them in return for some value we can provide for FREE, often by grabbing their attention with a call to action and sending them to a landing page.

Some examples be include:

• Email Opt-In in exchange for weekly tips/advice/discounts/specials/coupons/etc...
• Form submission of contact details in exchange for an online resource such as ebooks/infographics/toolkits/samples/quote requests/coupons/discounts/etc...
• Following/Liking/Circling in social media

Ultimately, we want to take a complete stranger and turn them into someone that has the potential to do business with us at some point in the future, based on their interest in our content/products/services/etc...

Some important metrics to monitor in this stage include:

• Bounce rate of visitors
• Time spent on site by visitors
• Pages viewed per visit
• Call to action conversions (Email subscriber growth, Downloads of resources, Number of quote requests, etc...)
• Retweets, Favorites, Shares, Likes, Comments, +1s in social media

3 - Close The Sale And Turn Leads Into Clients/Customers

So you've enticed some website visitors to download resources from you or opt-in to your mailing list. What is your online and possibly offline methodology for building the case that these leads should be doing business with you? Because inbound marketing generated these leads, your process should treat these leads as such. In other words, having your most aggressive sales person call a lead that downloaded an ebook from your site, 30 seconds after they downloaded it and trying to corner them into a sale is probably not the best approach.

Downloading 1 ebook or opting-in to your mailing list does not put that lead in the checkout isle. Rather, it puts them in the mindset that they may get value from visiting your store.

 

Much like a lead picking up the weekly coupon or "specials" news insert for a retailer's store, they haven't decided to shop there, but they are beginning to see the value you offer.

That means we need to figure out how we can nurture these leads to help them trust us more and make a decision to do business with us? In web marketing, there're plenty of options to do this. For example, we could send them more resources focused on the topic(s) they showed interest in or follow them or their company in social media. The key here is to stay in front of them in a useful way. Not by ramming ourselves down their throats, but by adding value. A traditional sales person will cringe at this! "Why do we need to hold their hands when all we want to do is make the sale????" Because an inbound generated lead is a heck of a lot different than a lead that called your office and is ready to talk to someone. The latter has qualified themselves extensively.

After a lead has downloaded a handful of resources or shown extensive interest in your emails, then you may want to directly reach out to the lead directly through a more traditional approach. The nurturing process for inbound leads needs to be constantly evaluated for which tactics work the best and which generate sales to ideal buyers. Ultimately, your online offers and follow-up will close the deal and get you a sale.

Some key metrics to monitor in this stage:

• Re-engagement with new communications (e.g., continued interest and viewing of marketing efforts)
• % of leads turned into clients/customers
• % of leads that bought elsewhere - OUCH!
• Average sale value

4 - Turn Customers Into Lifetime Clients and Raving Fans

Does the inbound process end after the contract is signed and the check is written? NO! At least not if you're smart! There are numerous studies (and plenty of common sense) that shows that reselling to an existing client is much less expensive than selling to all new clients. Not to mention that you should want to continue to be a part of your clients' business, helping them to succeed, which in turn helps you to succeed. This can be done by staying in front of them and continuing to add value through content and support until they are ready to buy again.

If the client only buys 25% of the products or services that you offer, and you know that they would benefit from at least another 50% of what you offer, you have an obligation as a partner to let them know. They don't have to immediately take your advice and support, but through continued nurturing, they will take some of it. They will also tell their friends to take your advice. A referral also costs much less to close.

Some key metrics to monitor in this stage:

• Repurchase rates of clients
• Retweets, Favorites, Shares, Likes, Comments, +1s in social media
• % of clients that bought other competitive services elsewhere - OUCH
• Re-engagement with new communications and calls to action

Overall Takeaway When Planning Your Web Marketing Strategy

As I said above, it's easy to jump in the weeds and start with minute details of the TACTICS you will use, but it's extremely important to look at the overall STRATEGY first. A good way to do this is to start with these 4 areas and work your way down to the weeds rather than the starting in the weeds. The "persona" of a complete stranger vs. lead vs. client vs. repeat client is different, so you need to think about your inbound strategy in that light. What do each want and how will they engage with your web marketing? Then, flesh out the tactics you will use to implement your strategy.