What is inbound lead generation and how can blogging win business?

“Sit down, write a blog!” they say. You crack your fingers ready to write something compelling that will help with your inbound lead generation strategy, make a cup of tea, check your emails, stare at the screen, phone the speaking clock for a chat, stare at the screen…

Don’t worry, it happens to everyone. Especially people who don’t have time to dedicate to writing; finding the consistency to blog regularly and to a high quality is hard enough, without having to run a business, chase new leads, build and maintain customer relationships and much more besides.

And anyway, isn’t talking to a customer on the phone much more important to an inbound lead generation strategy than knocking out a couple of blogs every month?

What is inbound lead generation and how does blogging help?

It’s an interesting train of thought, but one that’s a bit at odds with inbound lead generation for long-term business growth.

If you’re committed to getting a higher volume of better-quality leads that are more likely to convert through your website, then creating relevant content (typically blogs) on a consistent basis is essential to the process.

There are so many reasons why: consistent blogging helps you to reach out to a targeted readership, inform people, entertain them, build a core following, present your business as a thought leader in your industry, increase the chances of social shares and show the personal side of your brand.

There’s also a technical side to blogging for inbound lead generation, too. Search engines like Google are more likely to rank businesses higher for certain search results if they blog, with B2B marketers especially seeing 67% more leads from their content production efforts.

Google simply loves fresh content, and the more original and relevant you can make your blogs to the people you’d love to work with, the better the quality of your next potential lead. According to HubSpot’s State of Marketing 2017 survey, those who treat blogging as a priority are 13 times more likely to see a positive ROI.

Other ways blogging can help with inbound lead generation

Consistent blogging helps to attract more regular search traffic. With SEO leads having a 14.6% close rate on average, compared to the average 1.7% close rate of outbound leads, building a bespoke and creative content strategy is one of the most important steps towards attracting targeted leads and traffic to your website. You can then introduce them to your sales funnel over a longer period of time.

HubSpot also highlights that companies that blog receive 97% more links back to their website; crucial to improving their overall authority and search rankings. Produce content that’s interesting, original and relevant to your industry, and other people are likely to read, enjoy and share it with others.

If you’re clever with your marketing strategy as well, and focus on a diverse range of keywords in your copy, you could potentially rank higher for long tail search terms that are more relevant to your audience than general keywords.

Inbound lead generation does require some commitment

Content allows you to communicate with people at their own pace, and enables you to always be on hand for potential customers without annoying them with message overload.

This can take a while to build up though, which is why consistency is so important when blogging. It’s also important to remember there’s nobody more important when blogging than the reader.

As beneficial as the technical aspects of creating content can be, using your content to reach out to people is absolutely crucial to the lead generation and relationship building process. Let them know about deals you’re promoting, answer their most common questions, offer advice and entertain them.

By regularly blogging and marrying a creative vision with a technical lead generation strategy, you massively increase your chances of being heard by the people who matter most to your business’s long-term growth.

There isn’t a uniform blogging strategy out there though; every company is different and has something they want to say. If you’re still wondering - what is inbound lead generation, how can I use it to grow my business and what part does blogging have to play? - get answers to all of these questions by speaking to Six & Flow’s marketing experts today.