Inbound marketing today isn’t the same as it was a few years back. Its evolution has involved changes in the Google algorithm, new and advanced CMS, a focus on UX, omnichannel marketing, IoT, and more. These changes have reshaped the way FinTech, SaaS companies, brands, and marketing agencies engage with inbound marketing.
If you want to stay ahead of your competitors as a brand, you must ensure that you are using the latest inbound marketing methods and relevant tools. Here are four outdated inbound marketing tactics that you must avoid in 2021 and beyond:
1. Creating More Content
Creating more content has long been considered the most important inbound marketing tactic as more content means more keywords, more ranking opportunities, more interlinking options, and so on.
There is a lot of research on how producing more content maximizes the chances of getting more organic traffic. And it used to work very well; in fact, it does work even today.
But it isn’t a viable inbound marketing tactic.
Why?
Google has clearly indicated that it focuses on the quality of the content you publish instead of the quantity. It focuses on the E-A-T (Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness) of both the writer and the website. Your focus should not be on how much content you produce, but rather how interesting and useful the content is.
Content marketing techniques like Skyscraper and 10x content are perfect approaches to writing content that’s high-quality. When you are creating such quality content, quantity doesn’t really matter. A single piece of content can do wonders for your SaaS brand.
2. Gated Content
Gated content is used extensively for lead generation. It is one of the most used techniques for lead gen and it is still used today. The content, in this case, is blocked by a landing page, squeeze page, or an opt-in form and your audience gets access to the content only after sharing their contact details.
It is estimated that over 80 percent of B2B content is gated.
This might work for HBR and Bloomberg since they have established authority and their audience is more likely to subscribe to get access to quality content and other premium resources.
Gated content, however, is a thing of the past.
More than 4 million blog posts are written every day. There are heaps and heaps of free valuable content available out there. Why will someone fill your form to access your gated content? Unless you are a widely known, very popular site, people will most likely turn away.
Here is what you should do…
Reduce your landing pages and gated content and start publishing strategic content that aligns with your buyer journey (more on this below). Stick with E-A-T by publishing high-quality content as blog posts that your target audience can access without any registration.
Only gate your best content that is exclusive and the best out there. Everything else must be free to everyone.
3. Keyword-Focused Content
If you are still focusing on keyword-driven content, you are living in the past. Search algorithms have evolved a lot, and while keywords do have importance, they aren’t as important as they used to be.
Google (and other search engines) use LSI, search intent, and related terms to understand the content on a webpage. What this means is that even if you aren’t using a keyword, your page will still rank for several related terms.
Here is an example:
The actual keyword isn’t present in the title or meta, but the overall theme of the blog post is relevant to the search term; thus, it is ranked in the first place.
What you need to do is target realistic search terms that your audience might use. If you are using keywords, make sure these are highly targeted and specific to your brand.
Of most importance, focus on customer problems and their solution. Think of a problem your next blog intends to solve and then develop relevant questions and search terms. Create a masterpiece on the solution without emphasizing keywords.
4. Focusing on Top of the Funnel Only
The top of the funnel has always been the priority of inbound marketers. Generating leads is what most FinTech and SaaS brands do and this is where they're stuck on targeting the top of the funnel with little or no effort on the middle and bottom of the funnel.
Brands need sophisticated funnels and they need to know the exact buyer journey. The content and marketing collateral must be relevant to the buyer stage in the customer journey.
Developing a buyer journey strategy and an understanding of what path your ideal customers follow is essential. This will help you identify the inbound marketing tactic to use to target potential buyers based on the stage.
Here is an example of what our buyer’s journey template looks like:
As a HubSpot marketing agency, we identify the buyer journey of our clients and help them target ideal customers throughout the journey. When targeting customers based on their stage in the customer journey, you get to know their problems, keywords to target them, content type, and behavior to expect at each stage.
Getting Inbound Marketing Help
Inbound marketing is a great way to reach your target audience at a much lower cost than outbound marketing. As much as 41 percent of marketers report that inbound marketing produces measurable ROI. You can improve ROI by replacing outdated inbound marketing tactics with new ones.
If you aren't sure where to begin or how to develop an inbound marketing strategy for your SaaS and/or FinTech brand, feel free to get in touch with us. We will work with you to come up with a robust and effective inbound marketing strategy and buyer journey that will grow your brand significantly.
