Inbound marketing is the most effective way in the modern age to turn strangers into visitors, visitors into leads and leads into customers. It is transforming the way the world does business.
To understand why inbound marketing (inbound) is so powerful, it helps to discuss traditional marketing. In traditional marketing, the goal is for businesses to go out and find customers. To do this, they use methods that are interruptive, for example cold calling, television ads, print advertising and even direct mail or lumpy mail. By interruptive, we mean they are designed to be flashed in your face when you’re in the process of doing something else.
There are increasing problems with this traditional marketing approach. The costs of these mediums has become more expensive and the results are becoming less effective. Consumers are becoming resistant to ‘in-your-face’ marketing attempts and technology such as caller ID, spam filters and the mute button is assisting consumers to block out these messages.
Traditional marketing is therefore marketer centric, and not such a great experience for the potential customer.
Inbound marketing is the complete opposite of traditional marketing. Instead of being marketer centric, it is customer centric and empowers potential customers. Inbound helps the customer by providing them with information that supports the awareness and considerations stages of their buying process. That is, when they know they have a problem to solve, have identified what it is and are looking for solutions, they can ‘self serve’ information by searching for answers.
From the maketer’s perspective, instead of interrupting people with TV ads, they could create a video that a prospect finds when searching for solutions to their problem. Instead of purchasing ads in newspapers, they could create a blog that helps educate the prospect about the solution. In this way, the connection between problem and solution (or customer and supplier) is initiated and controlled (to some extent) by the customer.
Inbound Marketing is marketing focused on getting found by customers. It’s customer-focused. It’s helpful. Wouldn’t you prefer to deal with a business that is focused on your needs instead of their own?
The question is, when potential customers are searching for answers to their problems that you can solve, will they find you? Inbound marketing is about making sure they do.
It’s your problem-solving blog post that shows up near the top of the search engine. It’s the new solution that was discovered on LinkedIn or the product review that was found on Facebook.
Inbound is about being a part of the conversation.
Being a part of that conversation means sharing helpful, relevant content with the world. It’s about drawing people in -- that’s why it’s called Inbound, after all.
And most of all, it’s about creating marketing that people love.
In today’s world, buyers have all the power. Think about the process you went through the last time you made a purchase. Did you call up a salesperson, asking to buy? Or did you hop online and do some research? I’d be willing to bet you did the latter.
It’s time for you to support that buying process. It’s time for you to join in and empower your potential customers to make the right decisions for themselves.
Get our handy Free Inbound Marketing Checklist
Are you utilising Inbound Marketing and the most efficient channels for your marketing campaigns?
Chances are, you might be overlooking a few that can help drive more business to your website. To make sure you’re not missing any opportunities, we’ve put together a Free Inbound Marketing Campaign Checklist.
With this handy checklist, you can keep track of all the available channels you should be using next time you launch a marketing campaign. Enter your details below and download our checklist today to start maximizing the return on investment for your future marketing campaigns!
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