The 21st century has been the protagonist of multiple changes, products of the great impact that the third world revolution has had. Jeremy Rifkin (2007) used the term “scientific-technical revolution” to refer to the great development that information and communication technologies (ICTs) have had, which includes, failing that, the influence of the Internet, social networks and websites to even change the way we learn.
Sales philosophies also underwent a drastic change. To distinguish this before and after of digital marketing, specialists began to use “outbound and inbound marketing” to make references to two totally different visions.
The objective was to understand with certainty how to satisfy the needs of these new consumer societies. At the same time, make use of new technologies to enhance relationships between companies and their clients.
Interaction became essential in this “new marketing” and many things were left behind. Television and billboards communicate messages well but recreate a passive figure of consumers. On the other hand, social networks and blogs allow immediate interaction between people since they constitute a much more direct channel to generate dialogues and learn something new.
Outbound marketing is said to be disruptive because its methods of attracting customers are based on spam, cold calling and advertising. On the other hand, inbound marketing uses SEO, blogging, and social media to voluntarily attract customers. Outbound focuses on the sale of a product, Inbound marketing focuses on buyers’ needs and providing them with tools to solve them.
Basic principles of inbound marketing
Inbound marketing strives to create strategies that naturally capture the attention of the different users who are on the Internet, inviting them to learn something new.
Secondly, inbound marketing wants to create long-term relationships between companies and their customers using fewer resources and generating less costs than outbound marketing (use of digital tools).
For inbound marketing, content is king. Whether textual or audiovisual, correct content attracts the right audience.In this sense, providing valuable content works as a catalyst to accelerate customer acquisition and satisfy their needs.
Finally, inbound marketing establishes as one of its most basic principles, “Let users find you, instead of you going looking for them.” For it, This marketing technique has created a series of steps and terms to easily guide companies to change their sales methodology from outbound to inbound.
Why educating overselling is a basic principle of inbound marketing?
To explain why Educating over selling is a basic principle of inbound marketing Let’s think that to attract a person’s attention, you need to create a stimulus. Education in itself is a stimulus that develops learning and comes into play in various areas of our lives.
Learning something has always been a motivation to carry out a project, business idea or undertaking. Wanting to acquire knowledge about something of our interest has also motivated us to pursue a university, postgraduate or master’s degree. In that case, why wouldn’t it motivate us to make a purchase? If inbound marketing seeks to offer valuable content to people, wouldn’t doing it in an educational way generate some value to the process?
As we have already explained in our first section, the need to learn online (e-learning) has grown so much in recent years – as a consequence of the third world evolution, the technological advance of telecommunications and easy access to the Internet. – .that there is talk of empowering clients with more participatory dynamics, as a new challenge of inbound marketing. Now, learning is much easier than before thanks to this.
It is very likely that internet users do not know your brand and the products and/or services you offer. Therefore, from start to finish you must provide them with key information about your market, the elements involved in it and their importance. For example:
If your company is a fruit and vegetable store and your audience is people who want to eat delicious and healthy food, educate your customers on how to successfully combine their foods to obtain the correct calories for their body, provide them with quick recipes that they can prepare with the products. from your store and mention all the benefits and properties of eating fruits and vegetables, through studies and statistics that corroborate it.
Some inbound marketing specialists affirm that educating overselling is a basic principle of inbound marketing because, within this philosophy, people need to satisfy their needs with practical, reliable and easy-to-carry-out content. It is important in this case to know what stage of the buyer’s journey (recognition, consideration, decision) your potential client is in to create content that successfully guides the purchasing process.
The importance of creating educational content
Learning something new every day is a stimulating and satisfying task, especially if we learn things that are within our personal interests. In this sense, Creating content with which others learn should be a primary activity in your company when capturing new sales opportunities.
Educating is the art of teaching others to discover. Now, can you imagine how effective it can be for your sales to teach your buyers to discover different ways to solve their problems and satisfy their needs? You are connecting with them automatically by providing educational and valuable content for their lives. In other words, you are offering them an enriching experience that connects them – voluntarily – with your products and/or services.
People never forget those people who taught them important lessons in their life. Nor will they do so with those companies that understand exactly what knowledge they want to absorb, that is, companies that know perfectly how to satisfy their buyer personas. In this sense, creating valuable content is extremely important to leave a mark on the lives of those people who want to relate to a certain brand.
Unlike traditional marketing, inbound marketing’s main objective is to educate rather than sell, because it understood the importance of providing valuable content in an educational way today, to cognitively nourish the needs of readers and guide their journey. buyer.
