Finally. I finally get it.
I finally figured out why most marketers don’t get around to giving priority to inbound marketing.
It feels like a want fighting for resources in a world of needs.
I followed my own blogging patterns recently, and I’m embarrassed to even act like an expert in this area. When my schedule becomes filled with immediate opportunity, my blog gets put off for another day. That becomes another week, and next thing I know, goodbye consistency. I remember when I was ranked No. 1 among 4,000 peers in LinkedIn for my constant engagement with the community. Today, I’m 279 out of 4,000.
What happened? Where did I go wrong? Well, I remember at the time, we lost a very big account, and I needed some activity around our agency story. Now that we’ve nearly doubled our business, I’ve been too busy doing the work to take the time to plan for getting more business. There you have it. I feel like I’m in a blogger support group telling you all my dirty laundry, but perhaps this will inspire me to get back in the habit.
In this case, I’m just talking about one form of inbound marketing – blogging. Anything from public speaking engagements to app development can be inbound marketing. Bringing customers to your brand, rather than inundating them with your traditional advertising (outbound), is what makes inbound special. It creates trust and authenticity in an overly inauthentic world.
The biggest reasons to take up inbound marketing:
- The best service is self-service.A potential consumer can move through 57% of the buying process before even talking to a salesperson. That means your expertise and content can help that decision along in replace of that initial sales pitch.
- Courting search engines to get some love.If you have a consistent and valuable presence on your site and your social media channels, you have a better chance of a higher ranking on search engine results pages (SERPs). In fact, 93% of online experiences start with a search engine.
- It’s cheaper than outbound.Content marketing generates three times as many leads as outbound, but costs about 62% less.
- Higher ROI over long term.Blogging is one effective facet of inbound marketing. If you are producing great content, you’re not only making search engines happy. You’re also giving your social media manager consistent, valuable social fodder. Plus, marketers who prioritize blogging are 13x more likely to have a positive ROI than those who do not.
What’s the moral of the story here? I don’t think inbound is just a want anymore. I think it’s becoming more of a need. I’m ready to start treating it as such. How about you?
- The best service is self-service.A potential consumer can move through 57% of the buying process before even talking to a salesperson. That means your expertise and content can help that decision along in replace of that initial sales pitch.
- Courting search engines to get some love.If you have a consistent and valuable presence on your site and your social media channels, you have a better chance of a higher ranking on search engine results pages (SERPs). In fact, 93% of online experiences start with a search engine.
- It’s cheaper than outbound.Content marketing generates three times as many leads as outbound, but costs about 62% less.
- Higher ROI over long term.Blogging is one effective facet of inbound marketing. If you are producing great content, you’re not only making search engines happy. You’re also giving your social media manager consistent, valuable social fodder. Plus, marketers who prioritize blogging are 13x more likely to have a positive ROI than those who do not.
What’s the moral of the story here? I don’t think inbound is just a want anymore. I think it’s becoming more of a need. I’m ready to start treating it as such. How about you?