What is Inbound Marketing?
Chris Mulvaney is the CEO of CMDS. I make things... I’m the creative entrepreneur with passion for (re)making brands and inventing solutions to problems no one knows exist.
At its core, inbound marketing is an enlightened and 21st century method of acquiring business. Rather than playing a numbers game or the law of averages where huge swaths of time and resources are wasted trying to sell to people who have absolutely no interest in the product by bugging or spamming them enough, it is about becoming available and of service to those one wishes to do business with.
For example, if someone writes an eBook, polishes it up, edits and formats it and then sets up a dedicated webpage to promote that digital product they can try outbound marketing techniques like spamming people’s e-mails, forums, chat-rooms, and whatever else shooting for that enormous number of views or clicks required to make a few sales.
Social Networks and Inbound Marketing
Or they could take advantage of social networks and social media like blogging and become of use to the genre of readers the book is targeted towards. Of course within the blog page will be links leading to the eBook which people can click on. The chances are going to be much higher to make a sale because everyone checking out the webpage in the first place chose to go there on their own and are already intrigued.
The author could fill the blog with pertinent content of interest to those readers and simultaneously make good use of search engine optimization.
No Hard Sell Marketing
Most consumers are tired to death of hard-sell marketing. It comes at them unannounced along every roadway, Television/Radio commercials, pop-up ads and on and on. Studies show that contemporary minds are shutting off and becoming unresponsive. Instead it is about generating interest through content that brings them in.
Inbound marketing is becoming the preferred method, and the best news is that it is far cheaper than its traditional counterpart.
Inbound Marketing and eBooks
Major eBook retailers didn’t have to push the idea of an eBook down any throats. There were no cold calls involved. All they had to do was provide a service to the innumerable people who were already interested and ready to take advantage of it and they all came flocking.
Blogs are quickly becoming the micro-corporations of the digital world. Inbound marketing goes hand in hand with them. Through content management systems and search engine optimization, with little up front capital anyone can set up their own blog and with dedication become successful without having to ask a single person directly to purchase a single thing. All that is required is time spent engaging in social media, being consistent with content, and recognizing that consumers are no longer going to be passive recipients of mindless marketing messages.
Because Inbound Marketing truly works at reaching a mammoth amount of targeted potential customers, and there is already interest established without a pitch, it is now an essential component that cannot be denied.
The first step is creating a “hub.” Fill it with content and optimize search engine techniques, then provide a free service or valuable information and the sale is already near completion.