#Infographic of the Week: The Inbound Marketing Funnel

This week, I’ve decided to take a break from storytelling and content marketing and bring you something a little different: The Inbound Marketing Funnel. Created by First10 and Smart Insights, my #Infographic of the Week highlights the five steps of inbound marketing – plan, reach, act, convert and engage.

For those who don’t know much about inbound marketing, it’s essentially the opposite of outbound marketing. Outbound marketing is about cold calls and trying to get your foot in the door in the hope of making your target like you, while inbound marketing is about creating a warm and friendly environment that brings people into your sales funnel. Simply put, the two are in stark contrast to each other.

Inbound marketing is a product of the social world we now find ourselves in. It’s about two-way, interactive communications; it’s about letting customers find you, not dragging them kick and screaming; it’s about providing real value to your customers; and it’s about entertaining and educating.

Of course, inbound marketing starts with content, and to quote the infographic, “Content is the fuel that drives the inbound effect…content is the conversation starter and problem solver…and it’s the only way to develop a strong presence in search engines.”

To put it another way, if you are not creating content, if you are not distributing content to places that people can find it, and if you’re not using that content to engage with your customers and other stakeholders, you’re really selling yourself short.

OK, so I’ve turned this back into a post on content marketing. Sorry about that, but if you haven’t noticed by now, content marketing is essential for your business, and, in my defence, I did say it would only be a “little different.”   :-D

With that in mind, and without further ado, here is my #Infographic of the Week: