Inbound marketing is not just a buzzword in digital marketing. Inbound marketing can be a highly effective strategy for increasing leads and conversions. A survey of 501 companies that use it has revealed that inbound marketing can be implemented correctly. Because it tailors content to each user’s needs, inbound marketing can help businesses monitor and improve their marketing efforts.

Inbound marketing was pioneered by HubSpot in 2005. According to HubSpot’s annual State of Inbound Report, 79% of North American companies use inbound marketing to connect customers with their products or services.

By attracting and nurturing leads, inbound marketing can help businesses achieve their goals. Inbound marketing, on the other hand, involves interrupting audiences with traditional advertising, phone calls, or other sales tactics.

A catering company might, for example, decide to create a series of how-to videos to cook for large groups and share them on its social media channels rather than investing in TV ads.

Inbound marketing is a better way to attract customers, as it enriches their experience with useful content and not interrupts them with irrelevant material.

This article will help business decision-makers understand the current inbound marketing trends, and how to implement their strategies.

Our findings

• Inbound marketing is a popular method of marketing to increase leads and conversions for businesses. This proves that inbound marketing campaigns are proving successful.

• Nearly 25% of businesses (24%) say that attracting leads is their top priority in their inbound marketing strategy. 24% also say that converting those leads to customers is their primary priority. Inbound marketing is an effective strategy to retain and attract customers.

• 90% of businesses using inbound marketing use social media. This is because social media platforms are accessible to large audiences and are easy to use. However, not all businesses use social media effectively.

• Inbound marketers are split on how successful social media campaigns have been for their businesses. While social media is the most popular inbound marketing activity (42%), 21% claim it’s not.

• Website traffic (77%), social sharing (57%), and email opens and clicks (56%), are all used by companies to measure the success of their inbound marketing efforts. Website traffic and other metrics provide information about the behavior of their audience, which allows businesses to create targeted content and draw more relevant leads.

Businesses use Inbound Marketing to increase leads and convert

Businesses can convert leads and customers through inbound marketing.

Leads people and entities that have the potential to be customers or subscribers.

A conversion is when a website visitor becomes a lead by performing a desired action, such as downloading a piece or subscribing to a newsletter.

Inbound marketing has been a major tool for many businesses. They have seen a significant increase in leads (72%) as well as conversions (55%) in the past six months.

28 percent of businesses reported that their conversions did not change, and 15% reported that they had no leads.

Only 8% reported that their conversions have decreased since they started using inbound marketing. While only 7% reported a decrease in leads,

Inbound marketing firms in Los Angeles are a long-term strategy that allows businesses and individuals to get to know each other through targeted content and digital tools that track their performance.

Businesses can use inbound marketing to build relationships with their customers. Users interact with professionals on social media and company websites. These interactions help brands to improve their products and services, which in turn helps increase customer retention.

Inbound marketers need to first guide their leads through the sales funnel to begin the cycle.

The Sales Funnel drives Inbound Marketing

Inbound marketing is a long-term business investment. It relies on a marketing concept called “sales funnel”. The sales funnel is the pathway users follow to become customers, according to CrazyEgg.

The four stages of the funnel are awareness and interest, decision, action, and decision.

Inbound marketing activities, such as content creation or promotion on social media, target individuals at the top stage of the funnel. This is the awareness phase.

The awareness stage might not allow the individual to make a purchase decision. Businesses still have the opportunity to draw this person to their products and services by providing content that they may find interesting or useful.

This content and promotion drive people down sales funnels to the point of action where a sale has been made or contact information has been exchanged.

For example, a web design company could make an explainer video on how to use Squarespace. The video will be posted by the company’s marketing team to Instagram, knowing that it might be useful even though not everyone is looking for web designers.

However, some users might be interested in learning more about the company behind the video. Once interested click the link in the video to navigate to the website of the web design company or landing page.

Users looking for Miami website design agency services at the decision stage usually have a few options in mind. Marketers have the opportunity to offer special offers or deals to make your website stand out and increase conversions.

Each stage of the funnel sees a smaller pool of leads, which leaves the business with leads who know the brand and are ready to take action step by step.

Inbound marketing is a way to attract top-of-the-funnel leads by providing high-quality and useful content. Personalization helps guide leads down the funnel, and drives them toward conversion.

