Is Inbound Marketing the new future?
You might have raised your eye-brows when reading the headline and I must admit, it is thought-provoking. Yet, the reality is that a lot of companies are forced to re-think their strategies and to making changes how they run their businesses. On the bad side, budgets are being reduced to a ridiculous minimum that restrict the efficiency of the usual sales & marketing activities at the costs of efficiency and effectiveness. On the bright side, this strengthens a brand new dimension and lays the foundation for a new, more efficient era of internet marketing – inbound marketing.
What is inbound marketing? Inbound marketing focuses on getting found by the customer as supposed to finding the customer which is the traditional marketing (outbound marketing). The characteristics of outbound marketing are that the activities are usually poorly targeted, not measurable and they interrupt people. With the latest technologies taking over most of the traditional marketing techniques, the traditional forms lose efficiency but also become more and more expensive. Inbound marketing attracts consumers instead of bombarding them with (unsolicited) information. The focus is on what people want to see, hear, talk about and get in touch with as opposed to pushing a product onto them without knowing if they actually want it.
The most successful Inbound Marketing campaigns have three key components:
1. Content: Content (e.g. blogs, ebooks, videos) is the substance of any Inbound Marketing campaign. It is the information or tool that attracts potential customers to your site or your business.
2. Search Engine Optimization - SEO makes it easier for potential customers to find your content. It is the practice of building your site and inbound links to your site to maximize your ranking in search engines, where most of your customers begin their buying process. SEO comprises on-page and off-page optimisation, link-building and keyword analysis.
3. Social Media - Social media amplifies the impact of your content. When your content is distributed across and discussed on networks of personal relationships, it becomes more authentic and nuanced, and is more likely to draw qualified customers to your site. Twitter, Facebook, forums and blogs fall under this category. As the economy slows down, companies are turning to Inbound Marketing because it is a more efficient way of allocating marketing resources than traditional, outbound marketing.
There are three specific ways Inbound Marketing improves on the efficiency of traditional marketing: 1. Cost-efficient - Outbound marketing means spending money - either by buying ads, buying email lists or renting huge booths at trade shows. Inbound Marketing means creating content and talking about it. A blog costs nothing to start. A Twitter account is free, too. Both can draw thousands of customers to your site. The ROI from inbound campaigns is higher.
2. Better targeted - Techniques like cold-calling, mass mail and email campaigns are notoriously poorly targeted. You are reaching out to individuals because of one or two attributes in a database. When you do Inbound Marketing, you only approach people who qualify themselves since they demonstrate an interest in your content, so they are likely to be interested in your product.
3. It's an Investment, Not an Ongoing Expense - When you buy pay-per-click advertising on search engines, its value is gone as soon as you pay for it. In order to maintain a position at the top of Google's paid results, you have to keep paying. However, if you invest that money in quality content that ranks in Google's organic results, you will be there until somebody displaces you.
As much time as it takes to position a hotel on the markets through traditional techniques, inbound marketing also takes time and efforts. Yet, it is worthwhile to be open to it – and to have the tools implemented once it really takes over.
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Why social media marketing? Because that’s where the money is. Likewise… it’s people who buy stuff. Smart marketers participate in social media because that’s where the people are. It’s not larceny, but it’s also not complicated. And yet, social media marketing and bank robbery have things in common: You’ve got to be daring, innovative, and most of all, effective. That’s apparently where things get complicated. Apart from a PC, an internet connection and some basic knowledge, all you really need to get going in social media marketing is one crucial component: time. Let us save you time by introducing the six types of social media - so you can choose for yourself which is best for you.
I tried to ignore the regular outbursts coming from my husband and put the twitter thing on hold. Until one day, my husband got my curiosity "you have to sign up Exclusive Serenity as well, there is so much travel stuff out there". Hm. Well, if he is so excited, it must be something good so despite my regrets of having missed that beach walk the previous Sunday, I decided to check it out. I must have expected something like Facebook which is easy and fun to use. Twitter however took me a bit longer to find my way around (and I was still upset about the missed walk on the beach which might have influenced my efficiency). Proud to have successfully passed the sign up process, I stared at my screen, waiting for a miracle to happen or at least something that would make me as excited as my husband. Nothing happened. Realizing that I needed some insider tips, I consulted my husband over a glass of wine the following evening. It sounded awkward to me, to follow people and think of something intelligent to say which would be relevant to the few followers I had. But then suddenly, it became crystal-clear and started making sense - and the excitement started to kick in. Finally, I had so many things to say and share and got into the twitter mood. But not only the twitter mood had changed, when I heard my husband announcing that dinner was ready. "Hold on, this is awesome, I just need to put something else onto twitter!" Be careful who you teach...