{"id":337,"date":"2013-05-02T15:38:40","date_gmt":"2013-05-02T15:38:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/viamarketing.wordpress.com\/?p=337"},"modified":"2013-05-02T15:38:40","modified_gmt":"2013-05-02T15:38:40","slug":"via-idea-27-improve-your-sales-strategy-with-inbound-marketing-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/viamarketing.net\/blog\/via-idea-27-improve-your-sales-strategy-with-inbound-marketing-2\/","title":{"rendered":"VIA Idea #27: Improve your Sales Strategy with Inbound Marketing"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Back in the day, advertising was simple: TV and print ads pushed products or services and we responded by buying those products or services. Those days are gone. Prospects of all ages now Google items or brands they\u2019re interested in, visit the company\u2019s website and ask Facebook friends for advice.<\/p>\n<p>To thrive, businesses large and small must continue to evolve their sales strategies by employing inbound marketing. Effective inbound marketing engages early-stage potential customers as well as fosters relationships with established customers. Inbound marketing includes a variety of &#8220;pull&#8221; tactics:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Web content<\/li>\n<li>Blogs<\/li>\n<li>Webinars<\/li>\n<li>Videos<\/li>\n<li>Reports (inc.\u00a0white papers and ebooks)<\/li>\n<li>Podcasts<\/li>\n<li>Newsletters\/ezines<\/li>\n<li>Press releases<\/li>\n<li>Social networks (Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+, Twitter, etc.)<\/li>\n<li>Infographics<\/li>\n<li>Mobile offers\/coupons<\/li>\n<li>Apps<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Note that none of these are &#8220;pushing&#8221; customers to buy; each serves to demonstrate your company\u2019s expertise, builds trust and encourages conversations. Because you want to <em>engage<\/em> existing and potential customers, the key is to generate <em>fresh, relevant content<\/em> often enough that they pay attention. Everything you generate should be optimized with your top keywords. Search engines love inbound marketing tactics and done right, will reward you for your participation with higher rankings.<\/p>\n<p>The goal is to structure inbound in ways to get someone\u2019s permission to capture data such as a name and email address. This is a great way to fill your pipeline with leads for follow-up programs. The beauty of inbound marketing is that once you create strategic content, it works for you as long as it\u2019s active. You have an asset that keeps on giving.<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\">\u00a0<img decoding=\"async\" id=\"_x0000_i1025\" title=\"Inbound Marketing needs to accomplish these four goals\" alt=\"Inbound Marketing needs to accomplish these four goals\" src=\"https:\/\/viamarketing.net\/emails\/no27\/inboundmarketing.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Our industry says many businesses are currently budgeting an average of 30 percent (up from 26 percent) of their marketing dollars to inbound tactics. They also say many businesses haven&#8217;t even begun to work in this arena. HubSpot, the company who literally wrote the book on inbound marketing, revealed that inbound marketing&#8217;s cost per lead is 60 percent lower than traditional outbound marketing.<\/p>\n<p>How do you know which inbound marketing tactics are best for you? Ask yourself the same questions that you would before starting any marketing initiative; keep in mind that marketing must be about customers and prospects, not you.<\/p>\n<p>Who are you trying to reach? Why do they need you? What message, information or offer would entice them to start a conversation with you? How are you going to follow up? How often are you going to post or email an offer?<\/p>\n<p>If you need help in sorting through what to do first, <a href=\"mailto:julie@viamarketing.net\">contact Julie<\/a> for a free consultation on how we can create an action plan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Back in the day, advertising was simple: TV and print ads pushed products or services and we responded by buying those products or services. Those days are gone. Prospects of all ages now Google items or brands they\u2019re interested in, visit the company\u2019s website and ask Facebook friends for advice. To thrive, businesses large and &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/viamarketing.net\/blog\/via-idea-27-improve-your-sales-strategy-with-inbound-marketing-2\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;VIA Idea #27: Improve your Sales Strategy with Inbound Marketing&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[21,22,19,23,24,13],"class_list":["post-337","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-advertising","tag-inbound-marketing","tag-marketing","tag-pull-marketing","tag-sales-strategy","tag-via-marketing"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>VIA Idea #27: Improve your Sales Strategy with Inbound Marketing | VIA Marketing Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/viamarketing.net\/blog\/via-idea-27-improve-your-sales-strategy-with-inbound-marketing-2\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"VIA Idea #27: Improve your Sales Strategy with Inbound Marketing | VIA Marketing Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Back in the day, advertising was simple: TV and print ads pushed products or services and we responded by buying those products or services. Those days are gone. Prospects of all ages now Google items or brands they\u2019re interested in, visit the company\u2019s website and ask Facebook friends for advice. To thrive, businesses large and &hellip; Continue reading &quot;VIA Idea #27: Improve your Sales Strategy with Inbound Marketing&quot;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/viamarketing.net\/blog\/via-idea-27-improve-your-sales-strategy-with-inbound-marketing-2\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"VIA Marketing Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/viamarketinginc\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-05-02T15:38:40+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/viamarketing.net\/emails\/no27\/inboundmarketing.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"viamarketing\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@viamarketinginc\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@viamarketinginc\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"viamarketing\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/viamarketing.net\/blog\/via-idea-27-improve-your-sales-strategy-with-inbound-marketing-2\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/viamarketing.net\/blog\/via-idea-27-improve-your-sales-strategy-with-inbound-marketing-2\/\",\"name\":\"VIA Idea #27: Improve your Sales Strategy with Inbound Marketing | VIA Marketing Blog\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/viamarketing.net\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/viamarketing.net\/blog\/via-idea-27-improve-your-sales-strategy-with-inbound-marketing-2\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/viamarketing.net\/blog\/via-idea-27-improve-your-sales-strategy-with-inbound-marketing-2\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/viamarketing.net\/emails\/no27\/inboundmarketing.