Why Use Inbound Marketing

Learn Why We Use Inbound Marketing [ebook]

Table of Contents

Learn Why and How Well Inbound Marketing Works

Have you ever wondered why a company would not be their own best reference?  We have too, and as experts in Inbound Marketing who are also a Hubspot Certified Inbound Marketing Agency, we thought you might want to see the results we have been getting from our own Inbound Marketing efforts. 

 

Learn how following an Inbound Marketing Strategy can help you increase visitors, leads, and customers at much lower cost than traditional marketing methods.

Brochure-Ware Just Wasn't Hacking It

 

When we embarked on our own Inbound Marketing journey, our website was still at the brochure-ware stage, with almost zero visits per month. We had not really performed much Search Engine Optimization (SEO) on it, but it did, in fact, contain a lot of valuable information about SAP Business Intelligence, SAP Project Management and SAP Consulting

 

Small Business Can Be Profitable

Inbound Marketing Strategies Can Be Key to Success

 

Like many small businesses, we were a small but profitable start-up but definitely with limited funds, we needed to accomplish 4 things with our new Inbound Marketing approach:

 

 300000 Thousand Website Visits

Visits Have Steadily Increased

 

Many Case Studies

 

We needed to build a business case for Inbound Marketing and the chart above, which is our business case study, shows the number of visitors to our site as we began to use Inbound Marketing.  As expected, it took us about 6 months to ramp up our visit rate, and as you can see, we continue to steadily increase the number of visitors and expect to surpass last months visits this month.  We did this with zero Pay-Per-Click (PPC).  It is probably a good idea to explain what Inbound Marketing is first before proceeding on.

 

What is Inbound Marketing

 

Inbound marketing is a powerful business marketing strategy that can help businesses increase visitors, leads, and customers at a much lower cost than traditional marketing methods. SAP consulting companies like our own SAP BW Consulting understood the value of inbound marketing for generating leads, building relationships, and closing deals. By using a proven sales process and inbound lead generation techniques, we were able to penetrate existing SAP accounts without a direct sales force, get customers who needed our services to come to us, and generate leads. Social media played and continues to play a crucial role in promoting our educational content, which is specific to the SAP consulting market. With continuous improvement of our inbound marketing efforts, SAP BW consulting continues to reap the benefits of this powerful marketing strategy.

 

Why Did We Choose Inbound Marketing? 

 

We had the good fortune to know a great deal about our market plus we had access to the Hubspot tools to research the keywords that we could rank for. 

 

From a strict measurement standpoint, we need to produce highly marketing qualified (MQL) leads and we have been delighted with our results.

 Inbound Marketing Generated Leads

Leads have Steadily Grown to Over 7500

 

What have we learned from our customers? 

 

We provide a great deal of education, specific to the SAP Consulting market, which we continuously work to both improve and promote. 

 

Key Role of Content Marketing

 

Creating valuable and informative content is a crucial aspect of an effective Inbound Marketing Strategy. By producing content that resonates with your target audience, you can attract more visitors to your website and increase your chances of converting them into leads and customers. Additionally, search engines reward websites that provide high-quality content by sending free organic traffic to their dedicated landing pages. Therefore, investing in content creation is a must if you want to improve your search engine rankings and drive more traffic to your website.
 

Creating a High Converting Landing Page

Creating valuable content is a crucial aspect of an effective inbound marketing strategy, but it's not enough to just publish it on your website. To generate leads, you need a high converting landing page that is optimized for conversions. Let's take the example of a SAP Professional Service Consulting firm. At the Top of the Funnel, they can create a blog post titled " 5 Common SAP Project Management Mistakes and How to Avoid Them." This content would be valuable to their target audience and would attract visitors to their website. However, to convert those visitors into leads, they need a landing page that offers a free guide or consultation related to SAP Project Management. This landing page should have a clear call-to-action and a form that visitors can fill out to receive the offer. By creating compelling content and a high converting landing page, the SAP Professional Service Consulting firm can generate leads and grow their business.
 

Business Influencers

Influencer marketing has been an essential aspect of business to business for a long time. It's a common practice for people to talk to those they respect and trust before giving or withholding referrals. This is where influencer marketing comes in; it involves partnering with trusted individuals or entities who can promote your product or service to their audience.  For instance, a SAP consulting company like SAP BW Consulting can partner with an industry influencer to promote their educational content and establish themselves as experts in the field. By leveraging influencer marketing, businesses can increase their reach, build relationships with prospects, and close deals.
 

