Inbound marketing was formed from the concept of capturing the attention of prospects and helping them find your brand (or products) before they are ready to buy. This can be done in a variety of different ways, but search, content marketing and, increasingly, social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook, are found to be the most effective.

The approach differs from traditional marketing in that the campaign makes it easier for leads to find the brand, as opposed to the other way around.

A successful inbound marketing strategy will usually implement the following:

1. The creation of a central theme to anchor efforts each month
2. The creation of 2-3 small pieces of content around said theme
3. Regular updates on social media channels to get the word out about this content
4. The production of one major piece of content to support the theme
5. Blogging
6. Analysis and optimization

This infographic from Marketo provides a one-stop, CMO’s guide to inbound marketing.

(Source: Marketo. Social media marketing image via Shutterstock.)