Did you know inbound marketing is a creature with 5 Is?
Inbound marketing should:
- Innovate
- Incite
- Induce
- Inspire
- Inform
Each of these words describes a facet of what inbound marketing is all about. Innovative marketing provides something novel yet relevant to the customer, catching the eye and the mind. Marketing should incite a customer to advocate what you have to offer.
Inbound marketing will induce the customer to trade information for value and inspire him to forge ahead toward the solution you offer for his problem. Inbound marketing informs the audience about problems and solutions, products and services, and industry news; it answers their questions.
Innovate
Marketing innovation has little to do with flashy banners, viral video or creative websites. In the words of Ed Gaskin, a marketing innovation expert and former CMO, marketing innovation is:
“The plan to incorporate the advances in marketing science, technology or engineering to increase the effectiveness and efficiency of marketing, to gain competitive advantage and increase shareholder value.”
It is integrating current science and technology into marketing to improve it. You need to improve marketing effectiveness, customer value, engagement and communications using research and new techniques that have been discovered and found to be useful.
Innovation is inherently a forward moving word. It embodies strategies built on new methods and tactics. The human animal may dislike change but it loves novelty. Innovation is making novelty work in your favor to begin building a relationship with qualified leads.
Incite
To incite someone is to pump him up with passion. In the case of inbound marketing, you want passion for your product or service to be so strong that the person becomes an advocate.
Your customers must be more than satisfied; they must feel the need to let everyone know how great you are, loudly and often. Satisfaction won’t do it; there must be passion.
What incites advocacy? That which drives passion. Is there a feature of your product or service that people are wild about? It would be that thing that someone says, “…and this is the coolest part.” The thing that a customer can’t avoid pointing out to someone else.
How do you know what will incite? Figure out what differentiates your brand, product or service. Nobody will get excited about something every brand has, only that which is different and outstanding. Most often these will be product features but can also be service differentiators such as Zappos’ liberal return policy.
Advocates can also be found by monitoring and measuring what has been called customer sentiment. This is a measure taken from positive and negative comments about your company or product found on social media or other areas. Once you discern a pattern you can develop content for a response.
Induce
To induce is to convince and persuade. You need to convince people that your product or service is the best and persuade them to buy it. How do you induce them to do so?
People buy for benefits, not features. What is the difference? A feature is static, a benefit is active. A feature tells what it is; a benefit tells what it does. It’s the difference between pretty to look at and useful to have.
You want to describe these benefits with simple yet striking language designed for emotional pull. No jargon, no clichés. Offer solid facts, nothing wishy-washy. And keep the list of benefits short, two to three at most. No jargon or fluff. Don’t force it.
If people are not being induced, look at your tactics and content. See where customers are bogging down and find a way to solidify and streamline their path.
Inspire
Inbound marketing tells your story. Done well it will inspire influencers and followers to engage with you. It will inspire ideas about how your product or service will solve a problem. Inspiration is a very positive word with lift and warmth. People who are inspired usually can’t wait to put whatever has inspired them into motion or to work.
Use your inbound marketing tools to tell not just your story but inspiring stories about satisfied customers solving problems with your solution. Testimonials and case studies are great content pieces to inspire others to use your solution, too.
Inform
Why do people search online? Because they want information. Your inbound marketing should inform your ideal customer about the problem he has and how your solution will resolve it. It should inform the customer of industry news, techniques and knowledge.
What do your customers want to know? You can find out by looking at the questions they ask your sales staff or the conversations they have on social media. You can be more esoteric.
Answer a question that is unlikely to come up from a customer but illustrates a benefit of your product. An example of this is the now-famous BlendTec series of videos “Will It Blend?”
Is being able to blend an iPhone a problem that needs a solution? Unlikely; but it does illustrate a benefit quite well. BlendTec blenders are strong enough for the toughest thing a customer has to blend.
There are many more sources of conversation about your company than ever before with review sites, the ability to rate and rank and to speak out to many people quickly through blogging or social media. Set up a Google Alert for your company name or keywords; listen to what people are saying. Then provide a response designed to educate them about that subject and about your solution.
Inbound marketing works best when running on all 5 Is. Make sure you have a little of each within your strategy to attract and convert customers and create brand advocates wherever you go.
