Wait – do you know what inbound marketing means?
If you can’t answer that question, read along and I’d show you what you’ve been missing all these while.
Are you interrupting your audience?
Do you realize that cajoling people to visit your blog is like denying them their fundamental rights to make the right choices?
Blogging consists of using attractive and magnetic words to entice readers. No gimmicks, no hype, but pure marketing.
Gone are the days when a blog was more like a personal diary, today, with passion and hard work, you can build a lucrative business around your blog.
This also tells me that blogging can connect you to the world, and help you impart more lives positively.
But how do you get in touch with the people who needs your help? You may decide to go the traditional way – TV Advertising and media buying.
Those could bring instant traffic, but since the wave of internet marketing began, reaching out to potential customers is much more easy and affordable.
What is inbound marketing?
Inbound marketing is the step you take to attract blog readers, without begging or paying for traffic. It also means that bulk email blast is out of the way – that’s not inbound marketing.
It’s delicate and could dent your image. I still receive a lot of emails from so-called Affiliate marketers who don’t really care about me making money, save they can make theirs.
The keyword for effective inbound marketing is “attraction.â€
Your blog needs to attract people. The hard work you put into your blog, must amount to something more automated. And bring you traffic over time.
I’ve been blogging for a while and can recall how I chase the next traffic secret. I thought there was a secret to building a successful blog. Aha, there is a secret, and it’s…
Write exclusive content regularly    
Inbound marketing is so much fun. Most people don’t even understand how it works, which is why they run after the next traffic loophole.
Google Panda and Penguin has combed the entire web. Bloggers and website owners are scared of being penalized.
But you can’t avoid Google just like that. Instead, challenge yourself to write exceptional content and build a community around your blog.
Over and again, we’ve been advised to write quality content. The irony is, 65% of bloggers don’t still realize what makes for quality content. They think it’s keyword research and article writing to meet up a specific words count.
Well, those are important elements in your content marketing career. But don’t totally focus on those. The first thing that makes a piece of content informative and valuable is when it answers a question.
Let’s consider this example…
Mr. Kofi was laid-off from his day job. He’s got no savings whatsoever. He’s desperately looking for a saving grace, which can help him start a home business. Mr. Kofi knows how powerful the internet is, and decides to search for cheap solutions online.
It happened that your blog talks about home business. Now, Mr. Kofi wants a business he can start from home, without spending a lot of money.
Unfortunately, when he arrived at you blog, you were selling an affiliate product that looks too good to be true. And the poor man is broke.
Your content didn’t satisfy Mr. Kofi. He left your blog within 5 seconds and moved on to another person’s blog. Did you know that something has happened to your blog’s rating?
Google would demote your blog
Get this: Search engine spider is a piece of script. It has no eye, or sense of reasoning. But there is a simple way a spider can know if your blog is helpful.
Google spider follows people (readers & audience). What you must do with every post you write, is to engage the audience. Make them stick around for 10 minutes or more. The more time they spend reading and commenting, the better, SEO-wise.
Over the years, I’ve fallen in love with several blogs. It might interest you to know that I usually spend 30 minutes to 1hour every week on my favorite blogs. Why?
Because the blog posts are helpful. The ideas and tips I got from those sites have helped me to build a community around my blog.
It’s helped me sell my products, got clients globally and became a go-to person for writing services. That’s what inbound marketing is all about.
Stop chasing the wind
85% of what we need to build a successful blog lies within us. Yes, I’m so confident of this. The fact that your blog isn’t growing as planned doesn’t mean it won’t. If you can stop chasing after every trend and dwell on proven marketing systems, the world would marvel at your success.
Pull a sit, relax and ask yourself questions. What exactly are you writing about? Who are you writing to? Put yourself in your reader’s shoe, feel their pain and challenge yourself to write your way to fame. The more solutions you provide, the more famous you become – Michael Chibuzor
Earlier this week, I debunked the noise flying the entire web that SEO takes a lot of time to bring results. Read it here.
That, I don’t accept. Sure, the organic traffic might not happen overnight, but it doesn’t take years either. Just focus on the people, forget about search spiders and every other thing would follow.
Inbound marketing works
Blog commenting, guest posting, forum posting, video marketing and social media are all essential elements in your inbound marketing kit. But the best task you should focus on is writing for your blog.
If everything else fails, the exclusive content on your blog would stand the test of time. Stop running after other blogs, spend time revamping your posts. Why?
Because inbound marketing works, whether you give it time or not. It’s working for several bloggers and that’s what my content marketing site teaches.
Do you’ve a question about inbound marketing? Scroll down, ask your question and let’s get the ball rolling. See you ahead!