No matter what you seem to do, your marketing strategies keep failing. And to no surprise, you’ve learned that creating successful and effective marketing strategies is a lot of work.
An inbound marketing strategy for e-commerce takes patience, experience, and knowledge of your industry.
Luckily, if you are struggling, there are experts available who can help.
This guide aims to help you gain a better understanding of all things regarding inbound marketing for e-commerce and to provide you with a solution to creating an effective inbound marketing strategy.
What Exactly Is Inbound Marketing?
Inbound marketing is a way to put valuable content out to an audience so that they find you and make use of your information. Instead of outwardly pushing your brand to make a sale, you are instead attempting to draw potential customers to your company by creating some type of brand awareness through different ongoing efforts.
These efforts could include:
- Content marketing
- Blogs
- SEO marketing
- Social media
- Webinars
- And more
The overall hope of inbound marketing is to slowly create and build a lasting relationshipwith consumers that could potentially see your company as the trusted source of information regarding your overall brand.
What Is E-Commerce Inbound Marketing?
Inbound marketing in e-commerce specifically attempts to provide value to customers through information and answers they might be searching for. When an audience then realizes you are providing everything they are looking for, they will likely position you as the most reliable source regarding your information or product.
Now, you’re the trusted brand, and your audience should automatically come to you for products associated with your brand.
Nike does e-commerce inbound marketing well. Here’s how:
Although Nike’s stores and website are meant to sell shoes, athletic equipment, and gear related to health and fitness, their inbound marketing strategy is not focused on these products. They don’t simply try and push you to buy their gear and equipment.
Instead, Nike focuses on how to live a healthier lifestyle. They provide information on workouts, nutrition, ways to become a better athlete, and more.
By doing this, Nike is not actively attempting to sell their products. Instead, they are positioning themselves as a reputable and knowledgeable brand regarding many topics related to fitness and health.
Now when you’re shopping for a new pair of cleats for your son’s baseball league, you are naturally thinking about Nike over other competitor brands because of how they marketed themselves as a top sports and fitness brand overall.
Outbound Marketing vs. Inbound Marketing Strategies
Both inbound and outbound marketing strategies have a place in the marketing world. However, most companies and brands tend to focus more on outbound marketing or are attempting inbound marketing but doing it poorly.
How do inbound marketing and outbound marketing compare?
1. What defines inbound and outbound marketing?
Inbound marketing is a passive approach to attracting customers by creating brand awareness through providing valuable content. When done correctly, inbound marketing typically has a high ROI.
Outbound marketing is known as “push marketing” because it uses more traditional advertising (TV, email, radio) to quickly make as many sales as possible. Generally, outbound marketing has a lower ROI.
2. How do you apply inbound and outbound marketing strategies?
Inbound marketing is done through:
- Blogs
- Social media efforts
- SEO
- Webinars
- Downloadable content
Outbound marketing is done through:
- Radio
- Television
- Email marketing
- Print advertising
3. What are the drawbacks of inbound and outbound marketing?
Inbound marketing can be completed quickly, but the goal of inbound marketing is to make a passive approach. Because of this, it can take more time for your company to see results.
Outbound marketing is becoming less popular as technology continues to change the world. Fewer people read all of their emails and watch commercials on television. More and more people are using ad blockers, hiding pages on social media, and choosing where to go to get their information.
If you’re struggling with your inbound marketing approach, Pretty-Impressive can help.
Even if you think you have your inbound marketing strategy nailed down but are looking to improve other marketing strategies, Pretty-Impressive offers a handful of helpful ad blockers
Inspire and Engage
At Pretty-Impressive, each client is unique. Which is why we create strategies tailored to the needs of each company. Reach out and we’ll help you get your brand exactly where it needs to be — ahead of the rest.
Why Is an Inbound Marketing Strategy for E-Commerce Important?
Using inbound marketing for e-commerce can have large and measurable payoffs when done correctly.
In the marketing world, emphasis has been put on the importance of inbound marketing for e-commerce for multiple reasons:
- Inbound marketing produces a measurable and positive ROI.
- Inbound marketing generates more leads compared to traditional marketing.
- Consumers prefer authentic brands.
- Inbound marketing can be more effective in converting leads than outbound marketing when done correctly.
Inbound marketing for e-commerce attempts to accomplish a few things:
- Makes your brand the expert and most reliable source of information regarding the subject(s) you cover
- Builds interactions with potential consumers
- Establishes relationships with potential consumers
- Passively introduces consumers to the rest of your ecosystem of products
How to Build an Effective Inbound Marketing Strategy for E-Commerce
Inbound marketing for e-commerce is only effective if done correctly, so you want to ensure you are utilizing the right tools and focusing on the most important aspects of inbound marketing when creating your strategy.
You want to:
- Focus on providing valuable information; and
- Position yourself as the expert in your industry
If you’re unsure where to start with your inbound marketing strategy, Pretty-Impressive can help. We provide a free 30-minute no-obligation strategy session to help get you on your way to success.
Focus on Providing Custom, Valuable Content for Your Potential Customers
With inbound marketing, it is important that you are not trying to push or directly make a sale with potential customers. You can think of inbound marketing as a “soft sell” because you want the customer to consume your content and then make the decision to purchase based on the information they have gathered.
Rather than pushing a sale directly, you are helping the customer solve a need by educating them on things related to your product.
How?
By providing valuable content that is custom to your brand.
Build Relationships and Position Yourself as an Industry Expert
We have mentioned that Nike does inbound marketing well. How do they accomplish an effective inbound marketing strategy?
They have taken the time to build a relationship with potential clients by providing information that positions them as experts in their industry.
Rather than simply trying to sell sporting goods and fitness equipment, Nike has drawn customers in by providing valuable information on all things including:
- Health and wellness
- Fitness
- Sports
- Nutrition
Now when potential customers need new sports gear, they remember that Nike is a wealth of information regarding all things sports and automatically look to shop there rather than at one of their competitor’s stores or websites.
Inspire and Engage
At Pretty-Impressive, each client is unique. Which is why we create strategies tailored to the needs of each company. Reach out and we’ll help you get your brand exactly where it needs to be — ahead of the rest.
3 Examples of Inbound Marketing for E-Commerce Businesses
1. Blog Content
Creating blog content helps brands to provide information that addresses the needs of potential consumers. When many consumers are searching online for a common need, your brand can appeal to them by having published content regarding that topic.
If done well, you might start to become seen as the expert of information regarding that topic (and more related topics) for potential customers.
2. SEO Campaigns
Blog content might not be effective without solid SEO efforts. By optimizing your blog posts (and your website) for keywords and search queries, you are helping your business rank in the top results of search engine pages.
If your website appears in top search engine positions, it is more likely that potential consumers will click to head to your site. Now the consumer has their eyes on all of your valuable information and will likely remember you in the future.
3. Social Media Efforts
In today’s world, the power of social media is overwhelming.
By taking advantage of social media as a way to put forth content that is …
- Valuable
- Relatable; and
- Informative
… you are probably getting a lot of eyes on your company.
Explore Your Options for an Inbound Marketing Strategy for E-Commerce With Pretty-Impressive
Creating a strong and effective inbound marketing strategy for your company might not be as easy for you to do as we have made it sound. An effective marketing strategy of any kind takes expertise, experience, and data.
Pretty-Impressive is a leader in integrated multi-channel digital marketing campaigns. We use data-driven strategies, like inbound marketing, to help your company achieve the goals that you are hoping to reach.
Our experts at Pretty-Impressive are eager to help — contact us for a free, no-obligation consultation today!
