What Is Inbound Marketing?
Foundational Concepts
In order to be a successful internet marketer you have to understand how the marketing game has changed in order to formulate the best game plan moving forward.
You have probably heard or read about the term “Inbound Marketing”. What exactly is inbound marketing and how does it differ from traditional or outbound marketing?
With inbound marketing the focus is on making your company or brand easy to find by potential customers.
Outbound marketing (traditional marketing) companies focus on finding customers. The techniques they use are generally poorly targeted and they are intrusive to people. Outbound marketing efforts include the use of cold-calling, print advertising, T.V. advertising, junk mail, spam and trade shows.
Technology today makes these techniques less effective and more expensive. With caller ID blocks, increased telemarketing restrictions, cold calls and TiVo T.V. advertising and telemarketing are less effective. Spam filters block mass emails and tools like RSS are making print and display advertising less effective.
It’s still possible to get a message out using traditional marketing channels, but it costs more. There has been a significant shift in power from outbound advertising to consumer power via social media and the internet. People now go to the internet first to find the companies they wish to do business with because they can do it at whatever hour of the day or night is convenient, they can find and read about other consumer experiences with potential suppliers, they can do all of the research and ordering online and in private if they choose to. Consumers are no longer bound to brick and mortar stores or business hours. This has significantly changed the face of advertising and marketing.
Inbound marketing has several advantages. One of the most important is the fact that it is non-intrusive. An example- Now consumers can choose to view a video rather than being forced to watch a television ad. This gives the consumer total control of what they decide is important to them. Instead of buying display ads in print publications inbound marketers can create their own blog or email newsletters that people subscribe to and look forward to reading. In place of cold calling inbound marketers create in depth, relevant and useful content and tools so that people will call them to ask for more information. So, now companies have customers coming to them instead of chasing after customers.
Instead of broadcasting a message into a crowd over and over again hoping it will reach those people who are likely to purchase from them inbound marketers benefit from attracting pre- qualified, highly targeted customers to their business.
The reality is that no business can survive on outbound marketing alone. In today’s market environment every marketing plan must include inbound marketing as a significant segment of their overall marketing plan.
About the Author
Provided by Internet Marketing Consultant , Jeff Beale – Mr. Marketology. More marketing advice at http://www.mrmarketology.com/