What is inbound marketing?
Inbound marketing includes all marketing activities that you direct towards attracting potential clients. So, the goal is for the consumer to come to you on his own and to introduce him to the product or service you provide in an engaging, educative, and inspiring way.
Just some of the examples of inbound marketing that are most often applied today are:
- using websites and social networks,
- writing blog posts,
- organizing webinars,
- recording podcasts or some shorter videos
- creating e-books and case studies.
As you can see, the goal of inbound marketing is precisely to share value with potential clients through quality content that encourages action.
The difference between inbound and outbound marketing
The differences - are pronounced, but the goal is the same - sales.
Outbound marketing represents traditional advertising through TV commercials, posters, daily newspapers, brochures, flyers, billboards, catalogs...
In outbound marketing attention of consumers is bought by imposing a specific message. In inbound marketing, consumers come to you themselves ( by googling).
According to research, businesses that invest in inbound marketing manage to attract more potential clients than those that exclusively use outbound.
Due to this fact, over time, people began to ignore outbound advertising and turn only to inbound. The two main reasons for this are - innovations in technology and the transition to a new consumer base.
Everything has changed nowadays as a result of the development of the Internet. Outbound marketing has started to come across as aggressive, which is one of the reasons it has lost some of its effectiveness in the market.
So, the goal of this post is not to completely ignore outbound marketing if you use it. But to also adopt inbound, which will boost sales and bring them to a greater level.
The importance of inbound marketing
To best understand the advantages of this form of marketing, we have singled out three reasons why you should use it.
The first is efficiency which gives measurable results. The fact is that today inbound marketing is more effective, and people no longer buy solely under the influence of advertisements, billboards, or brochures.
Also, a significant advantage is that through inbound marketing, you can measure the results - on a weekly, monthly, or yearly basis. Based on that, you can assess what people react to the most, what topics they are interested in, etc.
Second, it provides additional value. It is not an ordinary advertisement that is boring, that you look to bypass, and whose goal is only to sell.
With the content you create, you provide value that will make someone contact you. Before creating a marketing strategy, it is essential to get to know the target group well and research the channels through which you will send the message (Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Website, Newsletter).
And thirdly - two-way communication. When compared to outbound, it is a significant advantage for you. People simply like communication, they like to be listened to, they like to feel the freedom to contact you, ask a question...
For Example:
If you have a hair salon and want to stand out - through social networks, through communication, and interaction with people, you can find out what they are most interested in when it comes to hair care.
By creating content that will specifically be useful to them, you can stand out compared to the competition.
The success of inbound marketing also depends on good content optimization (SEO).
Considering that each of us searches for information about a topic on the Internet daily, this is exactly why many businesses decide to invest money to be first on Google, rather than in advertisements and flyers.
Inbound marketing examples
In the following, we share with you two good examples from practice for the implementation of inbound marketing.
Pad Split
It is an agency for renting apartments whose center is in Atlanta. What they stand out for is the personalization of conversations with consumers via the site.
They only concluded that people liked it and that sharing their data for the positive recommendation—which was completely based on their request—was not a problem.
What does it look like in a concrete example?
After customers share information about renting an apartment, such as the neighborhood preference, the number of floors, the square footage, etc.
Based on these criteria, they receive a personalized recommendation via live chat. They promote their activities and services via Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and a blog.
Chewy
Chewy is an American site that sells pet food and other pet-related products. Their advantage today is reflected in good optimization, so if you type pet food or organic pet food, the first site that will appear is Chewy.
In addition, they made the website a specialized version of Amazon. In addition to the products they offer, they have added: photos, video materials, well-chosen keywords, reviews, special prices, and most importantly, descriptions of products that provide additional value to consumers.
With the help of this, they managed to be a highly positioned brand for the sale of pet products.
Conclusion
To conclude this story, we will mention once again that our goal is not for you to ignore outbound marketing in your business. Already see the importance of inbound marketing and pay equal attention to it in your marketing strategy.
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