Inbound Marketing
What is Inbound Marketing?
Inbound marketing is a process that entices customers by creating valuable content and experiences tailored to them. Examples of this include content marketing, social media, SEO and branding.
Inbound Marketing Method’s used by Apple & Samsung
Apple uses Inbound marketing extremely well to engage their customers to their products. One way Apple does this is by having mobile-friendly websites. Apple’s website is easy to navigate and use. By having the mobile-friendly website, this gives their customers a good experience whilst shopping online or looking at their products. The website has good photographic and video content as well as having the shopping basket appearing in the top right-hand corner of every web page, making it easily accessible to items in the basket and checking out.
Samsung also uses Inbound Marketing very well to engage their customers to their products. One way Samsung does this is by email-marketing. When customers are looking at the Samsung website, they can easily sign up to Samsung’s email campaign by registering. This makes customers feel part of the Samsung group and will be notified of future products and will be able to gain instant notifications as soon as Samsung release a new product. As you can see in the photo below, the sign-up icon is easily recognizable and easy for customers to fill out their contact details. Again, the visual content on the website is very good.
Both Apple and Samsung are optimized very well and feature keywords throughout.
Strengths and weaknesses of the inbound marketing approach used by each organization
Apple
Strengths:
Apple’s website is very easy to navigate throughout the different departments. It shows Apple operates in more than just one department. The website is well optimized and is unique in terms of its visual content and design. Apple are posting consistently and top-quality content on their social media channels. This keeps their fans excited and anticipated. In addition, Apple offers a survey to their customers on the support page section. This allows customers to have their say in improving Apple’s website experience. Also Apple has a support system, whereby customers facing any difficulties with their products can chat to specialists online.
Weaknesses:
On the Apple website, they do not have links to their Facebook or social media accounts. There are no social icons on the page that clearly show they are present on social media.
Samsung
Strengths:
Samsung’s website is full of great visual content, with wide colourful images on display. It also has their social media links to all of their social media accounts at the bottom of the page. It’s mobile friendly, and they make it easy for customers to navigate through the websites and checkout. Samsung post regularly on their Social Media channels with creative which is good for keeping engagement with their followers. Samsung also offers stories on their website. This gives insight into how best to use their products for greater experiences. This is in a way advising or assisting their fans and customers.
Weaknesses:
Samsung doesn’t have a lot of engagement with their posts on Social Media. They have over 16 million likes and followers. Yet their posts only receive around an average of 150 like or even less sometimes. This defeats the purpose of social media, as it’s primary focus is to engage with their customers and fans.
Which Organization was best at Inbound Marketing and Why?
It could be argued that Apple is better at using Inbound Marketing due to the amount of different inbound marketing methods they use including surveys of customers, online support for customers, high social media engagement, brilliant creative website which is mobile friendly. Samsung doesn’t have all these features and does not have a great engagement on social media like Apple. However, Samsung has their social media links on their hoe page and has a sign-up offer icon, which Apple does not have. In addition, Samsung has stories on their website whereas Apple does not have this feature which connects to their customers and fans. So, it looks like they are pretty level with their Inbound marketing strategies. Apple has strategies that Samsung does not and that is vice-versa.
How Can Each Organization Improve it’s Inbound Marketing?
Apple can improve their SEO rating. By including links to social media accounts on their home page, this will help improve their SERP (Search Engine Results Page). Viewers will be directed to their social media accounts and be encouraged to follow them and interact with the brand through the different channels.
Samsung can improve it’s inbound marketing by looking at Insights on their social media platforms and to see why their engagement with posts are not very good. This would help the engagement and interaction with fans and customers build stronger.