If you are the kind of person who recognizes the vital role that modern technology plays in the realm of business, chances are you have probably already heard of the term inbound marketing sales funnel.
In this day and age, it is almost a necessity for every business owner to pursue a certain kind of digital marketing strategy to level the playing field. Inbound marketing is one of the best in the field of marketing strategies.
Roughly defined, inbound marketing is a marketing strategy that aims to attract viable leads (customers in simpler terms) organically by engaging them through the creation of helpful and useful content and delighting them with the solutions and answers they get from your informative content.
In effect, you get more qualified traffic to your business website, with most of your leads being intrinsically interested in what you can offer them, be it a product or a service.
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This is on the completely different side of the spectrum as compared to outbound marketing, where you generate large volumes of traffic but only a few essentially useful leads.
Sales funnels, on the other hand, are nothing new in the field of both traditional and digital marketing. Most salespeople, if not all, are familiar with this concept. Basically, the traditional sales funnel of marketing is one of the oldest and earliest forms of sales techniques.
Since as early as the 1800s, sales funnels have been used to analyze and pave the way to think of the ways on how to get a customer to purchase a product or service. This 5-step process boils down into the following stages of customer interaction with a product or service:
- Awareness
- Discovery
- Evaluation
- Intent
- Purchase
Now, combining the two, the inbound marketing funnel is born. As the marketing world realized the increasing demand for a newer and more effective marketing strategy, this marketing innovation was developed.
The previous five-step method of the traditional sales funnel has evolved into a three-step method: Awareness to Consideration and finally to Decision. The use of this hybrid of inbound marketing and buying sales funnel has proved itself to be a very effective and efficient marketing technique to generate more qualified and viable leads.
Inbound marketing sales funnel functions by focusing on these three fundamentals: relevant informative content, behavioral analysis and data gathering. The most important of these three is the content.
For starters, the content should be useful. It should help a lead or a potential customer answer his or her ‘why’, ‘what’, ‘when’ or ‘how’. After all, this is what attracts them in the first place. The content is like the lifeblood of the marketing strategy so it needs utmost research and expertise.
The importance of the inbound marketing sales funnel, especially in these modern times, is highlighted by the fact that more and more consumers are now online. Customers of today are looking for easier, faster and more accessible ways to find useful products and services.
By setting up and stepping up your inbound marketing sales funnel, not only can you increase your brand awareness but you can also generate more sales in the long run. Inbound marketing provides better lead production and a higher conversion rate as opposed to outbound marketing.
