What is Inbound Marketing?

Once upon a time, a business could only really reach customers by pushing out its sales message. To do this, the business would be forced to resort to expensive and interruptive means of getting themselves in front of their target, such as email shots to purchased lists, cold calling, advertising, telemarketing and trade shows. These techniques encapsulate outbound marketing. Essentially, the bigger your budget, the more people you can interrupt, the greater the success of your campaign.

The internet has radically changed all this. Businesses still pursue outbound marketing strategies, but given that the average human is subjected to around 2000 outbound marketing interruptions every day, the potency and effectiveness of those strategies is considerably diminished. What’s more, we now have increasingly creative ways of avoiding those interruptions, such as spam filters, caller ID and digital video advert skipping.

Now, a business needs to practice inbound marketing. Instead of pushing out a message, inbound marketing focuses on getting found by customers, of pulling them in. It involves a mix of search engine optimisation, social media, blogging and content creation with the aim of building an online presence that delivers qualified traffic to a business’s site. It allows a business to demonstrate its expertise before any kind of actual contact has been made. It facilitates customer engagement, improves online visibility and rankings, increases lead generation and ultimately improves sales conversion.