Modern business is all about making the right calls. You have to establish the company and focus on services and products that matter. Then you need to hire the best people for the tasks within the company. Also, you will need to focus your efforts on the online development of your company. And how do you go about doing this last step? Well, the answer lies in the concept of marketing for movers. Or to be more precise, the optimal solution lies within the balance of outbound and inbound marketing for movers.
For all those that have ventured into the abyss of marketing, you might have found that there are two common methods: inbound marketing and outbound marketing.
What’s the difference? They’re both used to gather leads, right? Well, yes, but that’s about where the similarity ends. So, let’s get into the details of the tactics that are the hallmarks of each type of marketing. After that, you can decide which is best for developing your moving business.
Outbound marketing for movers
People, or should I say marketers, have been developing their traits for centuries. We started working on marketing well before the term was even coined. And unlike inbound marketing, outbound is intrusive. It demands that prospects pay attention. It uses a variety of methods to get the word out about products or services. Here are some of the most popular outlets for outbound marketing:
- Print and direct mail marketing. Marketers have been showcasing their offers since the invention of the printer. Every time you open your mailbox, it’s full of catalogs, flyers, and other “junk mail” that goes directly into the recycling bin. And despite its bad rep, it continues to be a popular source of advertising.
- TV and radio ads. Marketers became aware of the popularity of television and created creative and innovative ads to capture the attention (and the wallets) of viewers.
- Telemarketing. Since the early 1980s, businesses have been spending billions of dollars to place millions of calls per hour.
- Billboards. If you’ve ever passed a two-story picture of a burger and pulled off onto the next exit to eat lunch, the billboard has done its job.
What do these methods have in common? They’re tough to avoid. And sure enough, you can avoid them on a daily basis, but you can’t stop them altogether. When you think about it, nobody can any longer.
Why is outbound marketing so ineffective for movers today?
Outbound marketing lacks personalization, which ultimately makes it less effective. It’s tough to tell what’s working and what’s not. There is no accurate way for you to measure whether the direct mail, radio ad, or TV commercial got you lead, and if so, how many. With an outbound approach, you unfortunately often lack the data needed to adjust your tactics and your budget.
And here’s the biggest issue with it – it’s costly. How costly? Well, it’s estimated that an outbound marketing campaign costs half as much per lead as your typical inbound marketing campaign. So, you are in fact spending a whole lot more money on marketing efforts that annoy people instead of interesting them in what you offer.
Inbound marketing for movers
The term “Inbound Marketing” was first coined in the late 1990s. The foundation for the creation of inbound marketing was laid well before that, however, with ideas such as:
- permission marketing
- relationship marketing
The main focus of either of these approaches was a personalized sales strategy. The aim was to create long-lasting relationships with customers whilst avoiding being overly aggressive in the process. So, these would be your established tactics when it comes to inbound marketing for movers:
Search engine optimization (SEO)
SEO helps your pages or website rank higher in terms of internet searches. Bear in mind that search engines today are what word-of-mouth was since forever. I mean, Google alone accommodates over 40,000 searches per second. And it’s important that your website is ranked high on the list of responses to certain keywords or key phrases. How do you do that? Our SEO guide for movers can help, regardless of your level of insight.
Content marketing
It’s become common practice in the world of business to incorporate blogs into their websites. This is a trend you can thank content marketing for. This form of marketing provides movers with the opportunity to inform and educate potential clients without bombarding them with too much daily intrusion. You offer the information, and consumers can find it when they’re ready for it.
And with such an approach, a lot depends on how relevant your content is to the journey of your online visitors. You need to adjust to their needs and what they actually want to read about. That way, you can meet your customers where they are.
Social media as a popular type of inbound marketing for movers
Everyone has an account on at least one popular social media platform today. And if you don’t, you’re missing out on a golden opportunity to not connect with your audience, but gather new leads. You can develop a relationship with customers over Twitter or Facebook that will earn you their loyalty over time. It’s also proven to be an excellent customer support tool, as you are able to answer and address any issues people had with your services.
Email workflow
And no, this does not refer to spamming customers with emails. An effective email workflow is like a well-crafted story. You send emails as checkpoints that will lead the clients through their online journey of discovering your services. The focus of these emails is to provide customers with optimal content and useful information that they look for. Remember this – the right email at the right time might be all you need to close a lead and raise your conversion rate.
What are the benefits of inbound marketing for movers?
To start off, it’s important to note that the tables have turned with the incorporation of inbound marketing tactics. Now, all the power and influence lies in the hands of the buyer rather than the company that looks to sell a service or product. Because you see, potential clients no longer need your sales reps to inform them about the services you offer. Instead, they have the Internet to provide them with all the information (and more) that they need. And they can get answers to their specific questions without having to suffer through a sales pitch or irrelevant piles of information.
The fact of the matter is that inbound marketing for movers is significantly less expensive than outbound, and it’s more effective. For example, roughly around 15% of SEO leads result in a closure, whereas outbound marketing leads barely cross the 1.5% mark. And the best part is that you can actually measure the success of your inbound marketing campaigns through various tools.
The agility of inbound marketing for movers
Another bonus of inbound marketing is its agility. If you launch an inbound campaign and find that it’s not as successful as you hoped it would be, you can re-create it from scratch. Switch the keywords, update the content, try other social media platforms… With digital marketing, modifications and adjustment are a whole lot easier and cheaper.
Inbound marketing makes sense for a lot of relocation businesses who are seeking new ways to boost their leads and conversions without increasing their marketing budget.