Transitioning to an Inbound Strategy

 
The difference between Inbound and Outbound Marketing, is that Inbound Marketing focuses on creating valuable content to attract visitors and establish a relationship with them, can benefit from influencer marketing.  Outbound Marketing, on the other hand, often is called interruption based marketing, meaning your client wasn't looking for you help when you called them or hit them with a paid ad.  From an influencer marketing standpoint, you're not leverage the 'trust' factor with interruption based marketing.
 

Middle of the Funnel Content


Once you have attracted visitors to your website with valuable content, it's time to move them towards becoming leads with middle of the funnel content. For a SAP Professional Services Consulting firm, this could be a whitepaper titled "Maximizing ROI on SAP Projects: Strategies for Success." Research papers, benchmark reports, webinars, comparison sheets, and educational content is often heavily used in this stage.  This content would be targeted towards prospects who have already shown interest in SAP consulting services and are looking for more specific information by converting on the aforementioned Top of the Funnel Content. The whitepaper should provide valuable insights and actionable strategies that prospects can implement in their own SAP projects. By providing valuable content at this stage, the SAP Professional Services Consulting firm can establish themselves as experts in the field and build trust with their prospects, increasing the likelihood of conversion.

 

Bottom of the Funnel

 

Creating valuable content and a high converting landing page are essential for a successful inbound marketing strategy for SAP Professional Services Consulting firms. To attract potential leads and visitors, crafting blog posts such as "5 Common SAP Project Management Mistakes and How to Avoid Them" for the Top of the Funnel can be effective. Moving prospects towards becoming leads can be achieved by providing middle of the funnel content such as a whitepaper titled "Maximizing ROI on SAP Projects: Strategies for Success." Using social media platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and search engines are vital components of an inbound marketing strategy.  Content at the bottom of the funnel is typically include Free Consultations, Free Software Trial Sign-Ups, and Customer References.

 

Benefits of Investing in Content Creation

 

By investing in high-quality content creation and tailoring it to suit the target audience on each platform, SAP Professional Services Consulting firms can attract more visitors to their website, increase chances of converting them into leads and customers, and ultimately grow their business. Partnering with Inbound Marketing service providers such as SAP BW Consulting, Inc.,  who are experts with Hubspot,  Salesforce and SAP can help expand the firm's reach and offer valuable services to clients.


 

How do we promote it? 

 

Actually, the real question is how do we make sure we get found is the better question.  We are heavy users of social media, including LinkedIN, Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and Pinterest. 

 

Search Engines are a Key Part of the Inbound Marketing Strategy

One of the key elements of an effective Inbound Marketing Strategy is generating high quality, high converting content. By creating valuable and informative content that resonates with your target audience, you can attract more visitors to your website and increase your chances of converting them into leads and customers. But the benefits of creating great content go beyond just attracting visitors. Search engines love high quality content too, and they reward websites that provide it by sending free organic traffic to their dedicated landing pages. So if you want to improve your search engine rankings and drive more traffic to your website, investing in content creation is a must.

 

Social Media Marketing

 

We have to admit we have been heavy social media users for many years, so this was second nature to us anyway, and in fact, my LinkedIN profile is in the top 3000 most visited profiles on their network, something which requires many years of effort. 

 

The feedback from our customers has been great, with many writing to tell us how much they appreciate what we are offering on our website, which is highly appreciated, and helps us learn what to do more of while doing less of what is less effective.

Many Social Media Platforms

Social media platforms have become an integral part of marketing strategies, providing businesses with a variety of options to engage with their target audience. In addition to LinkedIn, which is optimized for professional networking, there are several other popular social media platforms that cater to different markets. For instance, Facebook is ideal for businesses targeting a broad consumer demographic, while Twitter is optimized for real-time news and updates. Instagram, on the other hand, is perfect for businesses that rely on visual content, such as fashion and beauty brands. Pinterest is an excellent platform for businesses that focus on DIY and creative projects, while YouTube is ideal for businesses specializing in video content. Each platform has its unique strengths and weaknesses, and savvy marketers must tailor their content to suit their target audience on each platform.

