For the sake of simplicity, let’s provide an easy definition for “Inbound Marketing” by which the following considerations are based – Inbound Marketing is takings steps to help your customers find you! That’s it. It’s so simple. Help Them Find You.
As an industrial marketer, part of the process of creating your Inbound Marketing strategy is to remove yourself from the traditional marketing mindset and think about HOW people are searching for the information you are sharing. It is important to be in the right place with the right message.
Though some companies have entire teams dedicated to developing, implementing, and testing keyword strategies for their search engine optimized websites, smaller companies have free tools available to them as they get their feet wet with Inbound Marketing. Have you ever taken 5 minutes to play with Google’s free keyword tool? You can enter data quickly into a few fields and with one click of a button receive a wealth of information about words and phrases for which your potential audience is searching. For example, did you know that right now 165,000 people around the world are entering the term “pump parts” into search engines each month?
Why should you care about the exact words and phrases people are typing into search engines? As Kerry O’Malley, Founder of Marketects Inc. acknowledged in her recent blog post, people typically use terms in their online searches that relate to the problem they are having. If you are currently concentrating on filling your company website with keywords relating only to the services you are providing or the product you are selling, you may be overlooked online by the very people you are hoping to reach.
If you’re looking for a starting point to improve your company website’s keywords, try listing 2 keywords for each page of your website. Make sure to choose keywords that relate to the actual content of that page and then use the keyword tool to see how often those keywords you chose are used for search. Review the results and play with small modifications to your original keywords. Modifying your original keywords just a tiny bit might make a world of difference in having your page come up as a search result. If you can increase the traffic to your company website, you will begin to expand brand awareness and maybe even get some new customers!
The concept to keep in mind as you enter the world of Inbound Marketing is that it is dynamic. It is not an exact science because technology and people are always changing. For this reason, your marketing strategy needs to evolve. Support the evolution of your marketing strategy by learning new things and be open to attending conferences that focus on the topic. Consider attending the#IMREVO: Industrial Marketing Seminar on January 31st, 2013. Offered by industrial marketing experts, it is a free event that will help you better understand Inbound Marketing and should equip you with knowledge, tools, and connections that can help you be successful!
Hope to see you there! 
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