What Is Inbound Marketing?

Lucas García, designer, CEO, and creative director, explains all about this new way of marketing

Inbound marketing is a very effective methodology to attract new customers, since it is based on the value proposition a brand has to offer. Many companies have decided to incorporate this strategy in their day to day operations and give their potential clients much more than they expect.

Lucas García (@lucasgarcia), director and founder of Social Mood, is an expert in communication, branding, and inbound marketing: he helps brands connect with their audience using digital content.

He explains that to understand the essence of inbound marketing, it is essential to answer the following question:

What is currently going on with the consumer?

We live in the era of the short term and the ephemeral. For the consumer, there is now a surplus of content, making catching their attention a more difficult proposition. Consumers are now an empowered audience with more knowledge and information than ever, an audience prone to cut communication with a brand if they feel its message or content is irrelevant, or downright stop doing business with brands they have bad experiences with.

This is what is called content shock: a market saturated by messages where the consumption capacity of consumers is limited by the time they have–the result of the rise of ephemeral content, especially video.

What is inbound marketing?

Inbound Marketing is a methodology that combines non-intrusive marketing and advertising techniques to help the client in some way. It arises from the premise that what is good for the client is good for the company, regardless of whether business will be done or not. It does not seek short-term results, but rather create a lasting relationship with potential clients and customers.

Inbound marketing forces businesses to understand that the user has changed radically in the last 10 years, and therefore, it's time to adapt: the sale is a consequence, no longer an objective.

What does "helping the customer" mean?

Regardless of whether a brand knows that someone is a potential customer or not, the focus should be on helping them. The process of doing so can be split into three phases: attract, where the goal is to attract the user's attention; connect, in which the user engages with the content; and delight, the phase where the brand makes the user experience unique.

What are the main differences compared to outbound marketing?

Outbound marketing is also known as traditional marketing. It seeks to attract consumers with promotions, and the main objective is to sell, not educate, through unidirectional messages. That is, the company launches a message, if that message reaches its target, it connects, but a response is not expected.

On the other hand, inbound marketing adds value to the message to earn the interest of the user and establish a dialog. Here, marketing, sales, and service work around the customer.

How to generate attention for your content, product or service?

• Remember that the audience is always empowered, separate the wheat from the chaff.
  
• Design a philosophy focused on helping. The user must always be at the center of everything.
  
• Seek long-term relationships.
  
• Avoid putting pressure on the user with content that requires constant attention.
  
• Consider the context of your message. Look for organic and natural channels that add value.
  
• Remember that sooner or later, if you are helping, the user will remember you. Let that be your guiding principle.
  
• It is important that the interaction is as direct and easy as possible.
  

Lucas García teaches the course Inbound Marketing Basic Concepts at Domestika, where you will learn inbound marketing methodology to develop a content strategy and the importance of focusing on helping consumers, offering value even knowing that they may not buy the product or the service you are offering in the end.

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