When using Inbound Marketing, businesses should prioritize attracting leads

Inbound marketing is all about attracting leads. While some businesses place a high priority on attracting leads to their content or website, others focus more on converting leads to customers.

Nearly one-quarter of all businesses that use inbound marketing (24%) place high importance on converting and attracting leads.

Inbound marketing priorities for companies include increasing website traffic (14%), building brand authority (13%), as well as increasing revenue from existing clients (11%).

Audio Issues is owned by Bjorgvin Benediktsson. This website creates content for home sound studio owners. It offers high-quality content and requires users to submit their contact information to gain access.

Benediktsson uses an Instagram lead magnet to track how many people visit his website via Instagram. A lead magnet is an incentive offered by businesses to potential customers in return for their email addresses or any other personal information.

Benediktsson has included his lead magnet in his Instagram bio section. Below is an example. The lead magnet collects users’ email addresses for future communication.

Benediktsson offers free content to lure users. Users browsing his Instagram account will find “110 mixing tips” in the link to his biography.

Click the link to go to the landing page below. It offers a list of 110 sound-mixing tips.

The landing page has an orange call to action (CTA) button, which says “Get the Checklist!” Users are asked to click on the CTA and enter their email addresses in order for the checklist.

With this lead capture system, Benediktsson can keep track of how many people visit his website via his Instagram account. This lead capture system also collects email addresses that can be used to send targeted promotional emails or added to company newsletters.

Companies looking to attract leads need to focus on quality content and adding lead magnets to help them move up the sales funnel.

Many businesses use social media in their Inbound strategies

Inbound marketers who want to reach the top of their funnel users can use social media as a channel. Businesses can share their content through social media channels.

90% of businesses incorporate social media in their inbound marketing strategies.

Nearly two-thirds (62%) of businesses use content promotion materials. 61% create visual content to attract customers. 53 percent of the companies surveyed included blog content and search engine optimization in their inbound strategies.

Social media allows businesses to quickly and inexpensively promote their products. Other types of content can be promoted by businesses on social media, including visuals and blog posts.

Ben Kirst is vice president of creativity at Silverback Strategies. This digital marketing agency in Alexandria, Va. believes that social media is a popular choice for businesses using inbound advertising because it allows them to reach a broad audience.

Kirst stated that everyone is on social media because there are audiences and they can be great advertising tools. It’s inexpensive to reach many people.

Businesses can open and manage social media accounts for free. Paid options are available for targeted advertising. Businesses can track social media metrics like shares, likes, and other forms of engagement to see which content is performing well. This information will inform them about the type of posts that they should create next.

Benediktsson uses Instagram to attract audiences with visual content that is free and valuable.

Audio Issues’ Instagram account is not just about posting photos of audio equipment. Instead, it features short comics that explain specific aspects of sound mixing.

These cartoon images are informative and drive casual viewers to his channel’s lead magnet link.

Benediktsson gained a large following by sharing technical information about audio equipment entertainingly and surprisingly. His Instagram account has grown from 400 to 19,000 followers over the past year, which helped his business.

Businesses can use social media to easily share their content and attract leads to their websites.

Expertise and industry are key factors in the success of businesses social media platforms

Many industries find social media a highly competitive market. To maximize their success, businesses should seek professional assistance and experiment with paid social media posts.

While most businesses use social networks for inbound marketing purposes, there are a few that disagree on how successful their campaigns are. Nearly half (42%) of businesses say that social media is their most effective inbound marketing strategy, while 21% claim it’s their least profitable strategy.

Because it is so easy to create profiles, post and fail on social media, businesses may underestimate the skills necessary to succeed.

Kirst stated that “To run effective campaigns… requires expertise.” There is a certain amount of impatience and unwillingness that can lead to not investing the necessary time and resources to acquire this level of expertise. Businesses want results and they want them now.

Most businesses have a social presence on the internet. However, the majority also manage their accounts through in-house employees. Although they can be very effective, in-house teams often lack the skills necessary to create campaigns that nurture leads and guide them through the sales funnel.

Audio Issues hired an Instagram expert in-house to help grow its channel. Benediktsson shared his thoughts on what made the Instagram account so successful in a posting on Medium.

“I believe the personal hashtags, consistent posting, and humorous description tone have all contributed in some way to the growth,” Benediktsson stated. “In all honesty, the single greatest factor in its growth has been that it’s a niche page that most audio engineers would like to follow.”

