Inbound Marketing has seen a huge rise in popularity over the last decade, with businesses across the world integrating inbound methodologies into their marketing strategies. This is no surprise, as Inbound Marketing has some clear and distinctive advantages over traditional outbound marketing practices. So what are the benefits of Inbound Marketing?
1). Inbound Marketing can get you more leads and better qualified leads
Traditional marketing is about targeting as many people as possible, on the basis that a small percentage may be converted into customers. This mass-marketing approach may work if you have a huge budget and can afford to have a low conversion rate, but for most businesses a targeted approach makes much more sense.
With Inbound Marketing you are targeting people who are already interested in your message. By defining who these people are, identifying their pain points, and reaching out to them with a solution, they are much more likely to engage positively with your brand. This immediately places your relationship on a positive footing and sets you in good stead to further nurture the relationship. You can then provide them with individually tailored content, assistance and advise to ease them along in their journey from lead to buyer.
2). Inbound Marketing can increase sales and business revenue
Inbound Marketing is not only proven to increase qualified leads, but also increases the chances of converting those leads into sales. By targeting highly qualified leads and nurturing them throughout the buyer’s journey, they are more likely to convert from lead to customer. In addition to this, if you provide them with a positive experience, they are much more likely to spread the word about your brand.
Inbound Marketing is an ongoing, long-term process, which can have a cumulative effect on your business growth. The more qualified leads you reach with your campaigns, the more customers you acquire, and the more people they will tell about your business. This snowball effect is one of the main reasons why Inbound Marketing is so effective as a long-term strategy for business growth.
3). Inbound Marketing will help to build trust in your brand
The inbound methodology is to attract, engage and delight your customers and this is fundamental in order to build positive brand awareness for your business. The secret is to develop strong long-term relationships with your target audience, which can be developed over time. by identifying a niche who are already interested in what you are offering, you can provide them with relevant and timely content which will set your business up as a trusted expert within your market.
Whatever stage your audience is at in the buyer journey, a good Inbound Marketing strategy will provide them with the right information at the right time, helping them to proceed through their journey. Your job is not to lay on the hard sell, but instead to nurture them by providing help and assistance in the form of content offers, resources and advice. This approach is proven to enhance positive brand awareness, which in turn will increase word of mouth marketing leading to more qualified leads and more sales.
4). Inbound Marketing will save you money and increase your ROI
Inbound Marketing is proven to cost far less than outbound methods. TV adverts, telesales, magazine ads, all cost a pretty penny with the aim of reaching as large an audience as possible. Costs associated with these methods can quickly spiral out of control, with no guarantee of generating the necessary leads and sales. In comparison, Inbound Marketing tactics can cost very little to implement. Writing content and promoting on social media are effective inbound methods which involve time, effort and plenty of research, but will not break the bank. Paid search can help get your message out to the right people and is fairly cost effective, providing your campaigns are managed correctly.
On average inbound leads cost 61% less than outbound leads, and this drops to 80% after 5 months of continuous Inbound Marketing. This significant cost saving will be reflected in your ROI. As your cost per lead decreases, the value and profit on each sale will increase.
5). You can precisely measure your Inbound Marketing campaigns
Inbound Marketing is a data-driven process. Creation of your buyer personas is based on data. decisions on which blogs to write and content offers to create are based on data. Decisions on which leads to follow up and which not to are based on data. All your campaign decisions within the Inbound Marketing process are based on live user data and the decisions which aren’t (hypotheses and estimates) will be fully tested using live data.
The metrics available to Inbound Marketers is fundamental to the success of a campaign. They enable you to find out if a strategy is working, if a landing page needs tweaking, or if a bottleneck within a form needs removing. These valuable metrics will allow your business to make crucial decisions in real time.
In summary Inbound Marketing is a modern marketing approach, for the modern buyer. Today’s buyers do not want to be told what to buy and when, they want to make informed decisions themselves. Our job, as marketers, is to help buyers make these informed decisions. Inbound Marketing can be implemented by any business large or small to improve brand awareness, improve lead generation and increase sales. To find out more about Inbound Marketing, speak to our team for a friendly chat!
