Inbound marketing is creating content to attract leads and customers to your business. The opposite alternative is outbound marketing. An example of the latter is the usual marketing strategies, cold calls, mass emailing, advertising purchases, etc. All of the things we just mentioned are outbound marketing strategies. The marketer is the one who goes out and tries to find customers. On the other hand, inbound marketing is about crafting high-quality content that brings you traffic.
Think of a blog with well-written articles. A freelancer can write articles or transcribe interviews that are interesting to read and likely to be shared. Some readers will share the article on Twitter or Facebook, and thanks to this, people visit your website naturally. Over time, as the website improves its position in search engines , people will find your website through the results pages of search engines such as Google.
If you create the proper mechanism to attract customers (through RSS or, even better, through an email list), these readers will continue to visit your content on an ongoing basis. If you regularly produce good content and mention the services you offer in your published articles, your subscribers and new readers will contact YOU requesting those services when they need them.
Table of Contents
Preliminary Steps
It will help if you have something to show before customers knock on your door. Start with your portfolio and your blog.
Create Your Portfolio
Without an online presence, potential customers won’t know what you’re capable of. As a budding freelancer, you should have a website with a portfolio of previous work and features the services you want to offer.
Many new freelancers will intimidat the procedure of buying a domain, creating the design, and building their website. Fortunately, there are plenty of resources to help you do just that.
You can use specific web platforms to manage your portfolio when you first start. Here you have a list with some options to create your portfolio.
In any case, I recommend that you create your website with your domain to host your portfolio. You can build your website with WordPress and select a theme on ThemeForest.
Testimonials are social proof of your services and tend to reduce potential clients’ fears. I highly recommend that you invest the time to get testimonials from your previous clients. Here is an excellent article on the 5 Steps to Getting and Using Customer Testimonials.
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Create a Blog
Drive inbound visitor traffic. Successful bloggers say it all the time; creating blog changes your life. It allows you to share your portfolio. It provides you with material that you can share with people when networking.
Once you have created your portfolio with recent work, I encourage you to develop a blog with consistently updated content. Why?
A blog supports your knowledge within a particular sector. People who visit your website will trust you and be more inclined to use your services by writing and displaying articles on current trends and practical advice.
A blog helps you attract an audience. You will be one step nearer to creating a loyal following by creating a blog. Get to create a community of subscribers to your RSS and subscribers to your email list. When you have “captured” people, you can start producing more and better content. If they enjoy your content, you will be the first person they think of when they need the type of services you offer.
And now that?
You have created a blog and a portfolio and have good testimonials. You can show the work you’ve done before and what you’re capable of doing. So how do you get people to visit your website and, more importantly, get them to pay for your services?
The time has come for you to start networking or building relationships. Here are some concrete tips on using your newly created portfolio to generate desire and sales.
Get your Content Shared
You already have a blog and a magnificent portfolio. How do you convince the public to read your content?
The reply is “guest posting”. Write guest posts on other blogs in your niche that have larger audiences. When you write great, high-quality content on another blog, you’ll get an endorsement from that blog. Readers will see your happiness and want to follow you.
Check Out This Article On How To Write An Effective Guest Post.
However, there is an important aspect, and you need to capture the readers who visit your website. Most people link to their home page when they write a guest post. Unfortunately, most users will arrive. Please look at your page and immediately close their tab, causing your statistics to reflect an increase in unique visitors and bounce rate.
That is why it is better that you create a specific landing page on your website that your readers land on. Offer them exclusive content (e.g. a giveaway or report) in exchange for their email addresses. Here’s an example of a hallway page that converts incredibly well. I offer something in exchange for the email address (I recommend Aweber collect email addresses).
Continue posting your articles on Facebook and Twitter, but remember, emails will generate higher conversion rates than any social network.
Determine what other means you will use to drive traffic and prioritise capturing new users who land on your page.
There are many methods to generate incoming traffic. As I mentioned before, guest posting is highly effective in driving high-quality traffic. However, there are other ways to build viral elements.
Check out Hubspot’s article on inbound marketing, for example, methods you could use to generate a recurring stream of traffic. SEO, blogging, and RSS content distribution systems are the most efficient ways to attract traffic continuously. Viral videos, eBooks, and webinars are additional methods use to generate traffic, although they generally require more advanced work on our part.
Sell Services Among The List Of Captured Contacts
Once you’ve started building a list of subscribers, you can begin to mention your services in your articles and your emails.
As you write more extra content, you will be able to share this work with your growing reader base. At the end of each article or in the middle, mention the services you offer if you can integrate them naturally.
Every time you publish an excellent article, send an email to the contacts on your email list. As a postscript in your email, you can mention that you are available as a freelancer and offer consulting services.
Over time, you should optimise the articles you publish for search engines to attract new readers from Google. Do keyword research and SEO. Learn more about search engine optimisation here
The objective here is to provide quality content so that you gain the readers’ trust and, consequently, they want to buy what you offer. Readers will see your articles, subscribe to your mailing list or newsletter, and want to work with you when they need your services. It is essential to attract readers through RSS and send emails to promote your services.
Improve Your Inbound Marketing System
Using inbound marketing techniques, a portfolio and a system that collects your readers’ email addresses. You can start building your brand and offer services among the readers whose data you have managed to collect. Each time your content will include expos to a new subscriber. Will strengtheneth their trust in you. And they will be much more likely to choose you when they need the type of services you offer.
So get out there, start a blog, and build a community of followers. Through inbound marketing, you will get customers to find you.
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Review Inbound Marketing – Definition, How To work, And More.