By the end of the day you’re kind of sick of social media and how obsessed you are with it. Attention is nice, but it’s energy draining. However, you still continue to use it. You use it for business, you use it for communication, you use it as a source of news and so on and so forth. The reason why this happens comes back to the age we’re in. The Connection Age.
The Connection Age started with the 21st century. Unlike the Industrial Age in the 20th century, the Connection Age doesn’t focus on mass production and standardization but focuses on connection, education, and personalization. If you look at the most successful companies in the world (other than oil companies) you’d realize that they are companies that help people connect to one another like Facebook, Google, Apple, Uber …etc.
Inbound Marketing has become more and more relevant in today’s Connection Age. It is all about drawing people in with helpful and relevant content rather than interrupting them with unwanted ads. As a business owner or marketer, it is crucial to understand your target market and create content that appeals to them. This is where branding comes in. The branding is key in creating a unique identity for your business, establishing trust and loyalty with your customers, and setting yourself apart from the competition. By creating a strong brand image and incorporating it into your inbound marketing strategy, you can attract and retain customers who are more likely to become loyal brand advocates. So, in today’s Connection Age, it is not just about marketing your products or services, but also about creating a brand that people want to connect with.
The Internet made reaching a customer easier than ever, and that takes competition to a whole new level. Knowing that, you must make your customers loyal to you, they must like you and want to buy from you and especially you. Not because you make the best product but because you give them the best experience. And that is what Inbound Marketing focuses on: the whole experience. From the second you become aware of a brand till years after you’ve purchased its product.
In the next parts of this series, I’ll go in depth about inbound marketing, it’s history, how it’s practiced now, and what we expect of it in the future.