Improving inbound marketing strategy is a key concern for several brands and SaaS businesses — and for the right reasons. Inbound marketing isn’t a silver bullet. It requires continuous tweaks and data-driven revisions for improvement.
We all probably know it.
But few know how to improve inbound marketing strategy that goes beyond superficial tweaks and industry best practices.
We have handpicked the best inbound marketing tips to help you up your inbound marketing game.
Here are the top ways to improve inbound marketing strategy:
Inbound marketing is driven by content, so this should be the first thing you need to improve.
Refreshing content helps you keep it relevant and current. If you have posts that were written years back and you haven’t tweaked them since then, it is time you should. Search engines might not be too interested in fresh content, but your audience is.
Outdated content (especially if it isn’t evergreen) is likely to reduce conversions and session duration and it will increase bounce rate. These are the signals that search engines use to determine the UX and usefulness of the content on your blog.
There are three ways to find and refresh content to improve UX and rankings:
A major reason why a good chunk of content on your blog doesn’t drive any traffic is that it lacks backlinks. If you come across something like this during the content refresh process, you need to focus on backlink acquisition instead of updating content:
If you fail to promote content, it is least likely to rank and perform well. The best way to promote your content is via guest blogging. I am talking about genuine guest posting on relevant sites.
Guest blogging, when done right, has the potential to take your inbound marketing strategy to the next level. Here is how:
Your inbound marketing strategy is incomplete if you don’t have a content repurpose or content recycling strategy. It is a technique to recreate your existing content into new formats for a new audience.
For example, you can use statistics from different articles and create an infographic. Or you can convert a blog post into a video and publish it on YouTube.
Here are a few ideas on how content repurposing works:
The key benefit of repurposing content is that it allows you to reach a wider audience on different platforms. SlideShare, for example, receives more than 65 million visitors a month. The only way to connect with a buyer persona that visits SlideShare is by converting your content into slides and publishing it on SlideShare.
Similarly, there are people who prefer watching videos instead of reading text. Others prefer infographics. And so on.
Repurposing your existing content and republishing it on other platforms (and even on your website) expands your reach at a minimal cost.
You don’t have to reformat content blindly; rather, link it to your buyer personas. See what content formats, sites, and platforms your target audience prefers. Start from a manageable number of formats and see how it works for your brand.
A simple rule to improve your inbound marketing strategy is to spy on your competitors. There is a lot you can learn from the competition, what they do, and what they aren’t doing.
A simple tool like Ahrefs or Semrush is all you need. Even if you don’t use these tools, there is a lot you can learn manually.
Here are a few ideas on what to look for and how to use your competition to improve your inbound marketing strategy:
The idea isn’t to follow your competitors blindly. You need to look for ideas and learn from their experiences. You don’t have to do what they are doing (as most marketers say), rather, get ideas to improve your inbound marketing strategy.
Inbound marketing needs time to show results, and this can often be frustrating for new brands. This is a reason why we at First Page Strategy believe that inbound marketing should be fueled by PPC.
Online ads drive instant traffic and help your brand generate leads. Meantime, you can continue with your inbound marketing strategy. Use inbound as a long-term strategy for sustainable growth and PPC as a short-term strategy for lead generation.
This combination works best and is a key to growth marketing.
None of these inbound marketing tips will work if you ignore data. Don’t think of replicating a technique as is; it might not work or backfire.
Let the data drive your inbound marketing strategy.
Analytics isn’t constant and keeps on changing every day. This means you need to constantly update and tweak your inbound strategy for improvement. If you are unsure where to begin, our experts will create an actionable plan to take your brand to the next level.