How to improve your website inbound strategy

Marketing and well-thought-out strategies go hand in hand for those who want their efforts to be successful.

Website inbound strategies are an excellent way for any business to increase its sales. Inbound marketing helps generate more website traffic, and this is what we’re after. The only thing left is to collect the right information and useful strategies. 

Well, we can help with that. So, dive in.

What is website inbound strategy, and why is it important?

Website inbound strategy, also known as inbound marketing, is a website marketing approach that focuses on attracting potential customers to a company's website by creating valuable content and experiences adjusted to their specific needs and interests. The goal is to establish a compelling online presence, build trust and credibility, and ultimately convert website visitors into loyal customers or clients.

Let’s go through the essentials of website inbound strategy.

Content creation

At the core of an inbound strategy lies the creation of high-quality, relevant, and informative content. It can be as blog posts, whitepapers, e-books, videos, podcasts, webinars, or infographics. Your content should address the pain points, questions, and concerns of the target audience, providing them with valuable insights and solutions.

Search engine optimization

Optimizing content for search engines helps with driving organic traffic to a website. When you incorporate relevant keywords and meta descriptions and follow best SEO practices, you increase the chances of its content appearing in search engine results when potential customers are searching for information related to your products or services.

Social media integration

Social media platforms play a big role in an inbound strategy. By actively engaging with their target audience on social media, sharing valuable content, and participating in relevant conversations, you can increase brand awareness and drive traffic to your website.

Lead generation and nurturing

Inbound strategies often involve the use of lead generation techniques, such as offering premium content (e.g., e-books or webinars) in exchange for contact information. Once leads are captured, you can nurture them through email marketing campaigns, providing them with relevant information and guiding them through the buyer's journey.

Conversion optimization

The ultimate goal of an inbound strategy is to convert website visitors into customers or clients. This involves optimizing website design, user experience, and calls-to-action (CTAs) to encourage desired actions, such as making a purchase, scheduling a consultation, or requesting a quote.

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Now, why is website inbound marketing strategy important? Well, because of the following benefits:

1. Inbound marketing is known to be more cost-effective than traditional outbound marketing methods, such as cold calling or direct mail campaigns.
2. Inbound strategies allow companies to target their ideal audience by creating personalized content and experiences, which increases the likelihood of attracting and engaging with qualified leads.
3. By consistently providing valuable and informative content, companies can build brand credibility and trust, which are essential for converting leads into customers.
4. Inbound strategies focus on nurturing leads throughout the buyer's journey, providing them with relevant information and support at each stage. You foster long-term relationships with your customers, increasing customer loyalty and lifetime value.
5. You get measurable results. Inbound marketing strategies often involve the use of analytical tools and metrics that help track and measure the effectiveness of your marketing efforts. You can then optimize your strategies for better results.

How can you measure the effectiveness of your inbound marketing efforts?

One of the best ways to measure the effectiveness of your marketing inbound efforts is to determine the cost per acquisition. 

But first, what constitutes an "acquisition" for your business? This could be a new customer purchase, a lead converting into a paying client, or any other desired outcome that represents a successful conversion.

Determining the cost per acquisition (CPA) for inbound marketing efforts is crucial for understanding the return on investment and overall effectiveness of your inbound strategy. Here's how you can calculate the CPA for your inbound marketing campaigns:

1. Track all the expenses associated with your inbound marketing efforts. This includes costs related to:

Content creation (writers, designers, videographers, etc.)

SEO activities (keyword research, on-page optimization, link building, etc.)

Social media marketing (advertising, management tools, etc.)

Email marketing (email service providers, email list maintenance, etc.)

Advertising campaigns (pay-per-click, social media ads, etc.)

Analytics and tracking tools

Personnel costs (salaries, benefits, etc.)

2. Using tracking methods like website analytics, CRM data, sales records, etc., determine the total number of acquisitions (as defined in step 1) generated from your inbound marketing efforts during a specific period (e.g., monthly, quarterly, annually).
3. Calculate the cost per acquisition. For that, divide the total marketing expenses for the given period by the total number of acquisitions during that same period:

 CPA = Total Marketing Expenses / Total Number of Acquisitions

For example, if you spent $50,000 on inbound marketing activities in a quarter and generated 100 new customers during that time, your CPA would be:

CPA = $50,000 / 100 = $500 per new customer acquisition

4. Once the CPA is calculated, analyze whether it aligns with your targets and goals. 

If your CPA is higher than desired, the next chapters will tell you how to optimize your inbound marketing efforts.

