{inbound marketing}Apr
23
2012
{Outbound marketing is the traditional way of doing marketing. This is textbook marketing that people learn from school. In this method of marketing, the marketer seeks out the potential customers. To do this, he uses traditional methods such as giving out flyers, making cold calls, posting advertisements in the newspaper, TV advertisements, public relations, trade shows, email marketing, text marketing and radio advertisements.
These are but some of the ways that an outbound marketer attracts the customer’s attention. The aim is to create brand awareness and brand recognition on the client base. The method is more proactive. It advertises to people who do not necessarily seek for the brand.
The result of this kind of marketing is usually quick. Since the business is not waiting for the customer to find them, they are taking steps to locate their clients. This means quick boost of sales for the company. On the downside though, not all companies can afford to post ads on the local dailies or promote their products on TV commercials. The cost of promoting through outbound marketing means can be prohibitive depending on the methods chosen. But the rewards can be commercially satisfying, if done right.
Inbound Marketing for the Internet
Inbound marketing is the new method of marketing brought about by the internet. The thrust of inbound marketing is to get found by potential clients. This means doing marketing efforts that will attract people who seek out the information, products or services they provide.
Inbound marketing is more concerned with the quality of information they are giving out. People who already have the mind set to look for products they are selling will come to their website due to the excellent information and content they are providing.
Inbound marketing levels the playing field. It does not require spending huge amounts of money for advertisements to be found. Marketers do the inbound marketing by blogging, guest posting, search engine optimization, social networking such as Facebook and Twitter and video posting. This method of marketing follows by the rule that ‘content is king.’
Optimized Inbound Marketing
A website that is properly optimized for search engines and contains informative and helpful content will most likely get inbound traffic from visitors seeking the information it provides. Visitors will frequently visit a site that provides them value. For instance, a website that helps people find the best travel deals will attract a huge number of visitors compared to a site that aggressively promotes a product.
As more traffic comes in, the ranking of the website will also go up. This means the site will be on the first page of the search engine results. When this happens, more and more people will be able to visit the site. This method of marketing is less expensive compared to outbound marketing. However, it might take a while to build a website from scratch and optimize it so visitors can find it. Also, maintaining a blog or website requires a huge amount of time. To be able to get excellent results in marketing, the best method to adopt is to do both outbound and inbound marketing at the same time.
Apr
19
2012At 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.