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7 inbound marketing tools in B2B marketing you should be using in 2021

First things first: What is inbound marketing?

Inbound marketing is the process of helping customers find your business using strategies such as your content marketing, website, social media, email and SEO.

Kate Cox, CEO of Moneypenny, said: “Marketing teams often spend disproportionate amounts of time thinking of new ways to drive quality traffic to their websites and thereby increasing inbound leads and less on thinking through how to convert users to a lead on their website if visitors don’t stumble onto the web form page.”

For accessibility, use HubSpot

Karla Wentworth, our Propolis Hive expert for Marketing Operations & Process, said: “My personal favourite is HubSpot. Without a doubt an incredible automation tool for CRM and marketing automation. What is so special about HubSpot is that it first offers a huge amount of functionality for free to users so it’s accessible for everyone, sole traders to enterprise. And, not only do you get a top-class CRM, you also get a real education in inbound marketing using their comprehensive knowledge base. I don’t often see many other software platforms proving this level of accessibility and support to the user.”

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HubSpot is an all-in-one platform, which can help with various aspects of your business. If you’re wanting to focus on content marketing, you can use its analytics to garner insights. It’s also an ideal tool for email marketing with its personalisation options and various templates.

In addition, its HubSpot CRM is 100% free and includes an up-to-date view of your entire sales pipeline on a dashboard. You’ll be able to always keep track of your sales team with individual performance tracking. Unlike most platforms, you can enjoy unlimited data, unlimited users and up to one million contacts with no time limit or expiration date.

For an inexpensive solution, use ActiveCampaign

While HubSpot’s CRM is free, its paid functionality can be expensive. If you’re wanting a cheaper option to keep marketing automation and workflows afloat, ActiveCampaign is a great alternative starting at just $9 per month. The platform gives businesses over 500 prebuilt automations that utilises email marketing, CRM, and marketing automation for segmentation and personalisation across social, email, messaging and chat.

Karla said: “Not free, but certainly a snip of the price, ActiveCampaign provides all the automated workflows you will need to create great comms with your customers and prospects. Like Mailchimp, it is a simple to use cloud-based email tool more so than the CRM of HubSpot.”

For personalisation, use Webeo

If you’re looking to target specific prospects, Webeo creates customised website experiences based on the user’s IP addresses. For personalisation, Webeo goes beyond just knowing industry name and job titles – it recognises user behaviour, specific demographics and product recommendations. If you sign up for Webeo, you will work directly with a customer success manager who will ensure you know exactly how to utilise Webeo’s features to fit your company’s business goals.

For SEO, use SEMRush

If you’re looking to optimise your content marketing, SEMRush might be the best tool for you. SemRush is an inbound marketing tool that offers information on useful keyword data such as search volume, keywords, cost per click, and your competition’s paid advertising spend. You’ll be able to accurately target the right keywords for your business with both the ability to look at historical Google performance of individual keywords, as well as daily project reports of keyword SERPs (search engine results page).

Bailey Witt, account manager at MediaFuel said in a review: “SEMRush is the cream of the crop in terms of comprehensive search engine data. It is excellent for keyword research and understanding how many people search for a term, how difficult it is to rank for the keyword, how much it would cost to run ads for, and also see what websites currently rank for that word. SEMRush provides suggestions for related keywords all from one seed keyword, which makes it an efficient process.”

For call-back, use Response IQ

Response IQ, an intelligent call-back platform, helps businesses increase inbound calls and conversions. The call-back widget connects sales teams to website visitors in seconds. Its Instant Lead Response sales enablement capability can turn any enquiry forms with a phone number into an instant call-back. This can free up the time of your whole sales team. Its starter version includes 40 credits, an instant call-back widget, a lead connect tool, and unlimited agents, domains and lead responses.

Kate Cox, CEO of Moneypenny, said: “Another great inbound marketing tool to convert visitors to leads are call back widgets: research shows that phone calls have the highest conversion to sale of any response channel and the quicker a sales team can call a potential customer back the higher the conversion rate. Decreasing the time between enquiry and call by using call-back widgets can increase call volumes by 25% and have a disproportionate impact on lead> sale conversion rates.”

For intent data, use ZoomInfo

For more information on website behaviour, ZoomInfo is a key data platform to utilise. You can see demographics, technographics and buyer intent all on a single-view platform allowing you to integrate with your CRM software. Having this wealth of information can help prepare your sales representatives for calls.

If you decide to use ZoomInfo, you’ll need to download the ReachOut Chrome extension, so the platform can provide you with the direct phone numbers, email addresses and social media profiles for contacts from LinkedIn profiles or business websites.

For a chat function, use Moneypenny’s Live Chat

There are often mixed reviews on chatbots, but often, because there’s not a real human behind the computer. Through Moneypenny’s managed live chat function, its Live Chat is outsourced to capture more leads and handle queries in an efficient manner. You can get started by briefing with an agent one-on-one to ensure the results you desire.

Kate continues about Moneypenny: “We have found that managed live chat increased our overall lead volume by 20% – that’s having a real person on the end of the chat button who can direct visitors to the right place or answer simple questions about the purchase process. Chatbots have a place for high traffic sites with visitors who ask very straight forward FAQs, but nothing beats a real person for more complex products as many users simply close chatbot windows without engaging. We found a 20x rate between managed live chat versus the chatbot on our own site.”

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