Audio Issues was able to establish a distinct brand voice by following a consistent Instagram strategy. Audio Issues also enjoys the benefits of being in a niche market via Instagram.

Businesses can use social media to reach a large audience via a low-cost channel. Businesses must spend time and resources to create and execute strategies on each platform to grow their following.

Certain Industries Are Competitive with Social Media

Contrary to Audio Issues and other industries, some may have difficulty promoting original content in a saturated social media environment.

The Miami digital marketing industry is facing stiff competition in social media marketing. Bernard May, CEO of, digital marketing company National Positions said that his company has had mixed results when using organic social media content depending on the client and the niche and the other strategies and tactics used in the overall campaign.

Paid social media posts have shown even greater results for the company.

May stated that social media is a “pay-to-play” world if you’re a company or brand. “We have seen a lot of traffic and awareness through our paid advertising testing.

National Positions’ efforts are more successful when they combine organic posts on social media with paid posts.

National Positions’ paid posts include calls-to-action (CTAs), which encourage LinkedIn users “Sign up” for its profit analysis offering.

National Positions is a digital marketing company in Phoenix that operates in a highly competitive market on social media. National Positions combines its social media efforts and other digital strategies to maximize the results.

May stated that organic social can be used alongside other marketing efforts, such as SEO, influencer marketing, pay-per-click, and SEO. “Our efforts have been the most successful.” If organic social posting were all we did for a client, it wouldn’t be as successful as it was a few years back.

Businesses in competitive niches can benefit greatly from combining paid and organic social media campaigns.

To maximize the impact of social media on businesses’ inbound marketing, they should consult social media professionals. Businesses should be aware of the fact that certain industries are more competitive than others on social media and adapt their strategies accordingly.

Businesses track metrics to identify leads and personalize content

By analyzing metrics like website traffic, social media shares, and website conversions, businesses can tailor their content for specific audiences. Website traffic is a key indicator for businesses to measure the success of their top-of-funnel content marketing.

77 percent of businesses track their website traffic to gauge the success of inbound campaigns.

More than half of all businesses track:

• Social media shares (57%)
• Email open and clickthrough rates (56%)
• Conversion rates for websites (52%)
• Revenue (52%)

Michael White is co-founder and president of Atlanta-based digital agency Creative Momentum. In a technological-driven world, he believes personalization fosters real connections. Marketing automation systems can be used to deliver specific content to users based on previous visits.

White stated that personalization is crucial for adapting to people’s needs. You can serve targeted content to users using some marketing automation tools based on previous visits.

White stressed the importance of reporting data to improve inbound marketing. A targeted email with a personal offer code might be sent to a customer who places a product in their cart but doesn’t check out.

Businesses new to inbound marketing may find it difficult to personalize content. However, online tools and resources can simplify this process.

Digital Tools Help Businesses Track Inbound Marketing Efforts

To evaluate website traffic, businesses can use digital tools like tracking pixels or urchin tracking monitor codes (UTM) codes.

A tracking pixel or marketing pixel is a code piece that records user behavior on emails, landing pages, and websites.

UTM codes are bits of text that make every link unique to the source traffic. To track visitors coming from different sources, a business may create multiple UTM codes for a blog.

Google Analytics, a popular tool for tracking website traffic, is one of the most used tools by businesses. Below is the Google Analytics dashboard. It shows how many unique visitors a website receives each month.

Google Analytics provides data on website visitors in graphs, charts, and tables that show how traffic patterns change over time.

Google Analytics can be used by businesses to track the source of their website traffic. UTM codes, which are used in social media posts, will be populated in Google Analytics. This will show marketers how much of their daily visitors came from one post.

Inbound marketing tools like Google Analytics should be used by businesses to assess the effectiveness of their marketing efforts, and then adjust their strategies accordingly.

Inbound Marketing Strategies are a Success Factor for Businesses

Inbound marketing is about attracting and delighting people with relevant content. Inbound marketing has been proven to increase conversions and leads for businesses.

Inbound marketing is a method that helps businesses attract and convert leads.

Because social media platforms are simple to use and affordable, they are the best option for inbound marketing.

However, businesses are divided on the success of social media. This is due to industry competition and a lack of expertise that results in poor results.

Inbound marketing activities can be easily tracked and measured. Businesses can measure their success by measuring website traffic.

Inbound marketing has proven to be a flexible marketing strategy that delivers results for businesses.