Written by Ian Lidster, Treasurer

Did you know that 80% of customers are more likely to make a purchase when brands offer personalized experiences?

Consumers are always changing their buying practices. Now so more than ever, it is imperative that companies are forming connections with their customers and helping them solve problems that they already have. This is what inbound marketing is all about, helping consumers accomplish their goals by building trust between prospects or customers.

Inbound marketing is carried out in 3 stages…

Attract

This is the first stage and the goal is to attract users with useful content. The key here is to earn people attention, not force it. Some strategies include blogging, SEO, paid search ads, or display advertising. This stage should be focused on if your goal is to generate more traffic and leads.

Engage

In this stage, you will want to make it as easy as possible for customers to shop and buy from you. To do this, you want to enable buyers to interact with you on their preferred timeline and channels. The goal here is to focus on opening relationships, not just closing deals. Strategies include website and email personalization, database segmentation, lead nurturing, and multichannel communication.

Delight

Helping to support and empower customers to reach their goals should be what operating a business is all about. The delight stage focuses on creating buzz around your brand through various strategies such as social mentions, reviews, word of mouth marketing, and customer loyalty programs. Focus on the delight stage if you are looking to improve customer retention, customer lifetime value, and referrals.

The real payoff to inbound marketing comes in the form of more loyal customers. Trends in marketing have shown how important it is to make the customer feel like they are getting a personalized experience from a brand they can trust. This approach to marketing may seem like more work than it’s worth, but in the long term, it is an effective method of running a successful business by having a positive impact on customers who can truly benefit from your product or service.

https://www.hubspot.com/inbound-marketing

“New Epsilon Research Indicates 80% of Consumers Are More Likely to Make a Purchase When Brands Offer Personalized Experiences.” Geo-Redirect, www.epsilon.com/us/about-us/pressroom/new-epsilon-research-indicates-80-of-consumers-are-more-likely-to-make-a-purchase-when-brands-offer-personalized-experiences. Accessed 17 Dec. 2023.