Inbound marketing is reshaping how businesses present themselves online!
This remarkable series of techniques allow virtually any business to create a powerful online presence that drives sales, while lowering their overall marketing costs! It's a one-two punch that puts a global audience within reach of even the smallest startup business.
Is it time to think about inbound content marketing techniques? We've got ten signs that your business is ready to move into the future with inexpensive and effective online marketing!
Ten Reasons That It's Time To Embrace Inbound Marketing
I. Decreasing Foot Traffic
First of all, inbound isn't solely for online sales! More and more people are researching products and businesses through mobile devices, even while they're driving around. A strong inbound campaign makes it easier for them to find your doorway when they want a local shop in your industry.
II. A Stagnant Website
Virtually everyone has a website, but is yours actually creating value? Your website can be a powerful marketing tool, but it takes inbound techniques to build that value. Inbound allows you to reduce the costs of your website, while increasing its productivity.
III. Poor Lead Conversions
Inbound means targeted marketing. Instead of the "shotgun" approach of traditional mass-market advertising, you can select the best customers to bring into your website. Imagine a fisher with a net that only catches the fishes he wants. That's inbound marketing.
IV. High Customer Acquisition Costs
Accordingly, one of the strongest arguments for inbound is that it creates customers that are far less expensive to acquire, often half or less what traditional sales techniques cost. That translates directly to more profits and a faster positive ROI on your marketing investments.
V. Unengaged Customer Base
Engagement is currently a watchword in marketing. The companies that do best online, are those which have an active and engaged customer base who genuinely like the company and their products. The outreach you gain with inbound marketing makes this far easier to achieve.
VI. PR Challenges
On the flip side, inbound and social media marketing also allow a company to quickly mitigate PR problems. Inbound marketing allows for near-instant response to changes in perceptions, and innumerable ways to shift a discussion the way you want it to move.
VII. Marketing/Sales Rifts
It's a traditional problem in businesses that their sales and marketing departments frequently dislike each other, or even become outright hostile. Inbound content marketing forges a closer bond between them, because they're sharing data and customer information throughout the process.
VIII. Industry Respect
Succeeding in global business is about more than just your customers, it's also a matter of how your own company is perceived. Maintaining a quality blog and other other pieces of content allows you to contribute ideas to your industry. Creating a blog that's read by other influential industry figures will increase your standing and your reputation as a trendsetter.
IX. Rebranding Efforts
Because this is a holistic discipline, it's excellent for rebranding efforts. If it's time for a major image change, the data-driven techniques behind inbound content marketing will take you far. They'll help you identify target markets, reach out to them, and construct a "whole body" corporate image that appeals to your most-qualified buyers.
X. Desire For Global Reach
More than anything else, content marketing puts you in touch with the world. Currently, more than a third of the entire human species is online. That's more than two billion potential customers. Any business can succeed with a customer base that large, and content marketing is the best way to reach out!