Traditional Marketing Sucks
The age-old marketing model isn't working anymore. Traditional marketing was all about how "reach" and "frequency" were the keys to success.
This "outbound marketing" is interruption-based and largely focused on methods such as cold calls, print ads, direct mail, attending tradeshows, etc.
The idea behind outbound techniques is to tell as many people as possible as many times as possible about your products and services and they would eventually buy from you; to get in front of cold leads and warm them up to the point where they would try your product or service.
Outbound marketing is largely a numbers game - you know you have to get in front of a certain number of people on average before one of them will show interest and identify them self as a prospect. Traditional marketing sucks. It's inefficient and expensive and unfortunately, it just isn't working anymore.
Recent studies have shown that consumers are exposed to 3,000 advertisements a day. We're so numb to this constant bombardment that old outbound marketing is no longer effective. Yet marketers are still wasting time trying to get in contact with tons of people who may have no interest in their offerings.
So what’s the secret?
Stop interrupting what people are interested in and BE what people are interested in!
The Inbound Marketing Strategy
Inbound Marketing is the practice of bringing warm, qualified leads into your sales funnel rather than reaching outward to cold, questionable targets. This strategy is becoming more popular as marketers look for more efficient and more affordable ways to acquire new leads.
Some of the most popular Inbound Marketing techniques include blogging, interacting on social media, search engine optimization, and creating eBooks, white papers, webinars and interactive online tools.
All of these inbound methods pre-qualify the leads that discover your company. It’s permission-based marketing so you can be sure that your message is greeting welcoming ears rather than random suspects and prospects.
It’s the difference between being a welcomed guest versus an annoying pest.
By attracting warm leads to you, you save time and money as inbound marketing costs on average 62% less than traditional outbound strategies.
The most important part of a successful inbound marketing strategy is creating great content that will bring people into your sales funnel. To do that effectively, you have to have a website that is optimized to convert traffic into leads once they land on your page and an email system that can nurture them and stay front-of-mind with them until they are ready to make a purchase.
One of the core components of effective inbound marketing is keeping an updated blog. Companies that blog get 55% more website visitors than companies that don’t. By regularly creating great content, you'll also increase your ranking in organic search results, create linkable content, and educate your audience.
All of these outcomes will help you bring in warm leads that have been pre-qualified through a Google search for relevant keyword terms or by reading similar content that links to your content. New content also gives you the opportunity to bring your leads back to your site over and over again.
By sticking with these Inbound Marketing strategies, you'll continually bring in new leads and grow in authority, however, it won't happen overnight. While Inbound Marketing will save you money, it does require a commitment to the process and some patience.
You won't be the top Google result for your desired keyword terms overnight, but by making a long-term commitment to inbound marketing you will see results.
What's your opinion on traditional marketing versus inbound marketing? Let us know in the comments!
Photo credits: PUG
