Inbound Marketing - Do or Die?

Written by Mike Broomfield | 20/03/15 14:03
Gone are the days of bombarding prospects with untargeted emails, print and banner ads.  Today’s buyers do not want to be interrupted.  They will do
research on companies and solutions online and without any contact with your sales team.   To succeed in this ever changing landscape and grow your business, how you market to potential buyers must change.

This is where inbound marketing comes in - it focuses on lead generation through creating quality content that aligns with potential buyers’ interests, distributing that content through various online channels, such as blogs and social media - thereby pulling people towards your company.

The beauty of inbound is because the offers are relevant, the leads that are generated are more targeted. When prospects feel as though your company is an expert in the industry, or has something worthwhile to offer, they see you as someone who wants to help, rather than a salesman that just wants to make a sale.

Here are 4 key reasons why inbound is crucial for a more successful business:

1. LEVERAGE EXISTING DEMAND

Creating content that is tailored to engage the buyer at each stage of the sales process, and making this available in the places your audience is searching, leverages existing demand. Making use of a pull, not push, approach means you can draw in those already interested in your product. 

2. BUILD TRUST TO CONVERT MORE LEADS

Not only can high-quality content give you quick wins in terms of increased traffic to your site, but over time it will help establish you as a thought-leader in your industry. Using blogs, white-papers, case studies and testimonials will help you develop a strong online presence and a brand that people trust. 

A content driven social media strategy will help you strike a balance between what people are talking about in your sector and the possible challenges they face and positioning your company as thought leaders.  Leverage social media so that your fans tell your story and share your content to drive more people to your website and increase leads. 

3. REAL TIME MEASUREMENT AND IMPROVED EFFICIENCY

If you are not measuring and analysing the results of your marketing efforts then how do you know how effective your marketing actually is? The inbound approach draws leads from social media, email, search, and blogs and with proper analytics in place you can view and analyse the results in real time and measure the effectiveness by channel see exactly which pieces of content, on which sites, are performing well and bringing you traffic. You can become ever-more efficient by investing more time and resources in what is working for you and cutting out what isn’t.

4. ACHIEVE MORE, SPEND LESS

According to HubSpot, inbound marketing techniques cost 61% less than outbound methods.  So inbound marketing is providing organisations with more leads than traditional outbound methods and for less.  When more demands are being made of your business and your resources being stretched in many directions, you can achieve more with less if you make inbound the backbone of your marketing strategy.

These are just a few of the many reasons inbound marketing is an ideal approach to engage with your customers and align your business with the way their customers behave online.

Want to learn how to generate more sales ready leads for your company? Request our free Inbound Marketing audit.