Do you still use a fax machine to send messages?
I didn’t think so.
Marketing your business without inbound marketing is like using a fax machine to send messages.
The fax machine used to work and it was effective, but then email and this thing called the Internet came along. Television, radio, billboards & cold calling are all forms of outbound marketing. They still work, but are costly and not as effective as they once were.
Inbound marketing is the process of earning the interest of visitors and customers, rather than buying it. It’s earned attention that shortens the sales cycle. Inbound marketing is much more efficient than outbound and when talking about marketing — efficient is a good word.
Inbound Marketing vs. Outbound Marketing
Here is a great illustration from MOZ.com;
Outbound marketing is also referred to as “interruption marketing”, for good reason, too. You’re trying to sell your product/service to someone who probably doesn’t want/need it.
Do you like receiving a cold call?
No one does.
Inbound marketing is also referred to as “permission marketing”. Inbound attracts people to your web properties and they “raise their hand” wanting to know more (typically giving you their contact information in exchange for a piece of premium content). This person has showed interest in your product and/or service, has given you permission to educate them more and move them down the sales funnel.
Why Should Your Business Use Inbound Marketing?
Instead of giving you my opinion, I’ll share some stats with you to give you real, concrete numbers.
Blog frequency impacts customer acquisition. 92% of companies who blogged multiple times a day acquired a customer through their blog. (HubSpot)
Inbound marketing delivers 54% more leads into the marketing funnel than traditional outbound channels. (HubSpot)
B2B companies with blogs generate 67% more leads per month on average than non-blogging firms. (Social Media B2B)
Inbound marketing costs 61% less per lead than traditional, outbound marketing. (HubSpot)
82% of consumers search the Internet prior to purchasing a product or service. (HubSpot)
How Does Inbound Marketing Work?
The four pillars of Inbound Marketing are;
Attract visitors to your website
Convert more of those visitors into leads
Close leads and turns them into revenue
Delight customers and turns them into brand advocates
You can see more of how our inbound marketing methodology works here.
The above graphic is from Hubspot, an Internet marketing start-up whose software helps businesses get found online, generate more inbound leads and convert a higher percentage of those leads into paying customers.
HubSpot software is the most powerful, tightly integrated and comprehensive marketing software available, putting personalized inbound marketing into the hands of any business.
Hubspot is a company who practices what they preach by producing, what it seems, an endless supply of educational content. Not only are they the leaders in the space, but they came up with the term “inbound marketing” as well.
Conclusion
Inbound marketing is the future of online marketing. With more and more people doing research before making a purchasing decision, it is crucial to educate (and attract) your target market to you. The more content you have out there, the better chance you have in getting found, which means more money to your bottom line. Remember, inbound marketing is working for you 24/7/365 and never calls in sick.
Or takes a vacation.
I’ll leave you with a quote from the co-founder of Apple, Guy Kawasaki;
Author information
Adam Dukes
Creative Director at Social Sinergy
I help B2B organizations use digital marketing strategies to eliminate cold calling, generate incoming leads, shorten the sales cycle and slash customer acquisition costs by up to 50%. Interested? Get in touch.
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