Writing a blog post is only the first (yet essential), part of creating content that you hope will get read. Still, most posts attract few readers and especially if you're just getting started and 'feeling your way'.

If you're serious about making inbound marketing work well for your business and receiving the full range of benefits, you’ll need to orient your business around its strategies, methods and tools.

Now, this is not necessarily difficult to do but it does often require a renewed focus on your customers and more specifically, your ‘ideal’ type of customers. Not only that, but putting in the effort now so that you can remain relevant to customers and thrive in the future.

1 - Deliver Accessible Content

If you’re about to do anything in the area of SMS or mobile marketing you need to have your content easily accessible on a mobile phone or mobile device. This means paying attention to formats as some will create a poor user experience for your potential customers.

Marketers and business owners in Melbourne have traditionally used advertising to reach their customers and make them aware of their products and services. This is a form of ‘outbound’ marketing where the advertiser pays to get in front of potential customers in the hope that they will buy. Typical formats included newspaper, Yellow Pages, TV and radio advertising.

Providing the right 'bait'

Now, inbound marketing throws that dynamic on its head despite still needing to gain the initial attention of customers. Fortunately, this is a lot easier to do with inbound compared to outbound marketing as the focus is on providing the right ‘bait’ that customers recognise and want.

Instead of starting from the limited viewpoint of ‘the business’ and targeting every potential customer that their chosen advertising platform can reach, inbound marketing starts first with a clear understanding of their target customer and what they want. Businesses that don’t understand that distinction will continue to struggle with their marketing efforts.

Customer first orientation

Because of the ‘customer first’ orientation, inbound marketing has to provide value to get noticed and requested by Melbourne customers. This ‘value’ can be provided in a wide variety of formats – whatever is most preferred by customers! Typically, E-books, video courses, guides, white papers and software have been provided in exchange for a customer’s contact details.

By creating value that potential customers are happy to receive in exchange for the contact details, inbound marketers are able to build the series of communications needed to become known, liked and trusted by customers. Google also likes inbound marketing as it provides them with a greater volume of relevant information to index and deliver to searchers.

Google's 5000 shopper survey

According to an in-depth shopping behaviour survey by Google involving 5000 shoppers in 2011, customers (on average), accessed 10.4 different sources of information before making a purchase. Back in 2010 it was just 5.2 sources so the demand for a range of relevant information sources to support purchase decisions has increased dramatically. Contrary to what many marketers thought, the research showed that people are researching inexpensive products or services along with the more expensive with reviews, comparisons and rating being popular information sources.

Mobile marketing has exploded in the US, Australia and around the world and for good reason. With over 75% of the World’s population now owning a mobile phone (according to 2012 World Bank research), and 52% of Americans and Australians now owning a Smartphone, the opportunities are big for businesses! Having said that, many businesses aren’t quite sure how to tackle mobile marketing and how to leverage it in their business.

In this fifth excerpt from Chapter four of Integrated Marketing Communications and the Capture of Joseph Kony, we look at how both marketing consultants and business owners can benefit greatly by creating good lead generation systems on their Websites.

There are some very good reasons for why ALL Websites need good lead generation systems in place but mostly it’s because the vast majority of visitors are not ready to buy! Even the very best and most influential sites struggle to get anywhere near 5% of visitors taking action no matter how skilled marketing consultants or Website designers are.

We now live in a completely mobile world where fast-paced living means busy schedules both in our work and social lives. We don’t have ample time to interact with our family and friends let alone 'physically' visit shops and businesses to browse and gather information.

For those reasons, businesses are increasingly testing mobile marketing as an effective channel for reaching customers. It is an exponentially growing form of marketing and in many ways is only now just catching-up with customer behaviour!

Technological advancements often tend to be the precursor of creative marketing strategies and techniques. Now that Smart or ‘Internet connected’ mobile phones and devices like the iPad have penetrated the Australian and US markets so deeply (>50% of adults), innovative new mobile marketing campaigns are starting to appear. Businesses that haven’t yet looked closely at mobile marketing are getting left behind so now is the time to create and implement a good strategy to avoid losing touch and influence with your customers.

Rapid Growth of Mobile Marketing

Five Crucial Tips for Mobile Marketing Success

1. Create detailed customer personas - if you and your staff can ‘walk a mile in your customer’s shoes and fully understand and appreciate their fears, concerns, needs wants and desires, all of your marketing (not just mobile!), becomes easier and cheaper
2. Content really is King - think carefully about the type of content that a mobile customer would want to receive on their phone when they're out-and-about or on-the-run. Content such as the latest deals, news or information that is short and to-the-point are best
3. Create a good, long-term strategy - don’t just ‘live for today’, instead think through a longer-lasting strategy that encourages mobile customers to interact with your business in a variety of other ways such as on their PC, on social media sites or by visiting your business in person
4. Build a mobile Website - if you’ve tried to navigate a business’s regular, 'designed for PC' Website, you'll understand that it's not a user-friendly experience and just frustrates mobile users. You can build one yourself for as little as $50 dollars and purchase a .mobi domain extension for your regular domain name
5. Format content for the mobile Internet - make sure that any content that you have already produced and that you will produce in the future can be opened and read on a Smart phone or tablet. For most businesses there will be plenty of their customers reading their company's communications on their mobile devices

Preparation and Planning

In this fourth excerpt from Chapter four of Integrated Marketing Communications and the Capture of Joseph Kony we look at social media marketing as a fantastic tool to get more customers.