Inbound Marketing, the Inside Story

Advertising used to be relatively simple. Businesses with products to sell would formulate their message then buy the best spots to air and publish them. They’d wave at motorists from billboards, leap out at readers from the pages of magazines and, of course, interrupt viewers in the middle of their favorite TV shows.

This is what we call outbound marketing, because it initiates the conversation and sends the message out to a pre-defined audience.

Audiences used to and still put up with the intrusions of outbound marketing because most of the time, they have had  little choice in the matter.

But that all  changed.

Audiences have now become much better at dodging ads. We fast forward downloaded TV shows, subscribe by the millions to “do not call” lists and trained ourselves to ignore or look past the top and sides of Web pages. We have new tools to block ads and avoid the marketing messages that bombard and overwhelm us on a daily basis.

At the same time we’ve also learned to appreciate and tune in to the brands that speak our language, deliver relevant content and provide a meaningful experience and added value.

Not all advertisers get this. Although things have changed and marketers found new options to communicate with their customers- their knee jerk strategy is to go for the traditional marketing approach, hunting their customers instead of skillfully courting them.

John Wanamaker, an early pioneer of marketing, said he knew that half of every dollar he spent on advertising was wasted but he never knew which half; nowadays it’s a lot more than half, and marketers know there is something they can do about it.

Companies that were willing to wake up and smell the content, are now using web based new tools to create stories that people get excited about. Instead of interrupting  people as they go about their lives, we interest them by offering them relevant content they appreciate. Instead of reaching out and stealing their attention, we draw them in by creating information and entertainment that enhances their lives or purchase experience and become a vital part of their daily routine.

The benefits of such powerful marketing communication are obvious but the creative process is a lot more challenging to marketers. Why? While a piece of outbound marketing will follow a long-standing formula of do’s and don'ts, inbound marketing is reinventing itself on a daily basis and has no solid rules…. yet!

Inbound marketing involves a systematic and knowledge based approach to building an engaging and close relationship. That’s why inbound marketers have to understand the personas at play. Part of the knowledge based approach is to have an intimate knowledge of our personas, understand their needs, pick up their language and naturally merge with  their lifestyle.

​If our inbound marketing efforts are going to successfully pull these customers in, it has to touch their core. It has to be as interesting, engaging and relevant as the content that already occupies their digital communication space.

​Earn Your Audience
When inbound marketing is  done properly it works. Potential customers watch and share videos, interact with games, simulators and apps and return to blogs that give them information they can use. They follow Facebook pages and react to posts that inform them about products they want to buy, as long as that information is delivered in a way they want to receive it. They sign up for webinars, download white papers and ebooks and respond to calls to action when they come from a company that earned  their trust and attention instead of paying for a ‘maybe’ share of it from someone else’s captive audience. Inbound marketing is a soft but very powerful revolution. It’s a new way to combine content and commerce that turns interest and curiosity into long term engagement and loyalty, enhanced customer experience and increased sales. For businesses that use it — and use it carefully — it is now the most efficient and the least intrusive way to build a customer base and turn that customer base into a leading team of marketing evangelists.

In this series of blog posts, we’re going to look at the differences between outbound and inbound marketing, the main inbound marketing actions and how to formulate a strategy for effective inbound marketing.

To learn more about inbound marketing and to understand what it can do for your business, contact us at contact@astelo.com.

Click here and get your FREE copy of ASTELO's practical guide:
"101 Content Marketing - The new face of digital marketing".