In a nutshell, inbound marketing uses a ‘pull’ approach to attract potential customers, when they are actively searching for products and services.

It rejects the traditional ‘push’ marketing approach of selling to people when they aren’t ready to buy, or may not even want what is being sold. 

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Five things every marketer needs to know about inbound marketing:

  1. Inbound marketing is advanced and effective, but relatively simple to put into place.

  1. Inbound marketing is proven to help businesses achieve more, in less time, at less cost – 93% of companies using it experience increased lead generation.

  1. Inbound marketing focuses on ‘pull’ rather than ‘push’ marketing to tap into existing demand.

  1. Inbound marketing can form the backbone of revenue management, creating more leads and more revenue with less effort.

  1. Inbound marketing lets you view and analyse the results of your marketing activity as it’s happening.

Most companies are keen to win more business whilst reducing costs. Inbound marketing allows them to do that by providing a clearer and more transparent strategy for attracting leads and winning new customers.

Why isn’t marketing keeping up with business?

On their own, the old outbound tactics have become far less effective. Key factors include the expansion of the internet, the resulting shift in information-seeking and buying behaviour and to recent updates to the search engines:

  • Google has changed: The world’s most powerful search engine has raised the game for businesses everywhere. Updates like PANDA mean that high quality content is essential.

  • Google+ is established:The rise of Google+ and the +1 approval rating means that it’s even more important to produce good content and be proactive on social networks. +1s, Likes, Follows and Shares now all play a part in search engine rankings.

  • The old SEO tricks just won’t work: The changes implemented by Google mean that credibility – ranking – relies on great content, SEO expertise and strategic inbound marketing approaches.

  • Customers are increasingly online: The behaviour of your potential customers is changing more and more. 78% of internet users conduct product research online. With inbound marketing, you can lead the conversation and reap the business rewards.

What do customers really want?

None of us likes to be sold to. We like to feel that we have control over the decisions we make and about what we buy.

It’s no surprise that with the growth of the internet, the majority of internet users conduct extensive online research when they’re looking for a product or service.

Applying inbound marketing in a strategic way leads to:

  • Improved reach.

  • Heightened awareness.

  • More visitors to your website.

  • Higher-quality leads.

  • Wider sales pipeline.

  • Increased revenue.

  • Lower costs.

Instead of expending energy and resources trying to sell to people uninterested in your product or service, inbound marketing makes it easy for the interested prospects to find you, learn from you and buy from you.

Read more:

What exactly is inbound marketing? Part two: The nuts and bolts.