At the Inbound 2013 conference Dharmesh Shah of Hubspot spoke about how to create an inbound experience. The people at Infusionsoft preach a customer life cycle.
Both are on the right track and I have run my inbound marketing agency for the past decade with the mantra that no matter what I do to help my clients with inbound content or social media marketing, it is up to them, my clients, to fully realize their inbound experience.
Did you ever download a GREAT piece of inbound marketing, like an e book and then…
NOTHING HAPPENS.
You finish reading the e book and perhaps put some of the information to good use, but you don’t have ANY INCLINATION to contact the company producing the inbound marketing material?
AND on top of that, you don’t receive a phone call or a follow up email or ANYTHING from the company leading you to the next step? What next step? An invitation to COMMUNICATE, to collaborate, to work together?
What is the point of running ANY sort of business online or producing ANY sort of content marketing, social media marketing or inbound marketing effort without a carefully thought through EXPERIENCE for your potential sales lead or opportunity?
I will give you two examples of an inbound experience, one good one bad.
The bad one first.
I filled out a form on a website to receive leads. The sales person and I chatted and I told him that I could not afford the service at this time. The sales rep said “well I guess you don’t want to have a successful business.” WHAT? Insult my intelligence and integrity because I won’t buy your product?
Look, your sales team, your marketing team, everyone in your company should be communicating and understanding the follow through on every piece of content marketing and inbound landing page you are producing.
Now for the good example.
I recently signed up with Constant Contact. The next day, the PHONE rang and it was a representative. She simply asked ME if there was anything I wanted to know about their product and if I had any questions.
WOW. I filled out a form on the web and received PERSONAL attention. Not from a hard sell salesperson but from someone who simply wanted to talk to me.
So, we at stern do more than create responsive websites and amazing content social media and inbound marketing campaigns, we work with our clients to create great experiences for their customers.
Some of this is technology, but more is thinking and planning and writing out an entire experience for the website visitor that stretches beyond the web.
No ONE THING is going to grow your business. Stop, rewind, and begin to put yourself into your customers shoes. Then you will begin down the path of not just Inbound Marketing, but creating and Inbound Experience for your audience.
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