To help you avoid tactics that may actually end up hurting your business, we’ve identified what strategies to leave behind in 2018 and what to do instead.
The internet is dominated by short, easy-to-read articles. Even on social media, long Facebook posts and rambling Twitter threads are often skipped or scanned quickly by increasingly disinterested readers. With the current demand for quick and easy information, it’s unsurprising that e-books and other long-form PDFs have fallen out of favour.
In the past, e-books were able to attract consumers and deliver content to potential leads, but now they remain unread. To refresh your approach, deliver sections of your e-book as their own small blog posts or even short videos. This will allow your customers to get the specific information they want without wading through an ocean of information to get it.
While using the right keywords remains important for search engine optimization, excessive keyword use can hurt an otherwise excellent inbound marketing strategy. Like a sales representative repeating the same scripted sentences, overdoing keywords often means the customer reads the same keywords over and over again. Or sometimes, writers will create page titles with every possible keyword variation, overwhelming the customer with an obvious SEO strategy.
Instead, use related keywords. Google now uses Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI), which basically allows it to search with a thesaurus, understanding keywords and synonyms. Now, you can use related keywords instead of repeating the same one over and over. This will result in more interesting content for the reader and a larger number of keywords to rank for.
Social media is essential to inbound marketing because it allows you to put a human face to your brand and maintain important connections. However, just having the accounts is not enough to build awareness of your product. Vacant Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook profiles make your business look stagnant. Instead of finding the information they need, potential customers will be met with empty accounts and more questions than ever.
Social media is where your customers spend their time, and it’s where you should spend your time too. Set aside time to update your profiles with recent content and relevant pictures, and create profiles on new platforms as they become more popular with your target customers.
By removing these old tactics from your strategy, your marketing will remain effective and a good use of your time and money. It will also create space for you to focus on emerging trends for 2018.
For example, user-generated content is increasingly expected on your social media. Rather than being solely content creators, businesses are now curators of customer videos and pictures that showcase real user satisfaction with your products. Another rising tactic is podcasting. Podcasts are a great way to reach a specific and interested audience and deliver great content on a consistent basis. Podcasts can also be monetized to promote new products or upcoming events.
If you’re still not sure how to adjust your inbound strategy for the future, consider getting help from an inbound marketing agency. Their knowledge and expertise can guide you to the right inbound tactics for your business.