What is inbound marketing?

Inbound marketing means getting customers to come to you. Instead of interrupting people with ads, cold calls or bought email lists, you publish content that answers their questions. Blog posts, guides and newsletters are typical examples. People find it when they search for help, get to know your business through it, and come back when they're ready to buy.

It works the other way round from outbound marketing, where you make the first contact with people who haven't asked to hear from you. You don't have to pick one: HubSpot recommends using both together, for example an ad that promotes a useful guide.

How the buyer's journey works

Inbound marketing starts with the buyer's journey, the path someone takes before they decide to buy. It runs through awareness, consideration and decision. Imagine you've started running, but your old trainers hurt your feet.

• Awareness: you notice a problem and look for information about it. You search for "sore feet after running" and read a guide on choosing the right shoes.
• Consideration: you know what the problem is and weigh your options. You read reviews, browse a few shops' websites and watch videos about different running shoes.
• Decision: you decide which shop to buy from. A clear product page, honest reviews and good delivery terms help you pick one.

Inbound marketing looks at the same journey from the shop's side. You give useful answers at every stage, so the buyer is more likely to choose your business when they decide.

The three stages of inbound marketing

The buyer's journey is what your customer goes through. The inbound method is what you do in return, and it works in three stages, each with its own job.

• Attract: while people look for information, you draw the right ones to your website with content that helps them. You write it so they find it when they search.
• Engage: while they compare and decide, you make it easy for them to talk to you and buy from you, on the channels and at the pace that suit them.
• Delight: you keep helping after the sale, so happy customers come back and recommend you.

Those recommendations bring in new people, so the stages feed each other in a loop that HubSpot calls a flywheel.

Inbound marketing examples

In HubSpot's inbound method, the content you publish does one of three jobs: it brings people to you, it turns visitors into leads, or it keeps the customers you already have.

• Bring people to you: posts on your blog, videos and social media posts that answer the questions your customers search for.
• Turn visitors into leads: e-books and templates that people download, and webinars they sign up for, in return for their contact details.
• Keep your customers: newsletters, guides and tips that help customers get more out of what they bought.

Many people find your content when it shows up in their searches, so inbound marketing and SEO go together. Write about what your customers want to know, in the words they use, and your pages can rank when they look for answers.

It's worth giving your content a home you control, such as your own website with a blog. You can build a website with our Aida AI Website Builder and publish your blog posts from the same place.

How visitors become leads

A lead is a visitor who has given you a way to contact them, usually an email address. Three parts work together to turn a visitor into a lead.

• Call to action: a short button or link in your content that tells the reader what to do next, such as "Get the free checklist". A clear call to action starts with a verb and names what the reader gets.
• Landing page: the page the button leads to, which explains what the reader gets in return for their details. A focused landing page keeps the reader on that one offer.
• Form: the fields the reader fills in to get the offer, such as their name and email address. Ask only for what you need.

Back to the running shoes. A running shop could offer a free checklist for choosing the right pair. A call to action at the end of each blog post opens the checklist's landing page, and the reader signs up through the form. That's the moment a visitor becomes a lead.

Your form is also where people agree to hear from you. Under the UK's Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations, you usually need someone's consent before you send them marketing emails. So say clearly on the form what you'll send, and make it easy to unsubscribe later.

Follow up with email and marketing automation

Lead nurturing means staying in touch with useful emails until a lead is ready to buy. Lead scoring helps you decide who to contact first: each lead gets a score based on what they do, such as visiting your prices page. When a score passes a level you set, it's time to get in touch.

Marketing automation does much of this work for you. With email automation, you write the emails once. A download of your checklist can start a series of emails, and the software sends each one for you, based on what the reader does. We offer the newsletter tool Ubivox, which lets you create newsletters, send automated emails and view statistics on them.

Email marketing counts as inbound when it goes to people who signed up, for example through a form on your website. A cold email, sent to people who haven't subscribed to your mailings, is outbound.

Advantages and drawbacks of inbound marketing

Inbound marketing suits a small business with a limited budget. Your main costs are a website, a newsletter tool and the time it takes to write. An ad stops working when you stop paying for it, but a good guide can keep bringing in visitors long after you've published it. Helpful content also builds trust, because people get to know you as someone who knows the subject.

The drawbacks are about time and patience. Inbound needs a steady supply of good content, and small teams often struggle to publish regularly. HubSpot estimates that inbound marketing takes three to six months to bring in measurable traffic and leads, because new content needs time to rank in search engines.

Inbound suits you if your customers research before they buy and you can keep publishing useful content. If you need sales next week, outbound tactics such as ads are the better place to start.

How to create an inbound marketing strategy

You don't need a big team for an inbound marketing strategy. Work through these points in order.

1. Write down who your customers are and the questions they ask before they buy.
2. Publish one helpful post or guide at a time on your own website, each about one question.
3. Offer something worth signing up for, such as a checklist, an e-book or a newsletter, with a call to action and a short form.
4. Send your new leads useful emails, and automate the ones that repeat.
5. Check which posts bring visitors and sign-ups, and write more of what works. Google Search Console, a free tool from Google, shows which searches find your posts and how often people click through.

Results build up slowly, so give your plan a few months before you judge it. Each post you publish adds to a library of content that goes on working for you.

Once you know your customers' questions, you need a place to publish the answers. Create your website and blog with our Aida AI Website Builder, and make your first post answer the question your customers ask most.