How Can Inbound Marketing Help Your Business?

Most of us are more familiar with?outbound marketing?than?inbound marketing. Outbound marketing is when we go out and find customers. This could be anything from knocking on doors to making phone calls. This worked and worked very well for decades. But around and about the 1990s, as the Internet took over, everything changed.

The way to go is with inbound marketing to get buyers interested in a product or service. Here's the big diff… the customer comes to you, no more knocking on doors.

A good working definition of inbound marketing is the following:

Inbound marketing is based on sharing quality, credible, and pertinent information, generating traffic to a company's website and, along with it, interest in its products and services… leading to sales.

What Does an Inbound Marketing Strategy Accomplish?

The goals of an inbound marketing program would include such things as the following:

Increases Web Traffic.?

Every marketer wants increased web traffic, and an effective inbound marketing program can make it happen.

Improves Brand awareness.?

This is especially true when end customers read an article in a quality B2B publication. They learn who you are and what your company is all about.

Produces More Leads.?

Visitors who take the time to read and understand the educational content on your site or on LinkedIn - provided by content marketing strategies develop a connection with your company, making them more comfortable purchasing from your company.

?Some of its other benefits include the following:

Generates More Sales. With new leads comes trust; with trust comes sales.

Is Cost Effective.?Inbound marketing is far less costly than traditional advertising. Further, as leads come in with this strategy - resulting in more sales – many brands reevaluate the need for other, more expensive marketing programs.

Improves Customer Retention.?One of the most valuable benefits of an effective inbound marketing program is that it can keep current customers loyal and "emotionally" connected to your company. An inbound marketing program aims for end customers to return and make purchases repeatedly.

It's Where It's At. I have published articles in major trade publications for over twenty-five years, promoting my client's products and services. When I started in the late 1990s, this was the most effective way to reach end customers.

However, as social media entered the picture, published articles and publications in general have lost their impact. Social media, especially LinkedIn for B2B organizations, is now the way to go.

Robert Kravitz is president of?AlturaSolutions , which provides communications strategies for B2B industries. He can be reached at:?[email protected]