Remington BeggWhen you’re first considering the web-based, consumer voodoo that is Inbound Marketing, it can be as overwhelming as it is powerful. How do you wrap your brain around all of these buzzwords and best practices without drowning in Post-It notes?
Simply put, you need to:
- Attract the right visitors
- Convert visitors into leads
- Close leads into customers
- Delight customers into promoters
That’s it. That’s the simple version of the Inbound Methodology.
Try to visualize it. Think about any consumer experience you’ve had that fits. For Hairy Sherry, it happened in the bathroom.
Hairy Sherry Buys A Razor
Hairy Sherry has spent years seeing Facebook Ads and blog links for the Dollar Shave Club. This monthly service claims to have the best razors, at better prices than stores. For just $1, they’ll ship you a razor and 4 or 5 blades. Every month after, they’ll auto-ship you 4 or 5 more blades for your razor and automatically deduct the cost from your bank account. It’s $3 - $9.
Attract
Hairy Sherry saw these ads and blog links on Social Media all the time. They used funny, simple language and graphics that she liked: “Just $1” and “Stop paying the pink razor tax.”
When Hairy Sherry found herself in the bathtub one day, her problem of always forgetting to buy new razors was aggravating enough to take action. Right in her bubble bath, Hairy Sherry got on her iPhone and went to Dollar Shave Club website.
Convert
Hairy Sherry was looking for “the catch”. Instead, she found a video right on the homepage that explained the whole process. The founder himself answered most of her 
questions and made her laugh. She learned about their service and their brand’s core beliefs in this YouTube-hosted video featuring a giant teddy bear, machete, edgy language and 93 seconds of awesome entertainment.
Next, Hairy Sherry clicked on the enticing bright “Get Started” button. She compared the razors and prices. She even picked one, put it in her cart and filled out a form with all of her information. But she DID NOT place an order.
Hairy Sherry has Netflix, GoDaddy accounts, monthly email services and lots of other things that get auto-withdrawn from her bank account. She hates the idea of signing up for another service that’s going to dip their hands into the cookie jar of her bank account every month. She can’t keep track of all these withdraw dates and she probably doesn’t need 5 new blades a month anyways.
Close
A few days and a grocery store later, Hairy Sherry still doesn’t have razors. She forgot them again.
As she’s cruising through her emails, she spots one from Dollar Shave Club. Hmmm, they must have gotten her info from that form on the website. She didn’t sign up for anything. But she doesn’t mind because they’re hilarious and Hairy Sherry loves everything they write.
The email basically said, “Did you know you can get razors every other month?” Finally, Hairy Sherry had some control! It was a one-page lesson on changing her shipping and payment settings from the default of every month, to every other month. Sold. Within minutes, she was entering her credit card info.
Delight
Hairy Sherry loves her smooth legs, new razors and the free content in her packages and email. She tells everyone about Dollar Shave Club and why she loves it.
Use Simple Inbound Marketing
It really is that simple. Attract with social media posts, blogs and keywords. Convert with awesome landing pages, calls to action 
and forms. Close with emails, customer relationship managers and workflows. Delight with smart content, social monitoring and surveys.
You don’t have to fully understand Inbound Marketing to start benefitting from its fundamentals. Define your Hairy Sherry and get more quick tips to start your Inbound Marketing by downloading the Free Guide to Inbound Marketing below.
