Long gone are the days of sending your sales guy out in a nice suit and extra shiny shoes.
In today’s digital centric market, you need to be visible, and the best way to gain visibility is with some inbound marketing! In fact, inbound marketing is now the primary marketing approach for 74% of marketers worldwide for that very reason.
As we have said before however, inbound marketing is a marathon, not a sprint; so, you’d be forgiven for thinking that taking on the inbound approach is easier said than done.
The good news is that all the information you need to become an inbound marketing expert is out there; you just need to know where to look!
Whether you are looking to learn the art of inbound marketing, or simply brushing up your existing knowledge, we know it can be daunting at first, which is why we’ve put together the following top tips for you...
7 ways to become an inbound marketing expert:
1. Subscribe to inbound marketing blogs
There is so much to learn from a good blog – even those that don’t talk about your chosen subject.
For those that do, you can gain some highly valuable insights and different points of view in your sector that you might not otherwise have discovered, which you can then elaborate on and discuss in your own content.
For those blogs that aren’t relevant to your sector, they can teach you about how to create engaging content and design an impactful layout, as well as educate you on the appropriate use of tone, formatting, internal and external links, header formatting and more.
We’d therefore highly recommend subscribing to some top notch inbound marketing blogs, reading them, absorbing their messages, and putting them into action.
2. Learn from others in the industry
With a tonne of concepts and tips running riot in your brain, it is useful to see these principals put into practice. You can do this by signing up to emails from other companies, your competitors and even just brands that you think are nailing it.
By seeing what others are doing, you can see what works and – perhaps more importantly – what doesn’t. In essence, let your competitors make the mistakes so that you don’t have to!
Additional inbound marketing expert top tip – create an email address solely for your inbound marketing research, and use it to subscribe to emails and blogs and to get hold of free eBooks. This will keep it from clogging up your inbox. Remember to click on the emails so they keep on coming.
3. Read relevant case studies
Another handy way to learn from others is to read case studies. Often found on marketing agency websites, they document the strategy implemented to fix a company’s marketing problems and their results.
This can give you an insight into potential issues you might encounter and provide a host of solutions to navigate any potential bumps.
Case studies found on an agency website or from software companies will often be written as a sales tool. To avoid being sucked into the sales patter, you can also find unbiased studies on Marketingsherpa.
4. Bookmark and start your own catalogue
On your travels through cyberspace hunting down invaluable tips and tricks, you will often stumble across a number of resources that you cannot live without.
It’s always best practice to bookmark these pages as and when you find them, so that you can refer back to them at a later date.
Make sure you bookmark a glossary of inbound marketing terms too, as they can be great when learning; you will come across several new ones as time goes on, so a definitive guide to these at your fingertips is a must. HubSpot’s Ultimate Dictionary is especially good!
5. Enrol in a course or two
If you’d prefer a more guided approach to becoming an inbound marketing expert, there are numerous free courses out there that will give you simple and straight to the point advice. Four providers that we rate highly are:
- Codeacademy: Perfect for learning coding or tech skills.
- Lynda: Has a number of free courses on technology, design, web development and business to name but a few.
- Coursera: Offers top online courses, run by top universities around the world, for free!
- HubSpot Academy: Includes practical courses and certifications to help you gain the most sought-after business skills.
6. Use proven templates
A good template or two will take the headache out of your initial venture into inbound marketing.
Use a basic one for your first few blogs or eBooks; this will give you a solid structure, leaving you one less thing to worry about. After all, content is king, so once you have that down and you are happy with your images and optimisation, you can then tweak your structure.
You can find some brilliant templates and guidance on writing inbound emails, too, breaking down everything from your subject lines all the way to your signature to enable you to get the best possible responses.
7. Have no fear!
Finally, it is important to learn from your inner child and don’t be afraid of trying. Kids are natural learners because they have no fear, and know that if at first you don’t succeed, you learn from it and try something new.
Inbound marketing is a vast and multifaceted subject, so be open to learning and keep at it!
Rome wasn’t built in a day – neither was a solid marketing strategy!
Here at Angelfish, we specialise in the development and implementation of powerful inbound marketing campaigns that will transform your overall strategy.
If you’d like to see how we can achieve this for your business, be sure to schedule your free inbound marketing report and consultation with our team.
During the hour, we’ll build a background report on your existing marketing channels as well as provide some of our inbound marketing expert consultancy and more...
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