Inbound Marketing Basic Concepts Course

Lesson 1 • Key Inbound Channels and Tactics

Surveys blogs, SEO, social media, email, and video as primary inbound channels. Connects each channel to a specific stage of the methodology.

Lesson 2 • The Inbound vs. Outbound Distinction

Contrasts push-based outbound tactics with pull-based inbound strategies. Grounds students in why inbound produces higher-quality leads at lower long-term cost.

Lesson 3 • The Inbound Methodology Framework

Introduces the attract-engage-delight flywheel model. Students map each stage to specific business outcomes and customer touchpoints.

Lesson 1 • Building and Documenting Personas

Guides students through structuring persona profiles with demographics, goals, pain points, and objections. Produces a reusable persona template for the team.

Lesson 2 • Understanding the Buyer's Journey

Maps the awareness, consideration, and decision stages a buyer passes through before purchasing. Connects each stage to the type of content that resonates most.

Lesson 3 • Researching Your Audience

Covers qualitative interviews, surveys, CRM data, and analytics as research inputs. Students learn to synthesize multiple data sources into reliable audience insights.

Lesson 1 • Content Distribution and Promotion

Covers owned, earned, and paid distribution channels for amplifying content reach. Students develop a promotion checklist applied after every piece of content is published.

Lesson 2 • Content Planning and Editorial Calendars

Introduces the editorial calendar as a tool for consistent, strategic publishing. Students build a calendar that balances content types, topics, and publication frequency.

Lesson 3 • Content Types and Formats

Surveys blog posts, videos, infographics, podcasts, and long-form guides as core formats. Students match each format to buyer journey stages and persona preferences.

Lesson 4 • Creating High-Value Content

Teaches the principles of educational, empathetic, and actionable content creation. Students apply a repeatable writing and production process to each content type.

Lesson 1 • Technical SEO Basics

Introduces site speed, mobile-friendliness, structured data, and crawlability as technical ranking factors. Students audit a site for common technical issues.

Lesson 2 • Link Building and Domain Authority

Explains how backlinks signal authority and how to earn them through inbound-aligned tactics. Students identify link-building opportunities without relying on paid schemes.

Lesson 3 • On-Page SEO Optimization

Covers title tags, meta descriptions, headers, internal linking, and image optimization. Students apply an on-page checklist to existing and new content pieces.

Lesson 4 • Keyword Research and Strategy

Teaches methods for discovering, evaluating, and prioritizing keywords by volume, difficulty, and intent. Students build a keyword map aligned to their content pillars.

Lesson 1 • Creating Compelling Content Offers

Covers ebooks, checklists, templates, webinars, and free tools as high-converting offer types. Students match offer format to buyer journey stage and persona pain points.

Lesson 2 • Lead Generation Fundamentals

Defines a lead and explains the value exchange between content offers and contact information. Positions lead generation as the bridge between attract and engage stages.

Lesson 3 • Calls-to-Action That Convert

Explains how placement, design, and copy of calls-to-action drive click-through rates. Students create and A/B test CTAs for different pages and audience segments.

Lesson 4 • Thank-You Pages and Follow-Up

Covers the thank-you page as a conversion continuation point and first nurture touchpoint. Students design a post-conversion sequence that moves leads toward the next stage.

Lesson 1 • Email Marketing Fundamentals

Establishes email as the highest-ROI inbound channel and explains permission-based list building. Students distinguish between promotional, transactional, and nurture email types.

Lesson 2 • Analyzing and Optimizing Email Campaigns

Teaches how to interpret open rate, click rate, unsubscribe rate, and conversion data. Students run structured A/B tests and apply findings to improve future campaigns.

Lesson 3 • Segmentation and Personalization

Teaches how to segment lists by persona, lifecycle stage, behavior, and interest. Students apply personalization tokens and dynamic content to increase email relevance.

Lesson 4 • Lead Nurturing Workflows

Introduces automated workflows triggered by lead behavior, form submissions, or lifecycle changes. Students map a multi-step nurture sequence for a specific persona and offer.

Lesson 1 • Creating Engaging Social Content

Covers format-specific best practices for images, short video, carousels, and text posts. Students adapt existing content assets into platform-native social formats.

Lesson 2 • Community Management and Engagement

Teaches how to respond to comments, handle negative feedback, and foster community growth. Students develop a response protocol that reflects brand values and builds trust.

Lesson 3 • Building a Social Media Strategy

Guides students through setting platform-specific goals, voice, and content mix. Produces a one-page social strategy document tied to business and persona objectives.

Lesson 4 • Social Media's Role in Inbound

Positions social media as a distribution and community-building channel within the inbound flywheel. Students identify which platforms their personas use most and why.

Lesson 1 • Reporting to Stakeholders

Covers how to translate marketing data into business language for leadership and cross-functional teams. Students build a monthly report template that connects activity to outcomes.

Lesson 2 • Interpreting Data and Optimizing Campaigns

Teaches a structured review process for identifying underperforming tactics and prioritizing fixes. Students apply a test-learn-iterate cycle to a real campaign scenario.

Lesson 3 • Setting Inbound Marketing Goals

Applies goal-setting frameworks to define specific, measurable inbound targets tied to business outcomes. Students translate revenue goals into traffic, lead, and conversion targets.

Lesson 4 • Analytics and Reporting Fundamentals

Introduces web analytics platforms as the primary tool for tracking inbound performance. Students configure dashboards that surface the metrics most relevant to their goals.