This whitepaper shares top 10 inbound marketing strategies, followed by details on our Integrated Inbound Marketing Process with an accompanying infographic. Finally, an inbound marketing case study example will illustrate best practice implementation. Visit http://www.modernmarketingpartners.com/Download-Whitepaper-Top-10-Inbound-Marketing-Strategies.cfm for a free download.

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INBOUND
MARKETING
TOP TEN STRATEGIES

2. Modern Marketing Partners
Top 10 Inbound Marketing Strategies
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Top 10 Inbound Marketing Strategies
Inbound marketing, one of the top marketing buzzwords emerging over the
past of couple of years, will be used by 58% of companies this year. In addition,
48% of marketers plan to increase their inbound marketing spend in 20131
.
Inbound marketing is a term coined by Hubspot, defined as the practice
of drawing potential customers to you, as opposed to broadcasting
communications to potential customers through traditional methods like
advertising (now categorized as outbound marketing). For the old-school
marketer or traditionalist, inbound is considered a “pull” strategy, while
outbound marketing is considered a “push” strategy.
Below we will share the top 10 inbound marketing strategies, followed by
details on our Integrated™ Inbound Marketing Process with an accompanying
infographic. Finally, an inbound marketing case study example will illustrate
best practice implementation.
1. Thought Leadership
2. Blogging
3. Social Media
4. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
5. Integrate with PR
6. Paid Search Advertising
7. Calls-to-Action and Registration pages
8. Generate Word of Mouth
9. Leverage events
10. Integrated Inbound™ Marketing
TOP 10 INBOUND MARKETING STRATEGIES

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Top 10 Inbound Marketing Strategies
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10 Inbound Marketing Strategies
1. Thought Leadership – Establishing your brand or key spokespersons as
thought leaders in your industry through content marketing, publishing and
public speaking. If possible, leverage educational opportunities including
associations, institutes, or training programs. Content types include blogging,
case studies, white papers, eBooks, surveys and industry studies, videos, and
more. Demonstrate how your company or brand solves problems. Be informative
and educational, not promotional. Use content as material for public speaking.
2. Blogging – A blog is a great opportunity for your company or brand to
establish thought leadership, while also generating leads. Arguably, one huge
benefit of blogging can also be leveraged as an search tactic. A properly search-
optimized blog builds up your indexed pages count, is a source of fresh
content to your website (which search engines love), allows you to discuss
the “keywords” associated with your company, and increases website traffic.
The SEO benefits are clear, but don’t write for the search engines, write for
your customer. Provide value. Provide additional resources, and social share.
3. Social Media – Social media is no longer an option and represents the
essence of inbound marketing itself. Not only is social media another touch
point to reach and interact with customers and prospects, it provides an
outlet for all your content. Establish a social media strategy. What networks
are right for your brand? What content will we use? Just because you build
it, doesn’t mean they will come. Be sure to post/share regularly. To increase
your reach, add social profile icons and links to your website and blog, and
add social sharing tools. For business-to-business marketing, LinkedIn will
likely be important, along with Twitter, YouTube and Google+. For business-
to-consumer marketing, Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram are important
(along with YouTube and Twitter).

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Top 10 Inbound Marketing Strategies
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4. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) – An estimated 93% of online
experiences starting with a search engine2
, and the majority of searchers
only click on the top 1-3 results. Making SEO improvements to your website
can increase your rankings in a search engine results page (SERP) and
ultimately, increase website traffic and leads. For a more detailed analysis
of SEO improvements you can make, read our white paper: Search Engine
Optimization – Top Priority for Modern Marketers.
5. Integrate with PR – Publicity or PR is by definition, free. And PR can
build awareness and reach new and different customers. What makes PR
part of the inbound marketing mix, is the ability to social share publicity
through the several social networks mentioned above, along with the traffic
PR can deliver to your website, blog, or social networks. Finally, PR can be
used to cost efficiently announce new thought leadership assets like studies,
eBooks, and whitepapers; again, with links to the respective content.
6. Paid Search Advertising – or Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising has created
some controversy in the inbound marketing world. People debate whether
or not PPC should be classified as an inbound marketing tactic. While PPC
does straddle the line, we consider it to be an inbound marketing tactic,
and a powerful one! PPC can help supplement your website traffic while
you are trying to build natural or organic search authority through SEO
improvements. And for high commercial intent searches, PPC outranks
natural (organic) search results.
7. Calls-to-Action – You’ve established yourself as a thought leader, blog
regularly, and have built a social following. But, are you converting? Having
powerful calls-to-action (CTA) in all of your content can help turn prospects into
customers. Provide incentives. Use action verbs. Place effectively. Constantly
test and track the effectiveness of your calls-to-action and make updates.
Use landing pages and registration pages to capture prospect information.
Integrate with CRM or marketing automation to support ongoing lead nurturing.

