In English classes across the country, English educators are teaching children about what will become one of the major staples of their writing: the five paragraph essay. This format will be utilized for the rest of their educational career and will build the foundation for all of their writing in the future. In Ecommerce, the same is true of Inbound Marketing. The methodology of Inbound Marketing is building the foundations that entire departments and industries are based on. Let’s take a look at how the five paragraph essay and Inbound Marketing line up.
To Begin
For those who might not be familiar with the form, the five paragraph essay format has three basic components: the introduction, the body, and the conclusion. The methodology for Inbound Marketing are the following: attract, convert, close, and delight. The five paragraph essay is designed to provide your reader with information about a topic you are writing about and help them see that idea in a new way. Inbound Marketing methodology helps move someone who is a stranger to your product to being a promoter for your business. With that in mind, let’s get started.
The Introduction
In English classes, the introduction of an essay is designed to intrigue your reader, provide a brief preview of what your paper will be covering, and smoothly transition in to the body of the work. The Attract stage of Inbound Marketing is designed to function exactly the same way. Through Search Engine Optimization (SEO), blogs, social media posts, and website design, strangers to your business become interested in what you can offer, get a preview of what your business is, and smoothly transition in to how your business can help them specifically. By making strangers to your business interested in what you have to say, those strangers become regular visitors who can eventually become leads.
The Body
In the five paragraph essay, the body of the paper is the meat and potatoes of your essay. This is where you explore the idea that you brought up in your introduction, provide examples of how the idea you brought up in the introduction of your paper applies to various situations, and provide relevant sources that back up what you are claiming.
Similarly in Inbound Marketing, the body of the five paragraph essay coincides with the Convert and Close steps of Inbound Marketing Methodology. In these steps you provide visitors to your site with how your business can help solve a problem they have, provide examples of various solutions you offer, and provide examples of successes that back up your products. With these aspects in place, your visitors transition into leads, and into your next satisfied customer.
The Conclusion
In the five paragraph essay, the final step is the Conclusion. Here you give a brief recap of what was discussed in the body of the paper and satisfy the curiosity you raised in your introduction. At this point, your reader has been adequately informed or persuaded to see your point of view.
Likewise, in Inbound Marketing, to have a customer become a promoter you want to delight them. Your business should satisfy their curiosity about whether your business provides the solution to the problem they had when they were introduced to your business. And like the reader of the five paragraph essay, your customer will have been persuaded that your business is their preferred solution. A delighted customer not only returns to your business, they promote your businesses among their family and friends, generating new customers for you to delight.
Looking Back
When you’re first getting into the idea of Inbound Marketing, the multitude of guides and sites promoting best practices that throw around jargon you aren’t familiar with can be daunting to work with. Sometimes, getting back to basics and looking at Inbound Marketing through a different lens can provide new insights or make your first foray into the subject easier.