What’s the big deal about inbound marketing? It’s a new tactic for brand promotion, sure. But it seems like there’s always some new promotional tactic being circulated. Is this one really worthwhile? Will it really help you increase your sales? Can’t you just stick to the tried and true methods of traditional marketing? Well, you could. But you’d be missing out on tremendous potential to increase your brand’s visibility and ultimately improve your sales. It’s more than just some flash in the pan marketing tactic. Here are three reasons why inbound marketing matters to your company.
- It doesn’t expire. When you place an ad in a magazine, thousands of people may see it that month. But if you want anyone to see it next month, you’ll have to pay for another ad. And another, and another, as time goes on. But when you put something online, it’s there forever. Your next customer may find your website through the blog you posted yesterday, or through the blog you posted three years ago. Therefore it’s cumulative. The more content you produce, the more visible you are to your potential customers.
- The potential reach is limitless. Outbound marketing is about casting a wide net and hoping that your potential customers are among the many, many people who see it. Inbound marketing is about targeting specific groups—and yet, it still has the potential to reach far more people. Even using specific, targeted keywords, anyone in the world who’s interested in those keywords can search for and find your content. In addition, if they like what you do, they can share your content with their friends and increase your reach even further.
- It has a high ROI. Most of the average company’s marketing budget goes to traditional outbound marketing methods. From TV spots to billboards to magazine ads, you have to pay for everything you post. It can get quite expensive, and it’s hard to gauge for certain if it’s really being effective or not. Inbound marketing, on the other hand, tends to be relatively inexpensive. You might pay a little for professional content creation and a little more for a quality website on which to post it, but the overall cost is much lower. And the results are better. You’re targeting exactly the people who will be interested in your company and giving them exactly what they’re looking for. So you get a significantly higher response than if you’re just sending out general ads. Not only that, but you can measure that response much more accurately, with detailed analytics programs that tell you exactly what’s working in your inbound marketing strategy and what isn’t.
Inbound marketing is the way of the future. It’s the most effective way of not only reaching the right people, but reaching them in such a way that the message resonates with them. It can extend your brand’s reach exponentially. So the only question that remains is, why haven’t you implemented an inbound marketing strategy for your company yet?