 

Combining Outbound Marketing with Inbound Marketing

To achieve even better lead generation and sales results, combining outbound marketing with inbound marketing is the way to go. For example, a SAP Professional Services Consulting firm can leverage outbound marketing efforts, such as participating in trade shows, while also utilizing inbound marketing tactics, like creating valuable content and a high converting landing page. At the trade show, the firm can showcase their expertise and promote their educational content to attract visitors to their website. By offering a free guide or consultation related to SAP Project Management on their landing page, they can convert those visitors into leads. Additionally, by partnering with industry influencers to promote their content and establish themselves as experts in the field, the firm can increase their reach and build relationships with prospects. By combining these strategies, the SAP Professional Services Consulting firm can generate more leads and grow their business.

Marketing Automation Platform

A marketing automation platform like Hubspot can be a game-changer for businesses looking to implement an effective inbound marketing strategy. With Hubspot, businesses can easily create and distribute valuable content to attract visitors to their website, as well as optimize their landing pages for conversion. Additionally, Hubspot offers tools for networking, relationship building, and sales automation, allowing businesses to manage their contacts, track their interactions, and nurture their leads. By leveraging a marketing automation platform like Hubspot, businesses can streamline their inbound marketing efforts, increase their reach, and ultimately achieve better lead generation and sales results.

 

Critical Inbound Marketing Tools

To conduct a successful inbound marketing campaign, it's essential to have the right tools at your disposal. These tools can help attract visitors to your website, convert them into leads, and ultimately grow your business. From influencer marketing to marketing automation platforms, there are several critical inbound marketing tools that SAP Professional Services Consulting firms should consider. Here's a list of the essential inbound marketing tools that can help your business achieve better lead generation and sales results:

  • Middle of the funnel content, such as whitepapers, research papers, benchmark reports, webinars, comparison sheets, and educational content
  • High converting landing pages with clear call-to-actions and forms
  • Social media platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and search engines to expand your reach
  • Bottom of the funnel content, such as free consultations, free software trial sign-ups, and customer references
  • Business influencers to promote your educational content and establish yourself as an expert in the field
  • Marketing automation platforms like Hubspot to streamline your inbound marketing efforts, manage your contacts, track interactions, and nurture leads

By leveraging these tools, SAP Professional Services Consulting firms can create valuable content, attract visitors to their website, and convert them into leads and customers. By combining outbound marketing efforts with inbound marketing tactics and utilizing marketing automation platforms, businesses can achieve even better results. Investing in content creation, tailoring it to suit the target audience, and utilizing the right inbound marketing tools can help businesses achieve their growth goals.

 

Inbound Marketing and Sales Agency

 

We are now stepping up our game by becoming Inbound Marketing service provider partners to Hubspot and Salesforce service partner.  

 

Our first customer came from a pre-sales demo we gave them which was scheduled for 2 hours, but which became a full day teaching seminar (at their request), with the reaction being that this is a fantastic tool. 

 

The Hubspot platform is a fantastically powerful Inbound Marketing platform, however, it requires a HUGE, focused effort to create the content, which is the secret sauce required to Get Found and Convert visitors to prospects. 

 

Experience will tell you how much effort to invest in the content creation process, but the most critical success factor is creativity and profound knowledge of your sales process and what your prospects are looking for. 

 

Continuously Improve Your Inbound Marketing

 

Analyzing the conversions from your inbound marketing efforts so you can continuously improve them, requires data and an ability to tease out the information you need from the massive data flow created by the system.

 

If you're looking to get more high quality leads, at a much lower cost, why not ask us how.  In the meantime, we have a 5 Step Guide to Multi-Channel Marketing we put together you can get started with.

 

5 Step Guide To Marketing Measurement

 

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Lonnie D. Ayers, PMP

About the Author: Lonnie Ayers is a Hubspot Certified Inbound Marketing consultant, with additional certifications in Hubspot Content Optimization, Hubspot Contextual Marketing, and is a Hubspot Certified Partner. Specialized in demand generation and sales execution, especially in the SAP, Oracle and Microsoft Partner space, he has unique insight into the tough challenges Service Providers face with generating leads and closing sales using the latest digital tools. With 15 years of SAP Program Management experience, and dozens of complex sales engagements under his belt, he helps partners develop and communicate their unique sales proposition. Frequently sought as a public speaker in various events, he is available for both inhouse engagements and remote coaching.
Balanced Scorecard Consultant

He also recently released a book "How to Dominate Any Market - Turbocharging Your Digital Marketing and Sales Results", which is available on Amazon.

View All Articles by Lonnie D. Ayers, PMP

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