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8. Word of Mouth – 93% of word of mouth advertisement occurs off-line.
So why is it important and relevant to inbound marketing? Think of inbound
marketing tactics as a conversation starter. Inbound marketing gets people
talking about your company. Though these conversations may happen offline,
you can still influence and shape them early one. Promotions, events, contests
and interactive tools communicated through digital channels (website, social
networks), increase engagement, and build traffic.
9. Leverage Events – both live and virtual events (webcasts), can help
your company establish itself as a thought leader and generate leads.
Webcasts are an effective, and cost-efficient way to boost your content
marketing program. Live events including trade shows provide opportunities
to reach new customers interested in your services.
10. Integrated Inbound™ Marketing – integrate Inbound and Outbound
Marketing initiatives for maximum impact and results. Start with research,
planning and strategy. Outbound includes advertising, PR, events, direct mail
and email, and sales. Inbound includes SEO, content, blogging and social
media. Cross-promote websites, blogs and social profiles in advertising, emails
and more. Use Calls-to-Action and registration pages to capture leads. Finally,
measure analytics of websites and social networks.

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Integrated Inbound™ Marketing
Inbound Marketing is hugely popular thanks to the tireless efforts of marketing
automation software publishers including Hubspot, Marketo, Eloqua and
Pardot, each with a different spin on what constitutes effective inbound
marketing. Still, each of these sources is selling software, so there is clear
bias for Inbound Marketing, and bias against many traditional or outbound
marketing techniques. In some cases, this bias is so exaggerated, that it
borders on conspiracy!
Consider Hubspot’s State of Inbound Marketing Report, which compares
Inbound to Traditional or Outbound marketing, identifying lower costs and
greater effectiveness of Inbound. The conspiracy? Hubspot defines outbound
marketing as trade shows, direct mail and telemarketing. Ok, what about
advertising and PR? What about email and brochures for sales staff?
No question, the marketing mix has has significantly changed, shifted, and
evolved from traditional marketing to Internet-centric approaches. But are
marketers eliminating advertising, PR, trade shows, email and replacing with
inbound marketing? Not even close. Sure small companies that never did
marketing might only implement Inbound marketing, but most brands active
in marketing employ a full complement of marketing elements and approaches.
Here at Modern Marketing Partners, we put forth a new theory of effective,
best-practice marketing. A marketing mix that is multi-disciplined with a
consistent brand identity and message. Outbound marketing integrating
seamlessly with inbound marketing, and more measurable than ever before.
We call it Integrated Inbound™ Marketing, and we illustrate the components
and inter-relationships via the Inbound/Outbound Marketing™ Process
Infographic on the next page.

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Top 10 Inbound Marketing Strategies
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-metrics/dashboards
THE
Research Analysis Planning Strategy Branding
Advertising, PR,
Events, Direct,
Sales Support
Measurement/Reporting
Analytics, Metrics, Dashboards, Activity Calender
Advertising, PR,
Events, Direct,
Sales Support
Outbound Marketing
Advertising, PR, Events, Direct, Sales Support
Advertising, PR,
Events, Direct,
Sales Support
Inbound Marketing
SEO, Content, Blogging, Social Media
Advertising, PR,
Events, Direct,
Sales Support
Lead Generation
Offers, Registration Pages, Promotion, CRM/Automation
INTEGRATED INBOUND™
MARKETING PROCESS

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Inbound Marketing Case Study –
Construction Marketing Association (CMA)
A great example of the power of inbound marketing to achieve measurable
results is the launch of the Construction Marketing Association (CMA).
Established in January of 2010, CMA employed a comprehensive inbound
marketing program to build awareness, drive memberships, and launch such
initiatives as the STAR Awards, professional certification program, and a
career center with the help of Modern Marketing Partners.
Like all successful inbound marketing, a search-optimized website was
foundational, coupled with extensive and relevant content. An award-winning
blog and integrated social media profiles distribute content and communications.
Frequent webcasts and white papers reinforce thought leadership.
Results: Growing memberships, e-commerce sales, website traffic, registrations
through multiple offers, and importantly excellent search authority across a
wide range of topics.
MMP was recognized with the
following awards for the CMA
inbound marketing campaign:
1. Communicator 2011
Silver CMA Social
2. Communicator 2011
Silver CMA Blog
3. Hermes 2011 CMA Blog

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Top 10 Inbound Marketing Strategies
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Modern Marketing Partners is a full
service marketing and communications
agency based in the Chicago region.
MMP implements and manages many
inbound marketing campaigns for clients.
To request a complimentary inbound
marketing analysis, contact Neil Brown
at 630-868-5061, or visit our website
www.ModernMarketingPartners.com.
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:
1
2013 State of Inbound Marketing Report
2
http://www.searchenginejournal.com/24-eye-popping-seo-statistics/42665/