How to Build a Winning Inbound Marketing Architecture

What is Inbound Marketing?

Maybe you've seen the movie The Secret? The Big Secret is that whatever thoughts or vibrations you put out in the universe will come back to you. The Law of Attraction. This law is the basis for inbound marketing. 

At its core, inbound marketing efforts generally consist of creating valuable content via blog articles, case studies, or paid marketing campaigns to attract qualified leads to your service or product. Inbound marketing strategies encompass organic content (SEO) and paid advertising initiatives (PPC) that specifically target users who search for a product or service. 

Outbound vs. Inbound

Inbound marketing (also referred to as digital marketing), is ultimately a comprehensive web of lead generation strategies to drive traffic, enhance your online presence, and engage with potential or prospective clients leading to a specific call to action on your website. 

Outbound marketing is a different approach entirely. Rather than creating content or marketing campaigns that will attract visitors, with outbound, you leverage more direct tactics like cold calls (ew), radio ads, trade shows, mailers, cold emails, and so on.

What Does a Comprehensive Inbound Marketing Architecture Look Like?

There are six basic starting points for your organization to be a rock star in the inbound marketing department. You've probably never worried too much about some of these, but they are all important pieces to a much larger, more difficult puzzle.

SEO (Search Engine Optimization)

Keyword research and mapping: Think of these as the keys to the kingdom. Keywords help you find what you are searching for. Mapping is the practice of taking those precious keywords and pairing them with the right landing pages so you rank in the search engines with the most effective keywords for a specific page.

On-page optimization and title tags: On-page optimization takes that thought much further. This is where you make all the little tweaks that cumulatively will help that page rank in search results pages (think Google). This includes strategically using your title and heading tags by including your target keyword or phrase, using meta descriptions, and using alt tags in images, including keywords.

Content strategy: Your content strategy should be a beacon to your audience with valuable information and tools to keep your customers coming back for more, even after they have already bought the farm, so to speak.

Link Building: Internal and external links not only help the search engines index your site correctly, but they also pass along "link juice," also known as "authority," so search engines can determine the quality and importance of your site by the value or page rank of your site and the sites you link to.

Technical Optimizations: Page load speed, mobile readiness, using alt tags on images, site navigation and structure, low-quality or duplicate content, and other bits and pieces. Backlinko has an in-depth guide you might want to take a look at.

Paid Advertising 

Paid advertising is an important part of inbound marketing. According to HubSpot, "If you want to be successful at content marketing, you need to be successful at SEO. And if you want to be successful at SEO, you need to think about paid search."

LinkedIn: Promotion on LinkedIn lets you purchase sponsored content ads, targeted advertising through LinkedIn's Audience Network, and LinkedIn InMail.

Facebook: Facebook advertising can be done in a few different ways, like images or videos. You can advertise your product or service by creating a Facebook ad with an image of the product or by creating a video to show people what it's about.

Google Ads: Now comes the Google monster. Google Ads is the ad service provided by Google that businesses use to reach customers by displaying ads on Google's search engine results pages. In addition, you can strategically place display ads on the Google Display Network to get in front of your target audience on sites where they spend the most time.

YouTube: YouTube advertising is a cost-effective way to promote your company's products, services, and brand. It offers a variety of features, such as video ads, banners, and Google search ads.

TikTok: TikTok offers a variety of advertisement options for the app, which exploded in popularity in recent years. If you haven’t thought about creating content on TikTok, you’re missing out on real opportunities.

Remarketing funnels: A remarketing funnel is a series of ads that you use to reconnect with customers who have visited your website but did not make a purchase.

Organic Social Media and Brand Awareness

A high-quality inbound marketing architecture includes organic social media promotion that helps your brand connect with users on platforms where they spend the most time. If a company can build an excited and engaged community on social media, it can create stronger relationships with customers, create word-of-mouth marketing campaigns, and create … you got this … brand awareness!

High-Quality Reporting & Tracking 

Tracking and reporting on the bits and sources of traffic to the website can provide insight into how effective (or ineffective) your marketing efforts are. To track this information, it's important to know what tools are available and how to best leverage them.

Google Analytics: Google Analytics is a free web analytics service offered by Google that tracks and reports website traffic. Many website owners use the tool to help them understand how visitors engage with their website so they can improve their return on investment.

Search Console: The Google search console is a way for users to track and monitor their site's optimization efforts. They can track the rankings of the site and see where the site is being mentioned or accessed across the internet.

SEMrush: SEMrush is one of the most extensive SEO, PPC, and keyword research tools on the market. While it does offer some free features, paid plans offer detailed information on how to fully optimize your site for search engines, correct technical issues that impact site health, and gain valuable insight for SEO and PPC campaigns.

CRM: Customer Relation Management platforms play an invaluable role in successful inbound marketing architectures. While there are countless options on the market, only one is changing the game in terms of inbound marketing strategies. “HubSpot’s CRM platform has all the tools and integrations you need for marketing, sales, content management, and customer service. Each product in the platform is powerful alone, but the real magic happens when you use them together.”

Quality CRM for Data 

HubSpot is the best tool for managing and capitalizing on customer data. It helps to identify the most profitable and valuable customers, understand their preferences and needs, and create personalized interactions to delight them.

HubSpot goes well beyond inbound marketing by providing sales, operations, customer service, and content management tools that help align strategies and data - all in one place. Look out SalesForce, because G2 just named HubSpot as the best CRM in the game. 

Email Campaigns

Email campaigns in an inbound marketing structure are used to create awareness and build relationships. They are not always lead capture tools. 

Email campaigns are usually a series of automated emails that are sent over some time. You can use a lead nurturing email campaign to grow your list, increase your open rates and make more sales. A lead capture campaign is typically just aimed at getting customers' contact information so you can inbound market to them later. HubSpot offers automated email tools that can help you design, send, and track your email campaign's effectiveness.

Build a Winning Inbound Marketing Architecture & More With RevPartners

Successful inbound marketing doesn’t happen overnight. It requires careful planning and coordination to attract and convert leads to customers. While we’re just scratching the surface here, the strategies and tools we mentioned serve as the foundation for a winning inbound marketing architecture. 

If you’re looking for help getting your strategies off the ground or for insight on what’s working and what’s not, reach out to RevPartner today for a free inbound marketing audit. We’ll take a deep dive into your existing processes and demonstrate firsthand where your gaps are and how to fill them.