What is Inbound Marketing?

Inbound Marketing is marketing that focuses on being found by customers.

In traditional marketing (outbound marketing) companies focus on finding customers. They use techniques that are poorly targeted and that interrupt people. They use cold-calling, print advertising, T.V. advertising, junk mail, spam and trade shows.

Inbound Marketers flip outbound marketing on its head.

Instead of interrupting people with television ads, they create videos that potential customers want to see. Instead of buying display ads in print publications, they create their own blog that people subscribe to and look forward to reading. Instead of cold calling, they create useful content and tools so that people call them looking for more information.

Instead of driving their message into a crowd over and over again like a sledgehammer, they attract highly qualified customers to their business like a magnet.

The most successful Inbound Marketing campaigns have three key components:

(1) Content – Content is the substance of any Inbound Marketing campaign. It is the information or tool that attracts potential customers to your site or your business.

(2) Search Engine Optimisation – SEO makes it easier for potential customers to find your content. It is the practice of building your site and inbound links to your site to maximise your ranking in search engines, where most of your customers begin their buying process.

(3) Social Media – Social media amplifies the impact of your content. When your content is distributed across and discussed on networks of personal relationships, it becomes more authentic and nuanced, and is more likely to draw qualified customers to your site.

This model gives your site visitors choice and freedom to choose the amount of interaction they will have with your business.

First they feel as if they organically “discovered” you, your site and your brand, interact with you on their terms and have the option to give or not give you permission to sell and market to them. But most importantly, they retain their right to cancel their permission at any anytime. In this model the marketer passively provides messages to the customer and gives the customer all the power so the customer feels more comfortable in their interaction with the brand.

To find out how inbound marketing can work for your business, contact us by email or call us today on +61 7 3102 3177.

To read more: Inbound Marketing the Next Phase of Marketing on the Web and Permission and Inbound Marketing