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2013-05-02T15:38:40+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-05-02T15:38:40+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/viamarketing.net\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/791b85fee995d9b25717a5d138f99274\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/viamarketing.net\/blog\/via-idea-27-improve-your-sales-strategy-with-inbound-marketing-2\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/viamarketing.net\/blog\/via-idea-27-improve-your-sales-strategy-with-inbound-marketing-2\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/viamarketing.net\/blog\/via-idea-27-improve-your-sales-strategy-with-inbound-marketing-2\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/viamarketing.net\/emails\/no27\/inboundmarketing.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/viamarketing.net\/emails\/no27\/inboundmarketing.jpg\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/viamarketing.net\/blog\/via-idea-27-improve-your-sales-strategy-with-inbound-marketing-2\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/viamarketing.net\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"VIA Idea #27: Improve your Sales Strategy with Inbound Marketing\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/viamarketing.net\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/viamarketing.net\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"VIA Marketing Blog\",\"description\":\"Strategic and Inspired Thinking\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/viamarketing.net\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/viamarketing.net\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/791b85fee995d9b25717a5d138f99274\",\"name\":\"viamarketing\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/viamarketing.net\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d07efa160b54e6f1ee784b48a142e468?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d07efa160b54e6f1ee784b48a142e468?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"viamarketing\"}}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"VIA Idea #27: Improve your Sales Strategy with Inbound Marketing | VIA Marketing Blog","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/viamarketing.net\/blog\/via-idea-27-improve-your-sales-strategy-with-inbound-marketing-2\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"VIA Idea #27: Improve your Sales Strategy with Inbound Marketing | VIA Marketing Blog","og_description":"Back in the day, advertising was simple: TV and print ads pushed products or services and we responded by buying those products or services. Those days are gone. Prospects of all ages now Google items or brands they\u2019re interested in, visit the company\u2019s website and ask Facebook friends for advice. To thrive, businesses large and &hellip; Continue reading \"VIA Idea #27: Improve your Sales Strategy with Inbound Marketing\"","og_url":"https:\/\/viamarketing.net\/blog\/via-idea-27-improve-your-sales-strategy-with-inbound-marketing-2\/","og_site_name":"VIA Marketing Blog","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/viamarketinginc\/","article_published_time":"2013-05-02T15:38:40+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/viamarketing.net\/emails\/no27\/inboundmarketing.jpg"}],"author":"viamarketing","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@viamarketinginc","twitter_site":"@viamarketinginc","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"viamarketing","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/viamarketing.net\/blog\/via-idea-27-improve-your-sales-strategy-with-inbound-marketing-2\/","url":"https:\/\/viamarketing.net\/blog\/via-idea-27-improve-your-sales-strategy-with-inbound-marketing-2\/","name":"VIA Idea #27: Improve your Sales Strategy with Inbound Marketing | VIA Marketing Blog","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/viamarketing.net\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/viamarketing.net\/blog\/via-idea-27-improve-your-sales-strategy-with-inbound-marketing-2\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/viamarketing.net\/blog\/via-idea-27-improve-your-sales-strategy-with-inbound-marketing-2\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/viamarketing.net\/emails\/no27\/inboundmarketing.jpg","datePublished":"2013-05-02T15:38:40+00:00","dateModified":"2013-05-02T15:38:40+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/viamarketing.net\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/791b85fee995d9b25717a5d138f99274"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/viamarketing.net\/blog\/via-idea-27-improve-your-sales-strategy-with-inbound-marketing-2\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/viamarketing.net\/blog\/via-idea-27-improve-your-sales-strategy-with-inbound-marketing-2\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/viamarketing.net\/blog\/via-idea-27-improve-your-sales-strategy-with-inbound-marketing-2\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/viamarketing.net\/emails\/no27\/inboundmarketing.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/viamarketing.net\/emails\/no27\/inboundmarketing.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/viamarketing.net\/blog\/via-idea-27-improve-your-sales-strategy-with-inbound-marketing-2\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/viamarketing.net\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"VIA Idea #27: Improve your Sales Strategy with Inbound Marketing"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/viamarketing.net\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/viamarketing.net\/blog\/","name":"VIA Marketing Blog","description":"Strategic and Inspired Thinking","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/viamarketing.net\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/viamarketing.net\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/791b85fee995d9b25717a5d138f99274","name":"viamarketing","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/viamarketing.net\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d07efa160b54e6f1ee784b48a142e468?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d07efa160b54e6f1ee784b48a142e468?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"viamarketing"}}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/viamarketing.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/viamarketing.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/viamarketing.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/viamarketing.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/viamarketing.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=337"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/viamarketing.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/viamarketing.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=337"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/viamarketing.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=337"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/viamarketing.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=337"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}