The rise of the Internet and mobile technology has significantly changed how consumers behave. The sheer volume of information available through the Internet and the ease of sharing that information has made customers more sophisticated and empowered.
The core of Inbound Marketing is to attract customers to your business and create lasting relationships with them using intelligence on customers and their behaviour. In outbound marketing, you invest your resources to find your customers where as through inbound marketing, you make it easy for your customers to find you.
How does it work?
An inbound marketing journey begins by understand your customers, their pain points and search phrases and building your online profile around them. It takes at least 8 to 12 months to see substantial results, but the benefits you reap will be sustainable when compared to outbound marketing efforts.
A research done GE Capital Retail Bank has revealed that 81% of shoppers research online before buying.
Which means, businesses have to be ‘easy to find’ on the Internet. If you want your potential customers to find your business, you need to know the search phrases they will use and match your website content to those phrases. In the digital marketing world, we call these phrases “keywords”. Inbound marketers build them into page titles, Meta descriptions, blog posts and page content to get a good ranking on search engines for these keywords. It is all about paving the way for your customers to find you and reach you with minimal effort.
Social Media is another phenomenon that has fueled the importance of inbound marketing. Social media has amplified word-of-mouth referrals and customer feedback. It provides a platform for businesses to connect with their target audiences at a personal level, breaking all geographical boundaries.
Will inbound marketing work for your business?
Some experts believe that Inbound Marketing only works if your product is complex and caters to a large audience. We disagree as we now live in an information led social system where people rely on the internet to make the smallest decisions.
Even the burger hut down the road can benefit from good reviews on social media and a simple website with a listing on Google maps. Your investment on inbound marketing should match the product/service you offer.
Is inbound marketing affordable for startups?
There are many large agencies and platforms that offer complete inbound marketing solutions with promising results. However, there is a significant cost involved, which a startup will not be able to afford. While the cost is often justified using the savings they bring when compared to paid marketing, a start-up will not have the funds to afford high-end all-inclusive solutions.
Alternatively, start-ups can hire a digital marketing consultant to do it in-house, but may lose out on the expertise an agency can bring to deliver faster results.
If you wish to design and implement an affordable and scalable inbound marketing strategy, get in touch with us and we are happy to help. We can scale our solutions for tight budgets as we take pride in giving start-ups an opportunity to succeed.
