Inbound Marketing: Attract, Engage & Convert Customers

The thing that I love about digital marketing is the ability target your ideal customer and measure the results.

I looked at a form of print “snail mail” marketing using a local service here in Auckland.

It was going to cost me a minimum of $1000 to reach 500 people in my area (that is not including the creation time of the marketing material or printing costs).

The whole idea was they would send out a simple mail out to 500 people from a niche of my choice like manufacturers, retailers, dentists or scientists, then give me a copy of the recipients so I could call up and see if people got my brochure and were interested.

I have to admit I wasn’t sold, the cost seemed high and it seemed like a laborious task to follow up cold leads by phone.

But I pressed on trying to find out exactly what I would get for my $1000.

I asked “What kind of response rate does this marketing get?”

They replied “We do not measure it, but you can do it by phone”. They could not give me any feedback of past results, or offer any sort of tracking services.

This set my nerdy alarm bells off – Marketing to a vague, untargeted list, of cold leads, with no idea of the take up rate, no tracking, cold calling.

So I thought back to any mail I had received from them in the past and the fact that 95% of it went straight into my rubbish bin.

So I turned back to my own digital tool kit for marketing my own business.

Online I could be much more specific about my target market.
I could cast a net around people in Auckland (or all of New Zealand) who were sitting at their computers (or on their iphones) and actually looking for services like mine.
For the same spend I could get a months worth of marketing … not 1 mail out that probably ended up in the rubbish bin.

If you are reading this blog post it is a testament to the fact that I am doing something right!

Marketing issues that business owners face

It is only after this experience of using old school marketing I realised the issues that everyday business owners face when trying to sell their goods and services.

So I wanted to throw this blog together to give you some ideas of how to hone in on your target marketing and get more for less with digital marketing.

Personally, I turned to the following marketing channels.

Facebook – I am not talking posting cat videos and inspiration quotes, but rather building facebook ads that drive traffic to a website, and push them through a sales funnel, that educates them and turns them into paying customers. Learn more about facebook marketing here

Google Adwords – Getting your marketing message in front of people in your area, with their wallets in hand, searching for your products or services. Learn more about google ads

Content Marketing – Setting up a blogging system that helps website owners and businesses navigate the confusing world of online marketing and learn about the important tools they should be using to successfully market their business online and getting my brand out there.

Need help with digital marketing?

If you are looking for new customers I recommend you give these methods a try, and if you need any help check out the services I have linked to above.