Inbound Marketing

What is inbound marketing?

Inbound marketing, in simple terms, is the process of helping potential customers find your company. This often happens even before the customer is ready to buy, but making early contact can turn into brand preference and, eventually, leads and revenue.

The difference between inbound and outbound marketing

Inbound marketing is a strategy that uses many marketing disciplines — content marketing, blogs, events, search engine optimisation (SEO), social media and more — to build brand awareness and attract new business. While outbound marketing chases customers, inbound marketing focuses on visibility so potential buyers come to you.

Instead of "renting attention", companies running inbound marketing focus on new methods aimed at building awareness, developing relationships and generating leads.

What type of content can you create in inbound marketing?

The content inbound marketing produces is educational, entertaining and welcomed by consumers. Done properly, inbound marketing can deliver dramatically better results than traditional marketing's open invitation to engage.

When consumers discover your company this way, it has a stronger influence on their future buying decisions and how they feel about your brand overall. The best part? Inbound marketing is built on fully organic results, which means it relies on brains more than budget.

Inbound marketing has the power to put customers in the driver's seat, connecting you with people who are genuinely interested in what you have to say. Beyond lead conversion and customer retention, inbound marketing can do wonders for social media engagement, brand awareness and SEO efforts.

What you get from inbound marketing

A solid inbound marketing programme lets customers engage with your brand at any time. That means you can generate qualified leads for much less than traditional marketing costs. As data keeps growing, the abundance of information and the scarcity of attention will only keep rising.

The buyer has every piece of information they need to make a purchase decision at their fingertips, anywhere, any time. Detailed specs, pricing and product and service reviews are always within reach — not to mention the impact of social media on information sharing. To win in this shifting landscape, visibility through inbound marketing is key.

Inbound marketing is powerful because it has the ability to give the searcher or consumer exactly the answers they're looking for at the precise moment they need them. That builds trust, reputation and authority in any niche where this type of marketing is practised.