For years I’ve talked about transitioning in tech from Sales through Product Management and ultimately to Outbound Marketing. But lately, I’ve been talking about inbound marketing and am frequently met with puzzled looks. People inquire, “What is inbound marketing?”
In fact, the term “inbound marketing” has been around at least since 2007. The earliest mention I can find is in a January 2007 Forrester Report, How Technology Enables Inbound Marketing by Suresh Vittal. It spoke of using interaction management software and real-time analytics and was technology-focused.
Later in 2007 a company called HubSpot (founded in 2006) began using the term Inbound Marketing and branded their product Inbound Marketing Software. They pointed out how customer buying habits had changed. It was time, they said, for companies to begin “getting found” by potential buyers when they are already looking at products or services in your industry. In the past businesses began shopping by visiting trade shows; now it starts on Google.
A Venn diagram in a post from HubSpot blogger, Rick Burnes, really brought the concept to life for me. It shows how three of today’s familiar marketing techniques overlap and interact to create an integrated inbound marketing approach:
- Content marketing – Content is the collection of interesting and relevant information that attracts potential customers to your site or to your business.
- Search engine optimization – SEO makes it easier for buyers to find your content.
- Social media marketing – Use of social networks (SMM) extends the reach, spreads and amplifies the impact of your content.
Rather than finding customers as traditional outbound marketing has done, inbound marketing helps customers find you. You need not interrupt your target customers to get their attention. They’ll be looking for you when they’re considering a purchase, although they may not even know who you are yet when they start looking.
When they search (SEO) on a search engine or on their social network using phrases you use to label your content (content marketing), you’ll be findable. Social networks (SMM) serve to spread and amplify the message to a broader audience.
Inbound marketing uses the magnet approach (pull) vs. the bullhorn approach (push) of traditional outbound marketing. The intent is different, and so is the result. It’s a different way of growing demand.
For more on inbound marketing and how to use different types of content to reach potential buyers at different stages of the buying cycle, see Inbound Marketing: Just Another Marketing Buzz Phrase? in the KickStart Accelerator.
Why inbound marketing?
- Value – Inbound marketing is less costly. Freely placed content can be as attractive and successful as Pay-Per-Click, and when found organically via search engines is less expensive. The 2010 HubSpot survey reports that inbound marketing is 60% less expensive per lead than outbound marketing.
- Effectiveness – Outbound marketing messages are becoming less effective because, a) buyers are bombarded by a high volume of messages each day and either blocking them or turned off by them, and b) people trust social sources more than paid sources of product information.
- Self-qualifying – Rather than marketing trying to guess who might become a customer, potential buyers identify themselves. Inbound marketing’s messages reach prospects at the time when they are considering a purchase and are most receptive to marketing messages.
Beyond inbound marketing
Social media is not just for marketers. Other areas where your business should be using social media are:
- PR – Remember, there are two sides to social media — what you say about your business and what others say about your business. Reputation management belongs in PR (as in Public Relations!). Someone should be monitoring and responding to what various communities are saying about your organization, positive and negative. The rest of the world pays attention to how companies react to customer complaints that surface in social media.
- Customer service – A number of companies (notably Comcast, with @ComcastCares on Twitter) are putting social media to good use in their Customer Service operations.
Involve other functions besides Marketing in your company’s larger perspective on social media. Establish a Social Media Council in your organization that represents all the other functions that touch customers and the public, and make sure your company’s message and policies are reflected throughout their conversations on social media.
And finally…
…no, I do not work for HubSpot. I just believe their approach is very much to the point. The individual components of inbound marketing are just that — components. Together they are far more powerful than their sum.