Why is Inbound Marketing better?

Market with a magnet, not a shotgun.

“Instead of outdated, interruptive marketing methods like buying ads, buying email lists, or cold calling, inbound marketing focuses on earning trust using educational content that draws prospects and consumers toward your website where they can learn more about what you sell on their own terms.”  - HubSpot
In a time where interest is earned not bought, Inbound Marketing revolves around building solid trust with a clever content strategy designed to attract, engage and delight prospects - all while having a plan in place to capture their contact information and nurture them more efficiently.

Think 'assets for info.'

What are the Advantages of Inbound Marketing?

1. More Qualified Leads

Inbound Marketing instils trust by adding value for prospects - and trust results in leads.

Nowadays, it's easy to compare brands with a quick Google search. We trust our own research more than a little banner ad below a website's navigation bar, right?

This is why your constant investment into the creation and syndication of relevant, gripping, SEO-optimised content is so valuable. Be relevant. Be seen. Be trusted.

Keep in mind that in order to achieve more leads using Inbound Marketing philosophies, different levels of content will need to be created. And for the sake of brevity, here are the 2 main ones:

i) Free, helpful content focused on brand awareness and driving traffic to your website. Provide enough insight to get prospects hungry for more (often in the form of blogs or video series shared organically on social media).

ii) Content assets: These are gated (information for access) and are usually longer-form, thought leadership pieces, infographics or checklists. Designed for various stages of a sales funnel (like top-of-funnel or bottom-of-funnel) these assets automatically collect data (the contact details of market qualified & sales qualified leads.)

2. ROI Focus Delivers Measurable Results

As referred to above, a solid Inbound Marketing strategy is bolstered by digital tracking of landing pages and conversions. There's no point to creating excellent, relevant content when there's no plan to make sure it gets seen, heard and acted upon.

A Market Qualified Lead (MQL) refers to a prospect who has digested some helpful, freely available content which led them to a content asset, given in exchange for contact information. A Sales Qualified Lead (SQL) refers to a prospect who has given their contact information, been vetted & moved through the 'consideration' phase into the 'decision' phase - making them ready to be converted directly with a salesperson. There's actually a whole automated lead-nurturing process transforming MQL's to SQL's - but that's more to do with how effective the CRM you or your agency choose is.

Inbound Marketing tactics benefit massively from modern Customer Relationship Management (CRM) practices and software platforms. We use HubSpot because it's so user-friendly but the best one for your brand will depend on your business. For more info on CRM's - there's plenty of relevant content on our blog page.

3. Decrease sales costs

Prospecting is a very expensive way to move prospective buyers from an awareness stage to a decision-making stage. In turn, Inbound Marketing strategies are cost-efficient and become more and more affordable over time. Using an effective Inbound Marketing strategy, prospects are attracted into the sales funnel without the need for your sales team 'hunting them down'. This allows your sales team to focus on the best use of their time - nurturing and closing.

4. Content assets support the direct sales process 

Content assets created with the primary purpose of online conversion (data capture) are often very useful for direct sales applications too. Once salespeople are armed with professional, easy-to-digest content pieces on various relevant topics - they can use them to make a better impression and convert more leads directly.

5. Improving business culture & staff morale

Inbound Marketing is conducive to teamwork & collaboration and shifting your marketing from a 'push' to a 'pull' approach makes for a more inspiring work environment.

Traditional forms of marketing don't offer many opportunities for the sales team to engage in the production and execution of lead-generating marketing ideas. However, the Inbound Marketing philosophy calls for closer collaboration. Salespeople know what needs to be said, and marketers know how to say it. Inbound Marketing converges these two skill sets under a unified philosophy, all while clarifying and resolving issues of accountability.

6. Sustainable long-term growth

Continuously embracing Inbound Marketing philosophies means your website remains SEO optimised and your brand stays recent and easily accessible.

The more visible your brand, the more sharing on social media and via word-of-mouth advertising, the greater the business growth.

Wrapping-up

If Inbound Marketing intrigues you, we can assure you that there is an inbound marketing content strategy waiting to work wonders for your brand. For a more practical understanding of Inbound Marketing, download our free Executive Guide below.