PLEASE! Explain Why I Should Use Inbound Marketing? – INDUSTRIAL BLOGS & CONTENT MARKETING

Content Marketing IS Inbound Marketing

A successful Inbound Marketing strategy thrives on content.  It is your content that will:

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• Come up in search results and drive traffic to your website
• Give you numerous posts for all your social media pages
• Demonstrate your company’s expertise and the benefits of using your products and services
• Make your website look more “authoritative” to search engines which translates to higher organic search ranking
• Keep visitors coming back to your website for solutions to their problems
• Make your company look more current and technologically savvy[/list]

The first place to start is with a Blog.  If you’re building a new website, it’s a no-brainer to include one; however, you can also add a Blog to an existing website, provided the site was built in one of the “blog friendly” content management systems.

Here’s the beauty of blogging:  You don’t HAVE to be the greatest writer in the world.  Blogging is supposed to be a more casual style of writing.  Yes, there are bloggers who are published authors.  There are also bloggers who have never considered themselves gifted in this area.  As far as fresh ideas go, there is a literal universe of content available, even to the industrial marketer: in trade publications; in the news; on other blogs; on Twitter and LinkedIn discussion groups; in discussions with customers and vendors; and from employees in your very own company.

There are so many great reasons to blog:

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• It positions you and/or your company as the “expert”
• It improves your search engine rankings
• It is always searchable and working for you
• It adds a human voice to your company or product’s brand identity
• It adds value to your website and enriches your customers’ and prospects’ experience on the site[/list]

Blogs are actually one component of Content Marketing, which is: marketing content on the Internet in order to market your company. Each post you write for your blog is one piece of content that can be used in a variety of ways.

Other forms of content for the industrial marketer are:

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• Technical papers
• White papers
• Videos
• Animations
• Illustrations
• Photos
• Webinars
• Podcasts[/list]

Every piece of content you create for your website can be repurposed in other ways, and in fact, the strategic use of this content is what defines “content marketing.”

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• Every piece of content should be posted numerous times on all your social media pages
• Technical articles, white papers, webinars and podcasts can be used as registration “bait”; which adds subscribers to your email marketing list
• Videos, animations, and PowerPoint presentations can be uploaded to your own YouTube Channel
• Presentations can also be added to SlideShare and integrated with your key emploees’ LinkedIn profiles
• Blog posts that are more like articles can be submitted to Article Directories
• A series of blog posts can be repurposed into an “eBook,” and also made available for download via registration
• Great photos can be added to a “photo gallery” on your website and if titled correctly can boost your keyword SEO

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Reason #2 why you should integrate Inbound Marketing into your industrial marketing plans: it efficiently drives qualified traffic to your website and gives visitors a reason to stay.