A couple of months ago, Zacks reported that Hubspot was starting to make some major changes to its inbound marketing strategy. They talk a lot about how this would affect the company’s profits. But it is also important to think about what factors were driving this decision and how they influenced other businesses.
Inbound marketing is becoming more important than ever for businesses throughout the world. The infographic at the top of this post talks about this.
Businesses need to be proactive about generating customers. However, being proactive doesn’t always mean that you need to constantly pursue leads. You can also create a systemized approach to draw leads to your business. This concept is known as inbound marketing, which is a much more effective approach for generating business, especially in the digital age.
Overview of Inbound Marketing
Inbound marketing is a strategy that relies on drawing leads to your businesses, rather than actively pursuing them. The process is very effective with online marketing.
You can use search engine optimization or pay-per-click advertising to draw new customers to your website. Inbound leads are 61% cheaper and much more likely to convert.
Inbound marketing can take many different forms. Some businesses try to create a landing page to sell goods and services directly through their website. Others will try to encourage their visitors to sign up to a mailing list and gradually groom them into paying customers. The second approach is more time-intensive, but tends to yield a much higher return on their investment. Regardless of the approach, inbound marketing is a highly effective marketing strategy.
Growing Importance of Inbound
There are a variety of reasons inbound marketing is becoming increasingly important. The economic downturn and impacts of globalization have forced businesses to pursue leaner cost structures. Accountability and controls are also highly important. Many businesses are shifting towards inbound marketing, because clear analytics make it much easier to track the effectiveness of campaigns.
However, many businesses still fail to recognize the value of inbound marketing. A poll from DemandGen Reports found that businesses are far more likely to focus on outbound marketing. Outbound marketing is admittedly still important for many businesses, but shouldn’t be the sole focus.
Many business owners acknowledge that inbound marketing is important in general, but erroneously believe that it isn’t as viable in their industry. These businesses may be more likely to invest in inbound after they see valid data showing its effectiveness in their respective industry.
Other business owners are a lot more recognize the need for inbound. For example, weight loss consultants are in businesses where they can’t actively go out and promote their business as easily, because they fear offending potential clients that may be in need of their services. They are also less likely to benefit from word of mouth referrals, because people are tend to be hesitant to admit to their friends and family members that they used a weight loss service.