What makes inbound marketing such a powerful conversion generator? How, exactly, does inbound marketing increase the number of conversions your business can bring in? We’ve broken it out into five key areas to show you precisely how the components of inbound marketing work together to increase your conversions.

1. It starts with attraction, not interruption

Where other forms of marketing start by interrupting a customer – like a commercial or an annoying telemarketer during dinner – inbound marketing gets off on the right foot by defining the people they want to attract and what those people actually need.

Then, instead of going out and puting a megaphone in their faces, inbound marketing focuses on producing the things that will attract those people, and sharing them in non-invasive ways. In fact, the ultimate goal of initiatives like content marketing, a key tenant of inbound marketing, is to produce things the customer is so delighted about, they actually want to share them.

2. It answers questions & soothes pain points

Advertising is focused on creating a need. Inbound marketing, on the other hand, is about making life easier for the customer. It’s about knowing where in the buying cycle the customer is and bringing them exactly what they need in that moment.

Inbound marketing answers questions, alleviates fears and abolishes the pain points of the customer. Together, these actions make a customer more and more likely to purchase as they progress down the funnel, which brings us to our next point.

3. It guides leads down the funnel towards purchase

Inbound focuses on a natural progression from one stage to the next – but because content is targeted at each cycle, calls-to-action and “push points” can be used to help move the customer along towards making a buying decision.

For example, a project manager might be on the hunt for some software to aid in their tasks. When they discover your online comparison guide between your platform and others, they’ve now got an awareness of your brand. If that guide invites them to subscribe to an e-mail list for more information on project management or to know when you release new coupon codes, you’ve now moved them even closer to purchase.

This kind of lead nurturing is unique to inbound; it’s a big part of the reason inbound can drive conversions.

4. It tunes into the user experience

Conversion optimization is a critical part of an inbound marketing campaign. This ongoing activity looks at breaking down the data to discover the things that are hindering the user experience, or identify opportunities to make the user experience even more compelling and persuasive. While conversion rate optimization can generate results on its own without an inbound marketing campaign, when the two are paired, you have the powerful combination of warm leads meeting a finely tuned conversion process designed to help them at every stage until they arrive at a the choice to buy.

This, combined with lead nurturing, can make it even easier on your sales team to close the deal and earn a conversion.

5. It differentiates the brand

Users want to see a brand in action. They don’t just want to read your values on an “about us” page; they want to see them fused into your content, your community activity, your lead nurturing process and so on.

Because you’re publishing, tweaking and refining content, you’re polishing the brand image you put out to the world, and in doing so, setting yourself apart from the competition who is still leaning on outdated tactics to try and grab up attention.

Natural attraction and careful nurturing bring higher conversions

When you start with the customer and focus on helping to guide them through the process with content to suit every stage of the cycle, conversions will follow.

If you’re looking to increase your conversions in 2014, maybe it’s time you tapped into the power of inbound marketing?