The Role of Content in Inbound Marketing

It is a well-known fact that content is a crucial element of inbound marketing. It supports the customer’s journey with your business from the start by providing value. Here's a look at how content complements inbound, and the steps your business can take to get set up for long-term success.

Content Supports Conversions 

Conversions mark a critical point in every buyer’s journey where a desired action is taken. This means the lead up to that action was successful, and you’re on the route to a sale and potentially loyal customer. When actions are taken, and visitors become leads, the data needs to be recorded. Armed with data, you can analyze patterns to see what is working and what needs improvement. Also, importantly, for conversions to really have an effect, you need to devise clear workflows so that the next steps are designed for the lead to take. 

It is clear to see that content has a role at each of these stages. It needs to be consistent and provide a cohesive brand feel for those interacting with it. That means your content needs to be styled in a particular way, with a specific tone used across all types of content. The kinds of content that support the buyer’s journey include information on websites and social media, blog posts, pop-ups, emails, and so on. The connections you’re able to build with customer bases can have a direct effect on whether conversions occur or not. 

To create conversion paths, you’ll need to attract potential customers, and have a compelling conversion presented to them. Every ideal step leading up to the purchase is marked and planned, with content that guides the person to that point. Once it is reached, businesses aim to build brand loyalty to encourage repeat purchases. There are so many factors to consider when creating conversion paths, and these will be specific to your audience. The more tailored it is based on your understanding of them and their needs and the potential scenarios they’re facing, the better you’ll be able to guide them. 

Related: Content Marketing Strategy Planning for 2022

Factors that Affect Conversions

Here’s a look at the typical factors that influence conversion rates:

• Value proposition 
• Relevance of content
• Clarity of the conversion path
• Visitor anxiety
• Distractions
• Urgency

The Role of Content in Inbound Marketing 

Conversions are a crucial part of your long-term strategy and overall inbound marketing. All content requires resource allocation. Marketers today are required to create various types of content, from text to audio and visual, depending on the preferences of their audience. This makes for much richer and more dynamic marketing efforts, which are designed to provide the best possible experience in collaboration with sales and service to customers. The two most important aspects of content today is relevance and value. 

To get make the most of the inbound marketing methodology, you need to conduct conversion optimization. To do this, you need to test hypotheses that will increase your conversion rates. By doing this, you’ll be finding ways to better satisfy your audience and increase conversions, which has wide-ranging positive knock-on effects. It requires long-term improvements that will provide greater value. 

How to Optimize Conversions

1. Set the goal in alignment with both short- and long-term goals, and be sure to include KPIs
2. Determine the benchmark that you will measure from, based on current data
3. Write the hypothesis based on research and observations
4. Perform the test which needs to run over a period of time
5. Analyze the data to determine if the hypothesis is correct, or incorrect, or inconclusive (in which case a new hypothesis needs to be determined)

Strategies for the Long-Term

Ideally, businesses need to plan for the long term. Inbound marketing inherently does this, viewing the traditional funnel as a flywheel. This is especially true when it comes to content, and this is where editorial plans come into play. As with most plans, this creates an organized route to follow with the confidence of knowing that the content you’re creating is rooted in purpose. 

Inbound marketing puts content at the heart and center, tapping into the power of storytelling. This content needs to be shared with potential customers as they make their way through the buyer’s journey. By keeping your audience informed throughout their journey with you, you’re inspiring brand advocates. The extra benefit comes in with SEO, which is another long-term benefit of content. Finally, it helps cement your position within your industry as a thought leader. 

All in all, content marketing plays a very important role in inbound marketing. By sharing content via multiple channels, you’re supporting inbound which focuses on marketing in the bigger picture. The relationships you create using content facilities the inbound methodology and ideally inspire the audience to take the desired action.

It all comes down to satisfying your targeted audience and providing them with value. The long-term outlook is of the utmost importance, with a focus on relationship building - and conversions. As diamond-tier HubSpot partners, we at Nexa know full well the power of inbound marketing. If you need help implementing it in your business, or developing a long-term content plan, get in touch with our team.