While it’s hard to call inbound marketing a “new” strategy in the advertising playbook, it’s certainly been the most disruptive and unstoppable tactic to enter the digital spectrum in recent years.
Inbound marketing flips the script on traditional, outbound advertising. It’s all about building a brand and creating value to make customers come to you, rather you chasing them.
Data gathered from Hubspot’s State of Inbound Marketing Report found organizations that use inbound marketing tactics are believed to be four times as effective as their outbound counterparts at grabbing and keeping consumer interest. Not too shabby, right?
Because it works.
Inbound strategies involve a new type of outreach, often dubbed “permission” marketing. Rather than spamming users with ads, you deliver the right content at the right time and win their trust. If they decide to take action (e.g. subscribing to your mailing list), you'll have their permission to reach out further. This methodology is far more pleasant for consumers and tends to be less costly than typical outbound outreach.
But it's not just about cost: Inbound strategies reach consumers on their terms through personalized content, demonstrate thought leadership in your industry, and can even help with brand positioning. For online businesses with plenty of knowledge and strapped budgets, there's no better solution than inbound marketing.
Broadly, your goal is to establish an online marketing funnel (using your website as the hub) that draws traffic in, captures their imagination, and makes them want to take action.
The typical sales funnel follows three steps: Awareness, decision, and action. Broad outreach methods will eventually funnel down into a tiny, yet highly targeted, group of leads who are primed for conversion. Make sure these stages are documented and clear to everyone involved in your organization.
The above steps form the bedrock of every quality inbound marketing strategy:
It’s not easy to launch a successful inbound marketing campaign, but the brands that manage it enjoy higher levels of content engagement and a more defensible ROI than those stuck in the dark ages of outbound advertising.