Thanks to the internet, the way a company markets a product or service has changed. Consumers are now going online to research brands and products that can help them solve a problem. With this change in consumer behaviour, companies are moving away from outbound marketing are now embracing inbound marketing as a key component of their marketing strategy. While outbound marketing focuses on buying attention (via methods like direct mail, cold calls, flyers, tv advertisements etc.), inbound marketing focuses on earning the attention of customers by creating quality content that attracts potential customers to your company’s products and/or services.
If inbound marketing is a new concept to you, you may be wondering if investing time and resources into inbound marketing is worth it. The simple answer is yes. As a company, we have seen our inbound marketing efforts pay off with increased website traffic & links to our website, increased readership and social sharing of our blog posts, increased awareness of our solutions and services, and a growing social media presence. Recently, I came across an infographic that does a great job of summarizing the impact of inbound marketing activities. Here are a few of the key statistics listed in the infographic:
- Blog – Companies that blog have 97% more links to their website
- SEO – 46% of daily searches are for information on products or services
- Social Media – 72% of business executives said social media helped them with closing business deals
- Public Relations – 275% is the average ROI yielded from online PR campaigns
- Lead Nurturing Emails – 74% of adults prefer email marketing for commercial communication
For companies that are budget conscious, inbound marketing also has another advantage over outbound marketing when it comes to cost. Did you know that the the average cost per lead with inbound marketing is 62% less than outbound marketing? This is a significant number for any company that is trying to watch the bottom line.
Now that you know more about how inbound marketing works, is your company ready to embrace inbound marketing as part of your marketing strategy?
For more information about how inbound marketing works, check out the full version of Grass Roots Marketing’s infographic:
