Inbound marketing is the practice of bringing customers to your business through the use of quality, targeted content. With inbound marketing, customers find you through blogs, search engines, and social media. You provide value at every stage of the buying process and develop relationships with your customers.
Traditionally, marketing has been based on sales pitches and slogans. You tell a customer the benefits of your product or service. The customer decides to buy it, and if they liked it you might be lucky enough for them to buy it again. That was it. For the most part there was no further relationship. This is called outbound marketing, and it is still widely used today. It includes TV ads, radio commercials, direct mail, email blasts, etc. It is a way of marketing with interruptions and vying for people’s attention in order to win them over to your brand. Essentially you’re shouting at anyone that will listen.
Then came the early 2000’s, and BOOM! The Internet introduced us to a whole new way of interacting with each other, and brands started harnessing this power to reach us in new ways. Marketers realized the importance of quality content and building authentic relationships with their customers. Now you might be thinking, “I don’t know if we do that,” but for the most part businesses are already using some inbound marketing whether they realize it or not. They’re doing this through writing blog posts, managing social media pages, sending targeted emails to subscribers, creating infographics, and developing content that addresses the needs and the pain points of their customers. And if you aren’t doing this, you might want to start, and I’ll tell you why.
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44% of direct mail is thrown out without even being opened.*
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82% of Television viewers fast forward through the ads.**
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84% of 25–35 year-olds are likely to click off a website with excessive advertising***
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91% unsubscribe to emails***
Not only are people demanding more from the brands they use, but they expect it! So, is inbound marketing right for your business? Well, let’s take a look. Here are few things to consider:
- Do you have expert knowledge in your field?
- Are you looking to reach new customers?
- Are you interested in creating quality content for your customers, and investing the time and money it takes to develop it?
- Are you sick of using media that does not garnish trackable results?
If you answered yes to any of those questions it might be time for you to start using inbound marketing in your business. And you don’t have to do it alone! I know that digital marketing, content creation, and advanced targeting techniques can be illusive and a little scary, but Hookd can help. I’ll leave you with just a few more number from small businesses (just like you) that have switched from traditional marketing campaigns and moved their marketing budgets to content driven, digital campaigns focused on inbound marketing.
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26% open rate on monthly email newsletters for a client whose industry averages only 11%
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Nearly 3,000 views of a customer’s blog post in two months
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One client went from averaging 600 link clicks on Facebook ads per month to over 3,400 link clicks in one month of targeted Facebook ads sending customers directly into their online store
*https://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/03/16/reducing-the-junk-mail-footprint/
**https://www.theguardian.com/media/2010/aug/24/tv-advertising