Your WordPress Website and Inbound Marketing
Reading Time: 5 minutes 
Previously, I was a sales engineer in the corporate jungle. I sold capacitors and resistors. Sounds like fun, huh? Actually, at the time, it was.
In that life, “marketing” was making sales calls and going to trade shows. From there, you followed up on leads and referrals. Then, I waited for the phone to ring. That’s Outbound Marketing.
Websites and Inbound Marketing
So much of our marketing efforts revolve around the online activities necessary to drive traffic to our Websites. Enter Inbound Marketing.
Rather than chasing leads or customers, you bring them to you through your marketing efforts. You put teasers to content “out there” that potential customers click through to find what you have to offer.
You can use any combination of social media, SEO, blogging, and email marketing to get the word out. Once a potential customer lands on your website, the goal is to convert it to a contact request, subscriber, or sale.
What exactly is inbound marketing?
Inbound marketing is a marketing strategy that focuses on attracting prospective customers by offering useful information.
Brian Halligan, cofounder and CEO of HUBSPOT
This is not the first time a term or buzzword has appeared that defines what I’ve talked about for decades—even before WordPress existed.
Provide useful and unique content that caters to your potential prospect’s needs, questions, desires — and then market that content online to let them know the content exists.
Judith Kallos, ChiEf Cook & Bottle Washer @ The IStudio
(Now known as Inbound Marketing.)
Inbound Marketing = Outstanding Content
It’s about creating content. How you create or what venue you concentrate on should guide what will work for your target audience.
For example, if your target customer is big on Instagram, you must create compelling images and stories. If your audience frequents YouTube, you should consider creating videos that catch their eyeballs.
There are all kinds of content that you can create. While you don’t have to do them all, the more you offer, the better you are perceived as the “THE” in your niche.
Avoid the Pitch
With inbound marketing, your goal is to draw potential customers before they are even interested in doing business with you. You do this by providing value, being unique, and grabbing their attention without the sales pitch.
You let the quality of your content be the draw, or you use visuals that stop people in their tracks and force them to read on. In other words, you don’t create blatant commercials; you create content that educates, entertains, and inspires.
The best way to accomplish this is to empathize with the desires and challenges of those who need your products or services and may not know it yet.
You are there to help them. Without the sales-pitchy vibe, you build your brand and their trust.
Basic Strategy
So, there are a handful of ways to accomplish inbound marketing.
Blogging
Most site owners struggle with “blogging.” They aren’t writers, don’t enjoy writing, and don’t have the time to create quality content. Whatever your reason for avoiding blogging — embrace it and get over it. Whatever you have to do, you need to have a blog.
This is not just for inbound marketing but also to build your brand. Building your brand means you are an expert in your field, viewed as an authority that can be trusted. (Yeah, I know, I mention E-E-A-T in almost every post. It’s that important!)
Forums and Groups
There is no better way to promote your website than by sharing your knowledge and helping others. I speak from experience with this, as I’ve always scheduled “give-back” time.
The thing is that while you are participating, you will learn something along the way. So it’s a win-win.
Whether it’s new information or resources or how folks think and what they struggle with that you may not have been aware of, that’s called opportunity!
Resource Creation
Add “how-to” articles, cheat sheets, downloadable eBooks, and PDFs. You can also add quizzes or your own on-site forum/community.
While creating resources is labor-intensive, your customers’ value and brand are worth the time and effort. WordPress makes doing any of these things pretty easy right out of the box or by installing a plugin or two.
Social Media
Some spend all their inbound marketing efforts and budgets on social media, and some get more traffic to their social channels than their websites.
The key is to know where your market prefers to hang out and cater to that—there is no need to be active on channels that don’t produce interactions. Instead, focus your efforts on getting the reaction and results that make it worth your time (and ad spend).
The key is to have stellar and compelling graphic imagery. Graphics hold visual attention, so ensure your graphics are in the appropriate dimensions for that specific social platform. They’re all different. [Pro Tip: I use Canva, which handles everything for you.]
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
I answer questions about SEO all the time. And rarely are the answers provided what folks want to hear. It isn’t set and forget. It isn’t easy.
But the more you can learn and apply, the better your chances of being discovered by those who don’t know you exist. As they say, it’s one of those necessary evils.
I have a bunch of how-to articles on SEO. Start with these:
And be sure to have Calls to Action to encourage a purchase to subscribe to your email list or posts. When folks land on your site, tell them what to do next.
What do you enjoy most?
Of course, different social and online media combos, strategies, and personalities will work for different markets. So, you always want to test and tune to find out what works for you, your market, your brand, your business model, and your target customer.
The key is to have a plan, keep at it, be consistent, and make sure you are “out there.” Set a schedule and follow through. Watch the data and reaction, then do more of what works.
But even more importantly, start with what you enjoy doing most and go from there. Because you want to have fun — that’s when the magic happens.
At your service,
