Inbound marketing can help you attract new customers, grow your business and develop a fantastic reputation in your industry - if done right. And a few businesses and individuals have been putting inbound theory into practice with great success.
Here are some stellar inbound marketing examples to inspire you and your business to really, well, take care of business, and turn traffic into customers.
1. Wistia's ‘Shooting Video with an iPhone’ article
Wistia offer video software and hosting services for marketers, so it makes sense for them to create content about making great videos - and a piece on shooting with an iPhone obviously appeals to business creatives, most of whom are glued to one.
This is such a clever piece because it targets their potential audience at the consideration stage of the buyer’s journey. People reading this article - or more likely watching the embedded video that pretty much says (and shows) it all - probably have an iPhone, are interested in making videos for their clients or their own business, and are likely to have some budget available, which could be invested in Wistia products or services.
The content is well put together and is full of genuinely useful tips and information to engage the brand's ideal buyer persona. And right at the top of the article there’s an email capture form to encourage the reader to share their email address in return for future video marketing and production content. This is where this piece converts leads.
2. HubSpot's ‘Instagram Marketing’ pillar page
HubSpot are the kings of inbound marketing. After all, this company did coin the term and introduce the philosophy. So it should come as no surprise that HubSpot can implement inbound as well as anyone.
And this is a beast of a guide that covers all aspects of Instagram marketing, from creating an Instagram business account to using the right hashtags, creating an Instagram marketing strategy, increasing your followers and more besides.
It’s also a great example of inbound marketing because it fits into HubSpot’s own topic cluster model. This is where you create comprehensive pillar pages - such as this Instagram one - then build cluster pages targeting long tail keywords around different elements of the topic, which link back to the pillar page. This way if any cluster page performs, the entire topic cluster benefits, as do SEO results.
3. Jon Loomer’s whole inbound strategy
Jon Loomer is an expert in Facebook marketing and his website offers information, advice and training on just this topic. He also uses a wide range of inbound marketing tactics, which start off with publishing in-depth blog posts about his area of expertise, combining subscribe options with podcasts and training webinars to really help and engage his audience.
This content is undeniably helpful to Facebook marketers because it helps them do their jobs better. The dividend of this is that Jon’s visitors are gently pushed towards his paid services, such as his Power Hitter’s Club. This is a community and collection of resources designed to help advanced Facebook marketers develop their skills and progress their businesses, and of course it offers even more in-depth guidance on Jon’s specialist subject, for which ambitious marketers are happy to pay. He offers other training options too to cater for the needs of as many of his visitors as possible. Simply put, the content and journey through Jon’s site solve his audience’s problems, and this is central to inbound marketing strategy.
4. Protectivity's ‘Fitness Food Index’ data visualisation
Protectivity is a provider of insurance to personal trainers and fitness professionals, so the angle of this data visualisation about how healthy protein bars are is spot on. Fitness fads are always popping up and this data visualisation cuts through the hype to reveal how much protein is in popular bars, and what else is in there that might not be so good for you.
This is awareness stage content, which draws people in with engaging and interesting new information. It’s a great inbound marketing example because it’s relevant and appeals to the company’s potential customers - namely personal trainers, fitness coaches and gym managers - to whom this information is clearly useful. It also appeals to journalists who are interested in the story behind the data, and this gives Protectivity an invaluable way to promote their content and gain credible backlinks.
Disclaimer: Protectivity are an Aira client
5. Chefsteps’ social proof on signup
Chefsteps build tools and offer video tutorials to help people become better cooks, and they offer a plethora of enticing recipes and videos to expand their followers’ culinary repertoires. When it comes to food they really know their onions (obviously), but their inbound game seems to be just as strong.
Chefsteps engage new visitors with tantalising images of recipes, then hit them with a sign-up form to gain access to tutorial videos. The inbound skill shown here is in the quick and easy sign-up form, which is user-friendly, but also uses social proof to illustrate how big their audience is already, lending them additional appeal and authority. This is where Chefsteps convert visitors into leads, who can then be encouraged to try out their paid Premium classes, or their gourmet cooking tools.
6. Aira’s credentials deck
It may be our own example, but targeting people at the decision stage of the buyer’s journey is essential to capture their information, and also to help marketers prioritise leads, in order to know which are worth pursuing. And that’s what Aira’s own credentials deck does.
At this stage the visitor has decided that an inbound marketing agency could help them, so they are probably compiling a list of service providers and whittling it down. Prospective Aira clients can download our credentials deck - which gives information about the company, its services and successes - by simply entering their name and email address on a dedicated landing page. They get the credentials deck to help them consider their options and we add them as a lead in our CRM. This means we know the people who download this deck are in the right frame of mind to be contacted about using the Aira service, or potentially about an inbound marketing consultation, and it helps us prioritise these leads over users downloading other content types.
Summary
Properly implemented inbound marketing - like in the examples above - is often more effective than traditional interruptive marketing techniques, and it’s genuinely helpful to your audience. What’s not to like?!
Still not convinced? Take a look at our article on the numerous inbound marketing benefits, or this piece that explains the inbound process and methodology - and feel free to ask us questions on Twitter.