Inbound Marketing: The Best Way for B2B Companies to Attract Target Customers

For a quick overview of what inbound marketing actually means, check out our previous post “Why B2B Companies Need Inbound Marketing”. This article focuses on the practical steps and process for putting inbound marketing into action.

Step 1: Build a Winning Marketing Strategy

When it comes to business growth, marketing should be viewed as an investment, not an expense. As a marketer, your goal should be to make yourself an asset to the company — not a liability. That requires a collaborative effort between the marketing team and the broader organization, using data-driven methods to create shared wins.

What is the purpose of your marketing plan? — See also: 5 Steps to Creating a Great Marketing Plan

• What is my goal? What am I trying to achieve?
• What challenges is my marketing currently facing?
• Who is my ideal customer, and how do I reach them?
• How much should I invest in marketing — and what’s the right allocation?
• What return can I expect from my marketing plan?

Step 2: Build and Optimize Your Website

An effective website is the hub of your digital marketing and lead generation efforts. Think of it as your customer welcome center — a place where a closed-loop, intelligent marketing methodology can do its best work.

• A logical, data-driven lead capture flow — move beyond guesswork. See our Lead Scoring Framework (Part 1)
• Compelling, well-structured content layouts
• Real-time visitor behavior tracking — Knight can help!
• Simple, intuitive navigation
• A polished, professional appearance
• Search engine optimization
• Mobile-friendly design
• Where resources allow: knowledge hubs, certification programs, and educational content tied to your core offering

Step 3: Drive More Traffic

Think about how you can distribute different types of content across different channels — and resist the temptation to assume you already know what works (experience-based bias can be dangerous). One of the most common refrains is “that channel doesn’t suit our business,” but that usually just means you haven’t embraced change. Consider this: plenty of people doubted Pinduoduo and Bilibili in their early days, precisely because they failed to see the value those platforms were creating.

Build content around your core business and distribute it widely. For practical guidance, see 17 Social Media Marketing Myths in 2020. Use technology and thoughtful UX to map the customer journey and convert traffic into leads. More website visitors means more opportunities for engagement — longer time on site, more form fills, more conversations, and ultimately more conversions. That’s why content-driven traffic generation is so critical.

• WeChat Official Account / Social Media
  • Build a social media presence (in whatever format fits your brand) and share content that genuinely engages your audience. Keep the conversation going.
  • Companies that actively use social media see up to 63% improvement in marketing effectiveness.
• Blog
  • Maintain a company blog that consistently publishes content your audience finds valuable.
  • A blog also helps your website build more indexed pages in search engines.
  • Original content gives you more opportunities to be discovered by potential customers.
• SEO
  • Identify your target keywords, optimize for them consistently across your website, and regularly produce content that incorporates them — along with strong internal linking.
  • 46% of daily searches are for information about products or services.
  • 20% of searches are for local information (per Google data).
• SEM
  • Create and manage pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns to generate short-term traffic spikes.
  • Continuously optimize your PPC strategy to maximize return on ad spend — and make sure every ad is tightly aligned with your core offering, not just chasing irrelevant clicks.

Step 4: Convert Traffic into Sales Opportunities

For prospects at different stages of the buying journey, you need compelling, action-oriented interactions — what marketers call Calls to Action (CTAs). Here’s a proven sequence:

1. Create a Landing Page. Design an engaging landing page that clearly communicates the benefits of your product or service, and prompts visitors to share their contact information.
2. Deliver value after the form fill. Once a prospect completes the form, continue delivering the content they came for — ideally content that builds progressively in depth and appeal. Follow up with a social media connection or automated email sequence, and add the contact to your SCRM or CRM system.
3. Place persistent CTAs throughout your site to keep drawing visitors toward conversion at every touchpoint. Remember: content is king.

Step 5: Convert Opportunities into Closed Deals

Marketing automation is the key to executing these labor-intensive tasks efficiently — freeing your team to focus on what matters most.

1. Marketing Intelligence — Know which content drives the most engagement. Use behavioral scoring to identify who’s most ready to be contacted.
2. Lead Segmentation — Segment your leads and filter quickly based on collected data, so you can push the right message to the right person at the right time.
3. Lead Nurturing — Through consistent engagement with prospects and existing contacts, guide top-of-funnel leads toward the point where they’re ready for a sales conversation and qualify for your pipeline.
4. Social / Email Marketing — Push timely, attention-grabbing content to your registered contacts.
5. CRM — A transparent, real-time view of the marketing process helps the entire sales team stay aligned and work together toward shared business goals.

Knight Tip: Every Marketing Activity Needs to Be Measured

If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it.

— Peter Drucker

Key Metrics Every Marketer Should Track:

1. Traffic

   • Unique Visitors (UV)
   • New vs. returning visitor ratio
   • Traffic sources
   • Referring websites
   • Most popular pages
   • Number of indexed pages on Baidu / Google
   • Bounce rate
   • CTA performance — for detailed lead scoring, request our Lead Scoring Framework (Part 2)

2. SEO

   • Keyword performance
   • Search rankings
   • Organic search traffic
   • Inbound links

3. SEM

   • Click-through rate (CTR)
   • Cost per click (CPC)
   • Search-driven traffic
   • Inbound links — Knight can help!

4. Blog

   • Referral sources
   • Blog subscribers

5. Social Media

   • Audience size and growth rate
   • Engagement rate and sustained engagement

6. EDM

   • Subscriber count
   • Click-through rate
   • Growth rate
   • Share and forward rate