The Importance of Shifting from an Outbound to Inbound Marketing Strategy

  

Outbound Marketing represents a Technique

Over the last decade, there has been a major shift from outbound marketing to inbound marketing. Often referred to as “interruption marketing,” outbound marketing represents a technique that requires you to get your message across to your audience through aggressive methods, such as direct mail, cold calling, email blasts, banner ads, etc. In contrast, inbound marketing allows you to use a variety of channels, such as content marketing, online videos, and social media, to earn your way into the minds and hearts of your consumers as they voluntarily interact with you, increasing your brand awareness and attracting new business. This paradigm shift in the marketing world makes it important for your business to implement an effective inbound marketing strategy that makes it easier for potential customers to find you.

More and More People Are Ignoring Outbound Marketing: 
Outbound marketing has become more difficult because people resent advertising that disrupts their favorite shows, sporting events, and other programs. You can see from this Demand Metric Infographic that 86% of the people skip TV ads and 46% ignore direct mail. People want to be more in control of the information they receive and when they receive it. Companies that recognize this trend have reallocated marketing dollars away from outbound marketing to blogs, e-books, videos, and other forms of inbound marketing.

Inbound Marketing Helps Generate More Leads:
 Hubspot reports that inbound marketing techniques generate 54 percent more leads than traditional paid methods. Before the Internet, marketers obtained the names of potential buyers and passed them on to the sales team. Typically, the sales staff would have to educate early stage buyers that may not be qualified. Today, buyers have access a broad array of online resources and can conduct their own research about products and services,
including:

• Search Engines
• Case Studies
• White Papers
• Webinars
• Social Media

The success of your organization requires you to have a long-term, strategic lead generation plan to help your target audience find you so that you can build a relationship. Organic search marketing provides one of the most effective strategies for generating leads. An effective SEO strategy consists of executing a number of elements well, including website design, keyword selection, optimization, content marketing, social media, and conversion rate.

Inbound Marketing Costs Less: 
According to this Marketing Profs infographic, content marketing cost 62 percent less than traditional marketing and generates three times as many leads. Content marketing comprises one of the most critical elements of a successful inbound marketing strategy. Fresh useful content improves the probability of keeping visitors on your website and converting them to leads, and hopefully customers, but this requires patience. You will have to focus on a strong and effective long-term approach that improves your brand’s visibility online and helps you build a more lasting bond with your customers. You will need to produce content in multiple forms, with the sole objective of helping your audience.
These distribution channels include:

• Blog posts
• Whitepapers
• Email newsletters
• Social media posts
• eBooks
• Infographics
• Videos, webinars, and podcasts

Remember that your content needs to stand out, educate, inspire, and entertain your audience. In fact, one of the best ways we have found to communicate content marketing is through the use of videos. Here's an example of an explainer video, centered around content marketing, that has helped us educate beyond blog posts for individuals who have more of an interest in the visual content. Inbound Marketing provides a powerful tool that businesses can utilize to empower people and give them the information they are looking for at the right point in the buying cycle. Companies that practice this type of marketing can build strong awareness, trust, and loyalty for their brands.

Chuck Reynolds
Contributor
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