Most of us are familiar with outbound marketing. That’s when we would go out and find customers. This could be anything from knocking on doors to making phone calls. This worked until about the 1990s, but then the Internet took over and everything changed.
Now, in order to get buyers interested in a product or service, the way to go is with inbound marketing. Here’s the big diff… the customer comes to you, no more knocking on doors.
A good working definition of inbound marketing is the following:
Inbound marketing is based on the sharing of quality, credible, and pertinent information, that generates traffic to a company’s website and, along with it, interest in its products and services… leading to sales.
Goals of an Inbound Marketing Strategy
The goals of an inbound marketing program would include such things as the following:
Increased web traffic. Every marketer wants increased web traffic and an effective inbound marketing program can make it happen.
Brand awareness. This is especially true when end-customers read an article published in a quality B2B publication. They learn who you are and what your company is all about.
More leads. Visitors who take the time to read and understand the educational content on your site – provided by content marketing strategies – develop a connection with your company, making them more comfortable to make a purchasing decision.
Here come the sales. With new leads comes trust, followed by sales.
Cost savings. Inbound marketing is far less costly than traditional advertising. Further, as leads come in with this strategy – resulting in more sales – it may be time to reevaluate the need for other, more costly marketing programs.
Customer retention. One of the most valuable benefits of an effective inbound marketing program is that it can keep current customers loyal and “emotionally” connected to your company. The goal of an inbound marketing program is for end-customers to come back and make purchases over and over again.
