On this episode of Rhodes to Success I interview Tom Schwab who is the leader of the e-commerce Hub Spot user group and knows how to build and online business with an inbound strategy. Tom led the growth of Goodbye Crutches, a direct to patient private pay e-commerce business from a regional player to national leader in fewer than three years.
Main Questions Asked
- How did Goodbye Crutches come to be?
- What was the journey from Goodbye Crutches to inbound marketing?
- What is inbound marketing?
- What do you have to say about the relationship that inbound marketing has with content marketing?
- Why is it so important that your marketing focus on the customers pain points?
- What do you say to a business owner who is not taking care of a pain point but is offering something that makes life more pleasurable?
- Talk about your strategy to boost the lifetime value of a customer.
- How is your company helping e-commerce do more customer nurturing?
- How do you go from being self-employed to having a salable business?
Key Lessons Learned
Inbound Marketing
- Inbound marketing is permission-based marketing. You are basically asking, “How can I be helpful to people who have a question and make it so I’m the thought leader there to answer?”
- The difference between permission-based marketing and content marketing is life, “Fishing for Sharks and only using Chum.” Sure, it will attract them but how do you get them on the hook?
- Inbound marketing is about listening to the customer and figuring out the tests to improve so you can give the customer more content.
The Decision Process
- 70% of the buying decision is made before you contact the company (research via asking friends, referrals, Google etc.)
- A person will go through the entire sales process and be attracted by great content and offers.
Inbound Marketing vs Content Marketing
