Inbound Marketing

Inbound Marketing...A New Opportunity?  What is it?

Inbound Marketing represents new marketing activities focused on getting "found" and/or consciously chosen by prospects and customers.

In traditional marketing (outbound marketing) organizations focus on finding customers. They use techniques that are targeted but may interrupt people and their day-to-day flow of activities. They use cold-calling, print advertising, TV advertising, direct marketing, spam, outbound telemarketing and trade shows (to name a few options).

Technology has been making these varied techniques less effective and more expensive. Caller ID blocks cold calls. TiVo makes TV advertising less effective, spam filters block mass emails, and tools like RSS are making print and display advertising less effective. It is still possible to get a message out via these channels, but their costs are greater.

Inbound Marketers "flip" outbound marketing on its head.

Instead of interrupting people with TV ads, they create videos that potential customers want to see. Instead of buying display ads in print publications, they create their own business blogs that people subscribe to and look forward to reading. Instead of cold calling, they create useful content and tools so that prospects contact them seeking for more information.

Instead of driving their message into a crowd over and over again like a "hammer," they attract highly qualified customers to their business like a powerful  streaming magnet.

The most successful Inbound Marketing campaigns have 3 specific elements:

•  Content - Content creation is the core of any Inbound Marketing campaign. It is the information or tool that attracts potential customers to your site or your business.
• Search Engine Optimization - Search Engine Optimization makes it easier for potential customers to find your content.  It is the practice of building your site and inbound links to your site to maximize your ranking in search engines, where most of your customers begin their buying process.
• Social Media - Social media amplifies the impact of your content.  When your content is distributed across and discussed on networks of personal relationships, it becomes more authentic and nuanced, and is more likely to draw qualified customers to your site.

Why does Inbound Marketing Make Sense in a Recessionary Period?

As the economy has slowed down, companies are turning to Inbound Marketing because it is a more efficient way of allocating marketing resources than traditional outbound marketing.

There are 3 definite ways Inbound Marketing improves on the efficiency of traditional marketing:

• It Costs Less - Outbound  marketing means spending budget - either by buying ads, buying email lists or renting huge booths at trade shows.  Inbound Marketing  means creating content and talking about it.  A blog costs nothing to start.  A Twitter account is free too.  Both can draw thousands of customers to your site.  The marketing ROI from inbound campaigns has been tracked higher than traditional methods.
• Better Targeting - Techniques like cold calling, mass mail and even, email campaigns are notorious for poor, inaccurate targeting.  You are reaching out to individuals because of one or two attributes in a database.  When you do Inbound Marketing, you only approach people who self-qualify themselves and are looking for your information.  They demonstrate an interest in your content so they are more likely to hold interest in your product/service.
• It's an Investment, Not an On-Going Expense - When you purchase pay-per-click advertising on search engines, its value is gone as soon as you pay for it.  In order to maintain a position at the top of Google's paid results, you have to keep paying.  However, if you invest your resources in creating quality content that ranks in Goolge's organic results, you'll be there until somebody is able to displace you.