In all great stories, the concept of the hero's journey is simple. Essentially, the beloved hero goes on a quest and faces untold difficulty but rises victorious and returns home transformed. They have help on the way, of course. Often taking the form of a sage or wizard, someone usually aids the hero on their adventure, providing guidance and advice so that the hero can grow into their fullest potential and achieve what they set out to do. The role of the sage advisor falls on us. Every prospect and customer is on a quest to accomplish goals. They might not know where their journey with you will lead them, but as a marketer, it's our job to act as a constant guide when our visitors need us as a resource and an expert ready for their questions when they need answers most. It's our job to act as this constant advisor because our educational guidance builds trust and long-term growth for both us and our prospects or customers.
Content acts as our voice. It lets us speak one-on-one with the tens, hundreds, and potentially thousands of these heroes, regularly looking for answers and insights. In the past, through blog posts and site pages, advancement in technology has led to the rise of conversational tools like chatbots, live chat, and social media, so it's easier than ever to engage in conversation. Brands need to be by their side, speaking directly with them as a person. Effective online content will enable you to begin developing meaningful one-to-one relationships and do it at scale. The rules of content, however, are constantly changing. In the past, writing 350-word pieces of content with the correct balance of links and keywords was sufficient to rank well and get in front of your ideal audience. With the increased online content, search engines needed a new way to surface the most relevant information. Now Google wants answers to questions and have it make sense.
When your inbound marketing efforts aim to create one-to-one relationships, the power of context is on your side. Marketers must know their audience, define insights into their customers' motivations, goals, roadblocks, and behavior, and create timely, aligned, personalized content to fit their needs. It can be challenging to provide the correct information to the right person at the right time via the right channel every single time. Rather than forcing people to engage with you, you can focus your time and effort on sustainably attracting well-suited visitors and encouraging interactions with the most potential impact. Our content becomes part of a cross-channel holistic experience comprised of compelling conversion opportunities and exciting offers. With this content, we can build a relationship with your visitors, gather information, and learn more about each individual. By taking this relationship-focused approach to marketing, you're not just solving for your prospects' immediate needs but also enabling their long-term growth. The value and insight of your content allow your visitors to critically examine their problems so that they eventually arrive at the most natural solution. Helping our visitors reach this conclusion positions us as a resource they can return to and recommend to others. The hero returning from their journey will always tell their stories and spread the word of their adventures. In this case, you're playing the part of an advisor who can help a new set of heroes.
Inbound marketing is about creating one-to-one relationships that have a lasting impact on our visitors and our brand. We attract prospects and customers to our site through helpful content. We engage with them using conversational tools like email and chat and by providing value once they land there. And finally, we delight by continuing to act as an empathetic advisor and expert. These steps form a single methodology: attract, engage, delight, and repeat. This cycle or "flywheel" of developing meaningful relationships will power your company's growth by creating more opportunities to sell and service. In marketing, it's important to remember that while the customer may be the hero, you can help educate and inspire them.
Our prospects are on a journey that will take them through awareness, consideration, and decision-making stages. Ensure you align with this journey as we apply the inbound methodology and the attract, engage, and delight cycle. Before we can initiate any relationship, you need to understand who you're trying to connect with. You want to develop content that's relevant to your audience and relates to the context of their current situation. We also want to start building awareness of our business in places where our prospects are and where they'll be most ready to be exposed to your content. After all, exposure to a brand or product happens well before visiting that business's website. We need to understand their progression through the buyer's journey, from awareness of the problem to consideration of the potential solutions and to decision-making. From there, we can create content that aligns with the needs of every visitor, no matter where they are, in identifying their roadblocks and determining their solutions. Creating buyer personas is also essential because it helps us develop a trait that's at the heart of inbound: empathy. Building buyer personas helps us step into the shoes of our audience, gaining deeper insight into who they are as a person and what their goals are personally and professionally. From there, we start to gain their trust by creating the content that best aligns with them as people. We showcase our value as an advisor by helping our visitors accomplish their goals and help them solve their exact problems.
