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How To Do Effective Inbound Marketing - A Case Study

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Posted by John Beveridge on Mar 12, 2013 6:52:00 AM

How to do effective inbound marketingI went looking for apple trees and I found great inbound marketing. Let me explain. I recently decided I wanted to plant apple and pear trees at my weekend home in the Shenandoah Mountains of Virginia. There was only one problem - I didn't know anything about planting apple trees. I knew that there were a lot of orchards around my home, so I was pretty sure it was doable. I then did what just about everyone does when they're seeking to learn how to achieve a goal. I searched Google for "How to Plant an Apple Tree." That's where my journey began.

The inbound marketing process

SMB marketing automation software provider HubSpot defines the inbound marketing process in the image below.

inbound-marketing-processw

There are 4 steps to the process:

  1. Attract: the first step is to attract buyers to your sales process. Buyers find you when they search for keywords, read your blog posts and follow your social media updates.
  2. Convert: the next step is to convert website visitors to leads by offering premium content in exchange for contact information. In e-commerce and retail situations, visitors often skip this step and go directly to step 3.
  3. Close: in this step, leads become customers - they buy your products and services. The time it takes for leads to become customers depends on the complexity of your sales process. In many B2B situations, the sales process could last for months or even years. In most e-commerce situations, the sales process is fairly short.
  4. Delight: this is where customers delighted with your products and services promote your brand to their friends, family and colleagues.

Companies that master this process grow rapidly. Now back to my apple planting project.

How I found my apple and pear trees

When I searched Google for "how to plant an apple tree", I found a ton of information. In my research, I found that apple trees that were resistant to disease were a good bet for a novice grower like me. I then did a search for "disease-resistant apple trees" and found an assortment of 3 disease-resistant apple trees for sale by a grower called Stark Brothers located in Missouri. They had quite a bit of instructional information on their site, so I decided to investigate further.

 The Essential Guide To Inbound Marketing

How Stark Brothers converted and closed me

One of the first things I noticed when I was researching the tree assortment was that there was a link to a Growing Guide for each species of tree. I was able to click through and learn how to plant the trees, how and when to water, spray and fertilize them and how to care for the trees over the years. I didn't need to bounce off their site to get this information. I then noticed that they had follow icons for Facebook, Twitter and Google+ at the top of each page, so I liked them on Facebook and followed them on Google+.

After viewing videos, reading blog articles and viewing the Growing Guides, I felt confident that I knew what I needed to know to properly plant and care for the trees. I ordered the disease-resistant apple tree assortment and a pear tree assortment.

If I didn't buy the trees on that site visit, Stark Brothers still had me in their marketing process. They were sharing their informational content with me on Facebook and Google+. I had subscribed to their blog and was receiving e-mail updates.

How Stark Brothers delighted me

Another characteristic of great inbound marketing is how the company transitions the relationship from online to offline. This is where Stark Brothers turned me into a promoter.

I noticed that I forgot to order starter fertilizer when I ordered my trees. I called their customer service department to see if I could add the item to my order and receive the free shipping offer. They did that with no problem.

After the trees had shipped, we were faced with an uncharacteristic March snowstorm in Virginia. I called into customer service and they gave me great advice on how to work around that and answered several other questions that I had.

Armed with the advice Stark Brothers gave me, I planted the trees this weekend. It will be a few years before they start bearing fruit, but I have a feeling those trees are going to be around for a long time.

Do you think Stark Brothers will get more business from me? That's a pretty safe bet - my wife is looking at raspberry and blackberry plants and will likley place an order shortly.

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Summary

The reason that I'm sharing my experience with Stark Brothers is because it's a great example of how most industries can adapt HubSpot's inbound marketing methodology to their sales process. Think about your company - can you think of ways to attract, convert, close and delight your customers? It will vary by industry, but the basic concept holds true. The reason that it's so effective is that it matches the selling process to the customer's buying process. In a B2B situation, there will likely be more steps before a customer conversion, but it will still follow the HubSpot inbound marketing methodology.

Topics: Inbound Marketing

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