Buyer’s Journey Map
Mapping your buyer’s journey adds a critical dimension to your persona that allows you to align content (answers) with the prospect’s specific needs (questions) as they go through the Awareness, Consideration and Decision stages in the buyer’s journey. Prospects think and behave differently in each, and by mapping their journey you’ll answer these questions:
The convert phase is broken down into three different areas: Qualify, Nurture and Analyze.
Qualify
Qualifying leads – determining how well suited they are for your products/services/company – is done in part by evaluating their actions to determine how to categorize them. Knowing which category they’re currently in allows you to send the right content offers (or it may signal that it’s time to reach out directly).
Another method for qualifying is to determine who is a marketing-qualified lead (MQL) and who is a sales-qualified lead (SQL). Every company defines its MQLs and SQLs using different criteria, but generally an MQL is a Lead that fits certain demographic qualifiers (and therefore is ready for being marketed to), and an SQL is a Lead who has exhibited interest and fits behavioral qualifiers (and is therefore ready for Sales to engage with him).
Nurture
With prospects’ contact information (which they gave you in a landing page form in exchange for a content piece) and having put them into specific lifecycle stages, you can now nurture them with relevant content – sending emails that contain CTAs suggesting additional tip sheets, eBooks, and case studies they might be interested in, based on what content they’ve already downloaded and actions they’ve taken. As contacts download this more in-depth content, they move further down the marketing funnel, getting closer to becoming a Customer.
Why is it important to nurture?
Analyze
The performance of every tactic and action being executed as part of an inbound marketing strategy is measured constantly. The data and insights they reveal are used to make modifications that ensure that the website, emails, social media, content, content workflows, and more are reaching the right targets at the right times with the right messages – in other words, it’s possible to always be ensuring a fully optimized program. Metrics are available in real time and through the HubSpot portal, giving all parties visibility into the success of the program.
Your website plays an absolutely critical role in the overall success of your inbound program. It’s your 24/7 sales tool, with the power to clearly demonstrate why you’re your prospects’ best potential partner. Getting your site ready to accommodate the different tools and processes of an inbound marketing approach requires some modifications to the site, primarily in how it presents offers of content, and how it makes nurturing possible (and automatic). Some of the elements involved are discussed below.
To help provide some guidance on the different types of advanced content for top- (ToFu) and middle-of-the-funnel (MoFu) prospects, we made this handy infographic explaining 20 different types of advanced content businesses can use to generate more traffic and, more importantly, more leads. Click here to read the full article.
Now that you have a clear understanding of each type of advanced content, use our free templates to create the best content possible:
It’s estimated that video traffic will make up roughly 80% of consumer Internet traffic by 2021! Plain and simple, there’s no better time to use video as part of your inbound marketing strategy. There are a number of types of video that are being used successfully – below are a few that are most effective.
Explainer
This type of video provides an overview of a concept, process, product, service...anything that prospects want to know more about. While you can write content that explains the topic, video is often far more engaging. Check out our example below where we explain ToFu, MoFU and BoFu content and how it plays a role in your buyer's journey.
Testimonial
Testimonials from customers telling your prospects how well your product works (increased productivity, reduced downtime, simple maintenance, etc.) is more powerful than you telling prospects the same thing – it’s a peer and in that way has added credibility.
Tour
Often a plant tour is what sells a customer on the potential vendor, and you can get to that point in the relationship more quickly when you provide a tour of your facility, highlighting your ISO certifications or other compliance.
Demonstration
Side-by-side comparisons with a competitor’s product, run-through of a product’s functionality, a video showing how to perform simple maintenance...all of these and more make great video content prospects will get value from.
Digital advertising is essentially an outbound (“push”) tactic, but can be leveraged to accelerate results you’ll see from your inbound tactics. Because Google sees how much content you’re publishing (and rewards you more the more you have – and more frequently you publish), it may take a few months before you get maximum traction. In the meantime, some companies place Google ads to increase their visibility. The click-thru rate from those ads can get prospects to your content as you’re waiting for organic traffic to build.
A well-crafted email marketing strategy outlines what prospects get which emails when, and what those emails promote. Email marketing allows you to promote new blog articles to blog subscribers and new advanced content pieces to those who have opted into email communications. Detailed workflows determine which prospects get which content, in what sequence and how often.
Once you’ve implemented the components we’ve discussed above, leads will start rolling in – then what? It’s important that your Marketing and Sales teams are working towards the same goals, with the same set of action steps dictating how Leads are handled once they’re in your system. A Marketing & Sales Alignment (SLA) establishes and holds each team accountable for all of this.
A Service Level Agreement (SLA) breaks down the complex B2B process of inbound lead generation and sales so that everyone involved in business development has a clear and deliberate plan. No more unknown or assumed expectations between departments or team members, no more wasted effort in pursuing low-value leads, and no more process confusion.
Fill out the form on the right to download the Inbound Marketing for Industrials Guide. You can print it, share it with friends and family or just use it as light reading when you’re on a plane! We hope you enjoy this eBook as much as we did creating it!
Social Media
Though most industrials are under the impression that their audience isn’t on social media, that’s simply not true. However, when it comes to choosing which social networks to promote your content on, some are more effective for manufacturers than others. For example, Facebook is best used in promoting a manufacturer’s culture as a way to aid in recruiting but is not effective in generating leads. LinkedIn, on the other hand, has been shown to be very effective as an engagement tool and a platform to present and offer content. An inbound marketing plan will include a social media strategy designed to identify the most appropriate and effect channels, along with the recommended frequency and subjects.