Inbound marketing: what is it and why is it important?

As a self-employed person, it is very important to keep developing yourself. Now the number of entrepreneurs, and also self-employed persons without employees, in the Netherlands continues to rise, it is very important to look closely at this. After all, you want to stand out and preferably be better or at least smarter than your competition…

You can do this in various ways, for example by using various forms of marketing.

One of the ways you attract customers is inbound marketing. Active help during the buying process is central to this.

You can read more about inbound marketing in this article.

Inbound marketing: what exactly is it?

Inbound marketing is a very interesting form of marketing, because it’s all about actively finding and offering solutions for the customer.

In other words: people from your target group, so your potential customers, find solutions to problems they experience at your company. You don’t have to “disturb” them of your own accord with all kinds of non-working techniques, such as advertisements and cold callingbut you get people to come to you of their own accord.

Now you may be wondering why there has to be a problem in the first place.

Simple: every purchase decision actually starts with a ‘problem’. As a self-employed person, for example, you want to increase your visibility. That’s the “problem” you need someone for. You may not be able to do this yourself, so you hire an expert to fix that issue.

A consumer, in turn, comes to your company precisely because he or she is looking for a solution to a problem. Maybe they are looking for help with a broken appliance or need help with something else in daily life. And this is where inbound marketing for entrepreneurs comes into play.

What are resources to get started with inbound marketing?

When you get started with inbound marketing, you use a combination of existing forms of online marketing. These forms provide a strong basis for binding customers to your brand or company.

Content marketing: content is king

Content remains an important topic in marketing. With content marketing within inbound marketing, you ensure content that is tailored to the ‘ideal customer’ and his or her customer journey – the buyer journey. This way you know how to reach such customers.

SEO should not be missing in inbound marketing

Of course, SEO should not be missing in content marketing and inbound marketing. After all, you ensure that the content in question is actually found when your potential customer is looking for a solution to his or her ‘problem’.

With SEO you have a sustainable and important tool.

Marketing automation with emails and chatbots

Marketing automation is also a means to build a good relationship with leads and customers. For example, offer a smart chatbot on your website that can help customers when they are stuck or send personal emails based on previous interaction and interests.

Social media: in contact with the customer

Social media is also a smart place to get in touch with your customer. This direct contact fits very well within inbound marketing, as long as it has the right form.

Make sure you can be reached through various channels for any questions and comments.

Why should I invest in inbound marketing right now?

In short: inbound marketing is actually indispensable if you, as an entrepreneur, want to build a strong bond with your customers. After all, that ultimately ensures that you generate more turnover and thus profit, which emphasizes the importance of this form of marketing.

It is not for nothing that inbound marketing is interesting to invest in right now. The buying behavior of the modern B2B customer has changed enormously in recent years. For example, a large proportion of consumers in the Netherlands start their search for a B2B product or service online.

Only a small proportion of those people want to get in touch with the seller directly at the start of that process. They mainly want to be helped properly online – without contact.

As an entrepreneur, you have to respond to this by investing in SEO, so that your website ranks high in the search engine, and by being significant during the entire search and buying process. That can be achieved using inbound marketing. Definitely material to delve into as an entrepreneur!