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Tips to improve your website inbound strategy

We’ve collected twelve best practices and techniques to improve your website inbound marketing strategy that will help maximize exposure, engagement, and ROI from your efforts over time:

1. Develop buyer personas. Create fictional profiles of your typical customers to better understand their goals, needs, interests, and pain points. Personas help focus content and outreach.
2. Leverage content marketing. Generate educational, engaging content like blogs, videos, and eBooks to establish yourself as a helpful resource and address customers' problems. This increases conversion over time.
3. Content refresh. Refreshing existing content regularly helps keep it relevant and engaging for your audience. Outdated content can hurt key performance metrics like conversion rate and session duration over time. Analyze underperforming content to identify improvement opportunities like adding more value, depth, or new angles.
4. Guest blogging. Guest blogging is quite effective at promoting content and helping acquire relevant, quality backlinks from other authority sites. It also helps connect with target audiences and establishes your credibility in the niche.
5. Repurpose content. Repurposing content into formats like videos, slides, or infographics allows you to reach wider audiences across different platforms. This expands the reach of your existing content with minimal extra effort.
6. Learn from competitors. Analyzing your competitors' content, links, marketing channels, and partnerships can provide ideas to improve your own strategy. Keep track of what continues to work well for them.
7. Add PPC to inbound marketing. Using paid ads can drive instant traffic and leads while your inbound efforts take effect over the long run. PPC supports sustainable growth by fueling inbound marketing as a long-term strategy. The two approaches together can boost results significantly.
8. Optimize for search. Use SEO best practices like keywords, backlinks, and user-centric content to increase organic traffic from search engines to your most relevant pages.
9. Utilize social media. Engage existing customers and boost awareness by sharing valuable content across major social platforms on a consistent schedule. Drive traffic back to your site.
10. Implement lead nurturing. Guide potential customers through their buying journey using helpful, informative content sent over time to slowly convert them.
11. Use A/B testing. Compare variations of content elements to determine the highest-performing versions, optimizing efforts and conversions.
12. Track results and set goals. Monitoring analytics reveals strategy strengths and weaknesses, allowing continuous refinement based on target KPIs.

Examples of successful inbound marketing strategies

There are several examples of companies that have successfully optimized their inbound marketing efforts to reduce their CPA. Here are a few examples.

Ryanair

Ryanair crafted highly detailed buyer personas to deeply understand their key demographic of young budget travelers (Gen Z). They identified that this audience prefers authentic, honest content found on TikTok over traditional advertising. Ryanair's witty videos on TikTok resonated strongly with Gen Z's preference for authenticity. 

This understanding of their audience through careful buyer persona development allowed Ryanair to powerfully connect with Gen Z and increase brand loyalty, ultimately growing sales.

Spotify

Spotify's annual Wrapped campaign is a masterclass in deeply engaging users through personalized and relevant inbound content marketing. Every year, Wrapped showcases each user's unique listening history in the form of personalized playlists and statistics. Spotify then encourages widespread sharing of these Wrapped summaries on social media, improving the brand's awareness. 

The level of personalization drives extremely high rates of user participation and engagement. This promotion of personal listening tastes builds stronger relationships between Spotify and users, increasing loyalty to the platform.

Groove

While promoting its productivity app Groove, the company blog avoids simply focusing on keywords or platform updates. It tells a story by consistently providing valuable advice and bigger-picture insights relevant to its audience of entrepreneurs and growing companies. Posts are data-backed, conversational pieces discussing topics like customer service and leadership skills. 

This approach casts a wider SEO net while conveying Groove's expertise. Readers can trust Groove as not just a product vendor but a business resource.

Uber

Uber aimed to turn occasional users into loyal repeat customers through personalized emails. Segmenting lists by location allowed Uber to leverage regional events in targeted messages thanking users. Further personal touches like employee signatures and promotional codes users could share increased engagement. 

Follow-up emails after rides continued the conversation, building stronger relationships than one-off transactions. These contact strategies highlighted Uber's appreciation for customers in a personalized manner that kept them choosing Uber time after time.

HelloFresh

Utilizing ongoing social listening platforms allowed meal kit leader HelloFresh to constantly refine its offering based on customer feedback. Reviews from various social media sources provided insights into complaints or aspects attracting new consumers. HelloFresh adapted recipes and delivery approaches in response. 

Beyond reactions, the brand fueled continual engagement through its mixture of step-by-step cooking videos and tempting meal photos paired with well-timed cultural references. This fresh, visually engaging content maintained social momentum that reinforced HelloFresh as customers' weekly meal solution.

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Conclusion

The most effective inbound strategies are living strategies - ones that continually adapt based on data insights and audience feedback. 

While the tactics we discussed today provide a strong starting point, the most successful companies don't rest on their approaches. 

They maintain an ongoing dialogue with customers to understand emerging needs, test new ideas, and refine their content and experiences accordingly. This adaptive, audience-centric mindset is key to maximizing the lifetime value of any relationship.