Did you know that a whopping 94% of the links clicked on by search users are organic rather than paid? Today’s consumers know their rights, and they don’t like to be pushed by outbound marketing. In fact, 86% of people skip through television commercials, and 84% of 25 to 34-year-olds have clicked out of a website because of an “irrelevant or intrusive ad.” With traditional outbound marketing strategies growing less effective every year, inbound marketing has become the most effective method for capturing new business. As famous marketing guru Guy Kawasaki likes to say, “If you have more money than brains, you should focus on outbound marketing. If you have more brains than money, you should focus on inbound marketing.”
Just to recap, inbound marketing involves all promotion of your company and can take the form of blogs, podcasts, videos, eBooks, newsletters, whitepapers, SEO, social media marketing, content marketing, and more. It draws visitors to your company through superior content and reputation, rather than targeting prospects and pushing information about the company onto them through outbound strategies such as buying attention, cold-calling, direct paper mail, radio, TV advertisements, sales flyers, spam, or telemarketing. Inbound marketing shouldn’t replace traditional outbound advertisement, but it should certainly be differentiated and given at least equal priority in your marketing plan.
Still not convinced? Consider the fact that B2B buyers are typically 57%-70% through their buying research before making first contact with a seller. Gone is the luxury of being able to directly shape the customer’s experience of your brand from start to finish because consumers today do much of their own research online. This is where strong inbound marketing will make your company stand out. Clear and reputable website content will do far more to make a customer doing a comparative analysis come to you than a paid advertisement. The numbers really do back this up. For example, B2B companies that blog even one or two times per month generate 70% more leads than companies without blogs. Best of all, inbound marketing ultimately costs 62% less per lead than traditional outbound marketing. By emphasizing the inbound approach in your marketing plan, you can reach the right customers in the right way while also saving money.