When it comes to doing business online, inbound marketing is the way to go. People don’t want you to sell them stuff, they want to buy. Inbound marketing takes on the role of informer and adviser. Outbound marketing adopts the role of the town crier and the mass marketer. Inbound marketing is insightful and personal. Outbound marketing is more generic and distant. In the world of Web 2.0 and beyond, the inbound marketing funnel will grow in importance.
Inbound marketing takes strangers and turns them into promoters based on a careful delivery of content, tactics, strategies and insights. It allows you to contact your ideal client directly and personally, with more targeted messages that have clear calls to action. But those calls to action must carefully move your audience from the realm of strangers and spectators to buyers and brand ambassadors.
Content is how you make it happen.
But when content is king and time is money, how in the world do you keep it coming without sacrificing your content’s quality? Here are a few simple suggestions:
1. Create an editorial calendar.
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Incorporate each of your content channels, ranging from your email newsletter to social media updates into the calendar you create. When is your content due? How much do you need to generate each day? Each week? Each month? Knowing how much content you need makes it easier to break all of that writing (or hiring of writers) down into much more manageable tasks.
