What is Inbound Marketing?

Inbound Marketing is a relatively new marketing term, coined in 2006 by an internet marketing company called Hubspot. It was their name for what was already known as Permission Marketing. Permission Marketing was a concept developed by Seth Godin in his 1999 book, "Permission Marketing: Turning Strangers into Friends and Friends into Customers". Seth Godin believed that with the growth of the Internet, there was a new and better way to market to people other than the more traditional methods of Interruption Marketing (similarly, now known as Outbound Marketing).

Definition of Inbound Marketing

Inbound Marketing is about providing useful content to attract people who are currently looking for your products or services. This will then encourage them to contact your business for further information, or better still, a sale. This differs from Outbound (Interruption) Marketing whereby you are advertising to a wide range of people hoping to attract the attention of someone who might be interested.

Inbound Marketing is where you attract people to your business who are currently interested in your products or services.

Another way to look at Inbound Marketing is that the prospect is giving you permission to market to them. Unlike Outbound whereby you are interrupting them with adverts they may not be the slightest bit interested in. Common examples of Inbound Marketing strategies are:

• Search Engine Optimisation
  Having your website found when people are searching for information on a product or service they are interested in.
• Adwords
  Similar to SEO, your website will show when someone searches for related information.
• Social Media Marketing
  Providing answers and useful information to online forums etc. Not to be mistaken with just pushing your products and services whenever you post.
• Blogging
  Creating great content on your area of expertise. Closely related to both SEO and Social Media marketing.
• Email Marketing
  Having email campaigns that people can subscribe to for great information and promotions etc.

Benefits of Inbound Marketing

Some of the main benefits of a good Inbound Marketing strategy for your small business are:

• Good Sales Conversion: As you are targeting people already interested in what you sell, it makes sense that you will convert more.
• Cost Effective: Similar to above, as you are targeting people already interested, you are not wasting money advertising to the masses.
• Develop Strong Reputation: As you are only marketing to people who want to be marketed to you build some good trust etc. Unlike people getting turned off by your annoying ads when not interested.
• Long Term Customer Relationships: Through strategies such as social media and email marketing, you can keep in touch with your existing customers.
• Personalised Messages: Because you are being more targeted in what you do, you can personalise your message more.

So if you're a small business looking for a marketing strategy that works, look no further. Contact us and discuss how we can help.