Welcome to part 2 of this series, where we’ll be discussing the opposite of Inside Out Marketing, which is Outside In Marketing. When I was introduced to this concept, I thought it was like every other, but when you start dissecting the philosophy behind this type of marketing, you’ll understand why it’s so powerful. Anyway, in the first section, we looked at ways to effectively market your blog by tweaking elements you fully controlled. This included analytics, content, landing pages, and content. In part 2, we start to look at how outside factors can affect your marketing efforts. Instead of you utilizing blog elements to market, it’s time you start to look for external sources to drive relevant traffic.
Let’s get started and if you have any questions, please post them below.
The Concept
If you haven’t read part 1, then I encourage all of you to read it before starting this one. Reading part 1 will allow you to understand more clearly the difference and how you can apply these concepts to your blogging. Next, Outside In Marketing allows you to understand your audience much better because you look for ways to capture your audience other than internal factors like subscribers, organic, etc. For example, you’re moving from external factors pushing traffic inward, transforming visitor to customers. It’s widely believed with outside in marketing you have to work bit harder because people are NOT yet ready to make a buying decision. Next, they have several options available to them since online blogging can be very competitive. Unlike when people are loyal readers and visitors, you have to utilize external channels to direct traffic flow to your blog. Keep this flow in mind:
External Marketing Channels>Quality Content>Direct Visitors via Links>Capture>Convert>Sell
When starting your outside marketing journey, you have several options:
Social Media – I like focusing on the MOST well known platforms like Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, and Google+. You can utilize #hashtags to find relevant people. Incorporate fancy headlines and illustrations to improve visibility of your shares.
Banner Ads – I’ve used BuySellAds.com in the past to find relevant websites to market my blog. The cool thing is you can choose from fixed or CPM pricing so you can find something in your marketing budget. Your objective should be to target your audience and do your research before purchasing ad space. I usually check website statistics on Alexa.com to make sure it’ll serve my audience.
Guest Blogging – This is the best form of marketing to generate relevant traffic. I’ve used it to driver thousands of people to my blog, growing my brand 2 times. However, when searching for guest blogging opportunities, always do the following:
- Check traffic statistics
- Check social profiles
- Check other content relevancy
After you’ve narrowed down the best guest blogging opportunities, it’s important to:
- Write the best content
- Keep it relevant
- Don’t forget your purpose
- Provide value to the readers
- Always network with blog owner
These are just a few, however, you can brand off into other external marketing channels. For example, explore various marketing opportunities on different social platforms, banner ad platforms, and guest blogs. Your main goal is to keep testing and tweaking until you find the best CTR and conversion rate.
Now what?
Once you’ve determined your course of actions, it’s time to put the other elements into place. Remember how I mentioned this above:
External Marketing Channels>Quality Content>Direct Visitors via Links>Capture>Convert>Sell
It’s time to direct people to quality content on your blog great for building your brand and loyalty. This can be done through links embedded into your content and author bio but be careful NOT to SPAM and only add links pointing to high value content. Next, I recommend capturing your traffic through email subscriptions by offering a FREE downloadable eBook. Once you have them on your list, they’ll be easy to convert into loyal followers through a strategic follow-up sequence. As you continue to provide value, you’ll find they’ll convert into revisits and buying customers.
Always test different things before settling because you want to ensure whatever you’re doing is achieving optimal conversions.