Inbound marketing is a great way to connect with interested buyers. But in the uber-competitive online space, it’s tough standing out in a sea of flashy content and other inbound strategies.
How can you cut through the noise and leverage your content to its fullest extent with new buyers?
It’s time to go a step further than your competitors. Get outside of your comfort zone and go beyond inbound marketing.
Embrace journey based advertising to start and forge better buyer relationships and get the most lead generation value from your content..png?width=649&name=Untitled%20design%20(24).png)
What is journey based advertising?
Journey based advertising isn’t like the PPC campaigns that most inbound marketers scoff at.
Most PPC ads push product and “consultations” that no one wants. That’s why brands see so little ROI on their advertising. It’s like showing up to a dinner party and only talking about yourself; you have to deliver value if you want people to engage with you.
Journey based advertising is a breath of fresh air in the stuffy world of PPC. It ditches the slimy tactics and instead aims to help and provide valuable content while moving the prospect through the buyer’s journey.
How journey based advertising is different
You might be wondering, “How is journey based advertising different from other advertising methods?”
Great question!
Journey based advertising still the buyer personas and journeys that you’re already using for your inbound strategy for one. JBA maps offers, your campaign structure, and so on to each stage of the buyer’s journey. Long story short, it’s the principles behind inbound applied to paid advertising.
1. Genuine lead nurturing
Traditional advertising talks at the buyer instead of trying to start a conversation. That’s because advertising usually focuses on buyers in the decision stage of the buyer’s journey.
The real world is more complex than that. Buyers often go through the awareness and consideration stages before they feel confident enough to buy from you. Don’t forget about campaigns geared towards those that are ready to buy, but don’t lose out on all of those awareness and consideration stage leads just the same the same.
Traditional advertising is like asking someone to marry you on the first date—it’s too much too fast and makes buyers run for the hills.
Journey based advertising understands that you need to create a relationship before popping the question. It complements your other inbound nurturing strategies, like email and social, to convert leads into customers.
2. Helpful, valuable content
Journey based advertising isn’t about pushing your brand on people. Instead, it shares genuinely helpful content with your buyers.
The purpose here is to help buyers by answering questions and sharing free resources. You’re probably already doing this with your inbound marketing strategy, so think of JBA as an extension of these efforts.
Keep in mind that journey based advertising is still advertising. It’s going to be intrusive to some degree, but if you share the right content, at the time, at the right place, your buyer personas will welcome it.
Done right, journey based advertising gives customers a better experience by sharing information they’ll actually use, not thinly veiled marketing pitches.
3. Smarter attribution
Are you still using last-click attribution for your advertising? It’s our default. But much of the time our sales cycle are complicated enough that we should explore other attribution models.
The customer journey has multiple touch points across several platforms; last-click mentality is hurting your marketing efforts by sharing just a small sliver of data.
Instead, look at the overall path to becoming a lead or customer. Click-assisted conversions can be just as important as last click conversions. See where you’re getting engagements that lead to a sale so you get the whole picture.
The bottom line
Journey based advertising is different because it gives buyers a better experience. Because it’s more focused on buyer needs instead of spamming your customers, journey based advertising generates and nurtures leads throughout the buyer’s journey. nurtures leads into loyal customers. Because it aligns and integrates with the rest of your digital marketing. Best of all, this strategy is different because it works.
Are you new to the world of journey based advertising? No worries! Download the No Bounds journey based advertising guide to get best practices, examples, and more.
