Your start-up probably suffers from three major setbacks in the early stages: a small marketing budget, limited time, and workforce. These make it harder for you to scale and ramp up sales in the long run.

Inbound marketing tactics are growing more popular among businesses and customers alike. So, you may be wondering, is it enough to get you the growth that you need? Or do you need to wait for a bigger budget to make it work?

Well, Yes! You can use inbound marketing to scale your start-up. 

Benefits of Inbound Marketing to Start-ups

Helps Establish Authority

As a new player in the market, you need to prove yourself to gain customers, which is where inbound marketing comes in. You can create content that adds value to your target customers and thus position yourself as an expert in your field.

A reputation for excellent content in the industry also helps you generate and maintain trust with your target customers and potential investors. This could drive higher conversions and brand loyalty for your start-up.

It is Cheaper Than Paid Advertising

According to Reports, content marketing can save you up to 62% more and bring three times more leads than traditional marketing. So, for start-ups looking to do cost-effective marketing, inbound could be the solution.

With inbound, you incur one-time costs that will continue to generate leads even in the long run, and that is cheaper than paying higher amounts for paid advertising tactics that only drive the desired results for a short time.

Generate Qualified Leads

Remember, not all leads are interested in purchase. So, lead generation works best when you attract and nurture the right ones. Inbound marketing helps you draw prospects that are more likely to convert.

Unlike other push advertising techniques where you pay for the audience’s attention, inbound draw those interested in your product. You are confident that those who respond to your calls to action and enter the funnel are highly “convertible.”

This, in turn, helps you use your resources better and invest in the most promising prospects. You then run more productive marketing campaigns and scale your business faster.

Increase Brand Awareness

Branding is increasingly critical to business growth, so you must prioritize it for your start-up. Inbound marketing can help you with that. With inbound strategies, you can create lasting positive perceptions with your target audience.

Typically, consumers are wary of traditional disruptive ads. So, rather than appear a nuisance, you want to be known as the go-to for valuable information and excellent solutions. Such perceptions generate positive word of mouth that will create more business for you for months or years to come.

Inbound marketing is not exclusive to larger older companies and can also help your start-up grow. The challenge is to find the right ways to leverage these tactics for the results you need. 

How to Use Inbound Marketing Tactics to Boost Your Start-up

Summarily, the most effective inbound marketing strategies are a product of great content, delivery, and tracking. 

1. Find Your Target Audience And Focus

Even the best content will be ineffective when directed at the wrong audience. So before you start an inbound marketing campaign, you must do ample research on your target audience. Find them and study them adequately.

What are their interests? Pain points? And what alternatives are available to them?

All these down the line will help you create the right content and use the proper channels to attract and retain prospects.

A common mistake small businesses make is to try and be everything to everyone. They hope that this will increase their market size and leads. But best practices suggest that “niching down” may be a better strategy to excel with inbound marketing.

With a specific niche, you have a clear audience and create content that suits just them. This approach keeps your content relevant and personalized. Your prospects are thus become more likely to buy from you.

2. Put Quality Over Quantity

An effective inbound strategy is not about creating loads of content but about creating relevant and helpful content. Do not fall into the trap of flooding your audience with low-quality content. Instead, focus on providing value, even in less quantity and at lower intervals. 

Considering that creation can be quite time-consuming, you want to make each piece count and generate ROI. High-quality content will keep your leads coming back for more and achieve the long-term benefits of conversion, positive WOM, and brand loyalty.

On the other hand, low-quality content will leave a bad reputation and reduce their chances of returning.

3. Set up the relevant and effective marketing funnel asset

Inbound marketing can help your start-up scale faster when you set up the proper infrastructure to advance your content. Driving qualified traffic to your website is only a start. 

Use high-quality lead magnets and appropriate landing pages from the top of your inbound funnel. These are the first interactions your leads will have with you. So, they must leave a lasting impression. Supplement them with clear calls to action to drive the measures you need.

Further down the funnel, you will want to adopt marketing automation tools and sequences to help you manage your promising leads. Tools like email automation, subscription forms, etc., would all help you tend to your leads in a timely and personalized way. They also improve customer experience, increasing the likelihood that they will convert.

4. Measure And Track Your Results Regularly

Finally, to scale your business with inbound, you will need credible data to work with. You also want to incorporate regular measurement and tracking to know what is working and what isn’t.

Measurement will enable you to stick with only the most effective inbound tactics and thus maximize your returns on investment. That way, you effectively use your resources to achieve the desired marketing goals. Without appropriate measurement, inbound marketing for you will be another business expense.

5. Adopt Marketing Automation

Inbound marketing is no doubt a time-consuming activity involving multiple repetitive tasks. You probably do not have the workforce and resources to handle it as a start-up. So, it helps to consider automating your inbound marketing funnels.

Marketing automation tools will take smaller repetitive tasks like daily emails and social media posting off your hands. That allows you to focus your resources on other critical business areas to make more sales.

Marketing automation also helps you scale your marketing strategies, especially distribution. You can reach wider audiences faster, generating more leads and conversions. 

Way Forward?

Inbound marketing might appear to be a long-term strategy to generate leads and sales. But, it is also an excellent and proven way to scale your start-up to the desired sales levels in a couple of weeks. 

The secret lies in quality content and distribution and structures and follow-up/ tracking systems. You can simplify all these by adopting marketing automation systems like SharpSpring.