Inbound Marketing Strategy: Definition, Benefits, and Stages

With the development of digital, 90% of today's shoppers¹ research a new product and/or service online before buying.

For this reason, many businesses are now using an Inbound Marketing Strategy which is the solution best suited to new consumer habits and a booster of ROI: 53% of businesses² using an Inbound Marketing strategy have seen their ROI increase.

Discover what an Inbound Marketing Strategy really is, the benefits and the different stages of its successful implementation.

Inbound Marketing Strategy: Definition

Inbound Marketing is a new form of marketing which aims to draw prospects naturally towards a company and generate interest in the products and/or services available.

To generate the interest of these prospects, a company must use a conversion funnel which is broken down into 4 steps:

1. attract visitors,

2. convert visitors into leads,

3. convert leads into customers,

4. gain customer loyalty.

When implemented correctly, Inbound Marketing methods see substantial increases in efficiency: compared to other marketing methods, businesses employing Inbound Marketing are 10 times more effective³ at converting leads.

The Benefits of an Inbound Marketing Strategy

Gain the trust of the consumer

Inbound Marketing facilitates the creation of trust between the brand and the consumer. When a company provides informative content, they increase their credibility and position themselves as “experts in their field”. For example, including statistics⁴ in blog articles has a positive impact on consumer opinions and 74% of shoppers⁵ trust the content published by a company in their blogs.

Increase a company's profile

Inbound Marketing is also a means of increasing a brand's profile in search engines. When a company regularly publishes optimized content on their website, they improve their SEO ranking for certain keywords and increase their organic traffic: 85% of businessess⁶ using Inbound Marketing increase their traffic in the 7 months following its implementation.

Optimize the conversion of leads into customers

Inbound Marketing optimizes the conversion tunnel. When a company provides the shopper with relevant content, adapted to their needs, it helps them to make the next step in their shopping process confidently. 42% of businesses⁶ using Inbound Marketing accelerate their conversion of leads into customers.

The Stages of an Inbound Marketing Strategy

1. Attract Visitors

The first stage of an Inbound Marketing Strategy is to attract visitors to the company's website. There are several techniques which allow you to do this: Search Engine Optimization, social networks, content publication, blogging… These techniques are essential for increasing traffic to your website. Companies publishing over 16 blog articles per month generate 3.5 times more⁷ traffic than companies publishing only 0 to 4 articles⁷ per month.

2. Transform visitors into Leads

Once you have drawn visitors to the company website, you must convert them into leads. This requires gathering the personal details of visitors interested in your products and/or services. To gather this information, you will need to add a call-to-action (CTA) button⁸ on a landing page.

Often placed at the bottom of the page, the CTA enables you to redirect visitors towards a specific page where they will be asked to complete a form to receive an email and/or download a high value content: customer case study, whitepaper, guide, eBook… This allows the company to gather key information on the visitor, and to better understand their needs and to qualify them as a lead.

3. Transform leads into Customers

Once a lead has been identified, the challenge is to accompany them through the purchase. To encourage leads through the buying tunnel and convert them into customers, involves lead nurturing. This technique involves maintaining the trust gained among leads by “nurturing” them with personalized content throughout their shopping journey. Lead nurturing accelerates sales with businesses using lead nurturing realizing 50% more sales⁹ while spending 33% less⁹.

Personalized emails are among the most effective lead nurturing techniques: they can generate up to 6 times more¹⁰ profits and are 26% more¹⁰ likely to be opened. For this technique to work, the company sends an email to the lead, customized according to their degree of maturity, objectives, and needs. By sending them the right content at the right time, they make the purchase much more likely and accelerate the decision-making process.

4. Gain customer Loyalty

The loyalty stage is essential to maintain customers and to leave them with a positive impression of your brand. Customers with an emotional connection to a brand obtain a Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) 306% higher¹¹ and are 71% more likely¹¹ to recommend your brand. Therefore, it is essential to continue to uphold the customer's positive connection with the brand after the sale: invitation to conferences, discussions on social networks, use of marketing automation, sending special offers…

To make a success of their Inbound Marketing Strategy, a business must attract and captivate shoppers by providing the right content which provides true added value to their shopping process and meets their needs. To create this content requires prior in-depth competitive watch: researching relevant keywords, scrutinizing emerging trends and news, regular consultation of competitor websites…

¹ Saleforce. Nine Stats About the Retail Customer Journey in 2019. (2019, april 9). salesforce.com.
² Meltwater. Inbound Marketing 101 : Optimizing Your Marketing Funnel at Every Stage. meltwater.cdn.
³ Bouras, K. B. (2018, september 21). 35 statistiques inbound marketing qui prouvent son ROI dans l'industrie. blog.agencenile.com.
⁴ HubSpot. La liste indispensable des statistiques marketing
⁵ Henault, J. H. (2019, october 17). 50 faits sur le Content Marketing en 2019. semrush.com.
⁶ Ghods, R. G. (2017, july 28). 93% of Companies Using Inbound Marketing Increase Lead Generation [New ROI Data]. hubspot.com.
⁷ Goday, R. G. (2015, october 21) À quelle fréquence les entreprises devraient-elles bloguer ? hubspot.fr.
⁸ Hubspot. Qu'est-ce que l'inbound marketing ? hubspot.fr.
⁹ Hubspot. Comment utiliser les workflows pour développer un processus de lead nurturing plus performant. hubspot.fr.
¹⁰ Masse, B. M. (2021, march 1). Lead nurturing : définition et conseils pour réussir. hubspot.fr.
¹¹ Amaresan, S. A. (2020, november 16). 42 Interesting Stats about Customer Loyalty You May Not Know. hubspot.com.