“Yo outbound marketing. I’m really happy for you, imma let you finish….but inbound marketing has some of the best software of all time!”
Sorry outbound marketers, didn’t mean to go all Kanye on you, it’s just there’s been so many exciting developments and evolutions in the industry of inbound marketing in the past year, that it’s almost impossible to overlook its importance to the future of marketing as well as the success of your business moving forward.
Will the gap between outbound and inbound marketing be even more pronounced in 2013?
More and more, people are tuning out the traditional, outbound methods of marketing. With all the advances in technology, people’s tolerance for solicited marketing messages has significantly dropped. And it will only continue to do so. (I know….Siri told me.)
Cold calls? Thanks to caller ID, you’ll be hearing a ton of answering machines.
Direct mail? You mean…physical mail? That stuff that comes in the mailbox? People don’t even want their bills coming in physical form anymore, let alone your unwanted marketing message.
Print ads? With newspaper subscriptions falling steadily each year, are you reaching enough targeted prospects to make it worth it?
The bottom line is, the nation (and the world) have adopted the Internet and smartphones to conduct their everyday lives, so marketing toward those vehicles is both the smartest, and most effective direction to take your company.
Interested in learning more about optimizing your current marketing campaign for the most up-to-date best practices? Give us a call at IMPACT and learn how we can get you started!
The Strength of Inbound Marketing
So with all these changes in technology, the most important thing to ask yourself is, “where are people hanging out these days?”
It just so happens that the inbound marketing methodology also addresses this question, and more importantly, answers it.
Given the low tolerance of solicited marketing these days, it’s now become critical to draw prospects to you, instead of the other way around. Let’s face it, Google has become the new Yellow Pages in the 21st century.
Looking for a local car repair shop? How about a great insurance agency that can handle all of your needs?
More than ever, prospects are taking to Google to conduct their product research, making it all the more important for your company to have the measures in place to draw these prospects to you.
Our popular Ebook on Google’s latest algorithm details exactly what they’re looking for, and how to alter your content accordingly in order to rank higher.
The first step is an attractive, lead generating website that acts as the hub for your entire business. Publishing fresh, original content on a consistent basis will also provide search engines like Google the content it needs to index your pages and get you found.
It’s also no secret that social media is where everyone is hanging out nowadays. So sharing your content and engaging with potential followers has proven to be extremely effective in generating leads.
It’s all about the Software
With the unveiling of ‘HubSpot 3′ at this years Inbound 2012 conference in August, HubSpot has taken a great inbound marketing software and made it smarter, better, faster, and stronger.
Much like Amazon does by tracking your activity to provide you with a more targeted buying experience, HubSpot 3 has become smarter to allow for a more custom experience for visitors coming to your website.
They’ve already clicked a certain call-to-action or downloaded a specific offer? Great, HubSpot 3 will enable you to offer that same visitor a different experience upon their next visit, with all new CTA’s just for them. Smarter.
HubSpot 3 also enables you to execute a much more targeted and effective email marketing campaign, providing you with the ability to segment your mailing lists for a much more targeted approach. You’re also provided lots of email templates, each containing data as to how effective they are.
And how crazy has social media gotten? I mean, there’s probably a new one being developed this very minute. It can be pretty overwhelming to keep up with it all. HubSpot 3 features an brand new social media publishing tool, so you can create and schedule all of your social media posts well in advance, all in one spot.
Thank goodness. I’m not sure how many more passwords I can store in the old noggin.
Where Do We Go From Here?
So where are we headed in 2013 and beyond? It’s all about smarter, better, faster, stronger. Our iPhones have allowed us to have several devices all in one place.
Camera. Phone. iPod. Alarm clock. Email. All of it is now in one place. Right in your front pocket. (Or back pocket, purse, satchel, whichever you prefer.)
The same will be true of your marketing. All the tools you need to market your business are now all in once place, and it’s only going to get smarter. The problem is, outbound marketing has no room to grow, so it will remain static.
So if there’s anything we can be sure about in the future of marketing, it’s go inbound…or go home.
Looking to learn more about implementing an inbound marketing campaign for your business? Contact IMPACT and learn how we can get you started!
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