Are the benefits of inbound marketing really worth it? The clear answer is yes. Studies have shown that companies correctly implementing inbound marketing find that it is 10 times more effective for converting leads than outbound marketing. Inbound marketing is taking the lead in the marketing industry as more and more companies are choosing to adopt this strategy. As the usage of social media increases worldwide, being able to accurately understand and implement inbound is imperative to building ongoing customer relationships.

What is Inbound Marketing?

Inbound marketing is a method used within your organization to naturally build long-term relationships with your prospects. The idea behind inbound is to attract customers IN to your brand by providing value. This is contrary to the more traditional outbound approach where brands are broadcasting their message OUT to potential leads.

Difference Between Inbound Marketing vs. Outbound Marketing

Outbound marketing is the marketing we see used around us every day. Whether it is TV ads, banners, pop-ups on websites you enter, or even cold calling, these are all traditional ways companies reach their audiences, whether they are interested or not. Although outbound marketing can be beneficial in certain circumstances, it is not the preferred nor reliable way to build customer relationships.

Inbound marketing is a new way of gaining and building long-lasting customer relationships that are crucial to your business. Companies are using inbound strategies to find ways to connect with their target audience based on their individual business needs. Effective inbound marketing attracts, engages, and delights targets by providing experiences that are valuable to them. Examples of inbound marketing include things like blog articles, eBooks, and even your SEO strategy. Through properly targeted SEO, you help the right prospects find your website and engage with your content. Inbound can also include interactions through chatbots and social media listening.

Understanding HubSpot’s Approach to Inbound

With over 100,000 customers in 120 countries, HubSpot is the undisputed leader of inbound marketing. The company’s CEOs are actually the ones who coined the term many years ago when they recognized how the internet was changing marketing practices. Their usage of this inbound marketing method is a core part of what built their empire into one of the leading CRM and marketing platforms in the world. 

HubSpot shied away from the traditional marketing funnel to create their own version – the flywheel. The flywheel model views marketing as a cyclical path. Strangers attracted to your brand through inbound strategies soon develop into prospects that engage with your brand. If you can convert those prospects into customers and continue to delight them, they become promoters of your business, recommending your products or services to their peers.   The overall purpose of adopting HubSpot’s method is to provide consistent excellent experience that builds your promoter base and grows your business.

How can HubSpot’s Inbound Marketing be Achieved?

These steps are simple, yet, crucial to creating continuing relationships with your prospects, consumers, and customers.

Step 1: Attract new prospects with content that fits their business needs. This content must be individualized and valuable. It should help prospects identify you as their trusted consultant by highlighting your expertise on the subject matter you’re providing. Attracting the right prospects through inbound marketing requires careful planning and a deep understanding of your audiences and their pain points. Without analyzing and understanding the gaps that exist for your customers, you won’t know how to truly provide value.

Step 2: Engage these prospects by presenting knowledge and curated content that addresses the pain points you’ve discovered and provides solutions to their business goals. In this stage, you’re deepening the relationship by transforming strangers into prospects. They are beginning to recognize you as a valuable ally to achieving their vision for their business.  

Step 3: Delight your customers by providing continuous expert support to ensuring their long-term success with their purchase. By serving up smart content based on their interests and past behavior, you’re showing your new customers that you truly understand them. Customers will appreciate and respond to personalization that feels genuine. In turn, their perception of your brand will be a positive one.

Once you deliver victories to your customer, that customer will share their victories with others, which restarts the process in attracting new prospects.

Benefits of Implementing HubSpot’s inbound Marketing

Overall, content marketing costs approximately 62% more than traditional outbound marketing, however it triples the leads. That is huge! Understanding the advantages of inbound marketing can help you identify how this approach will benefit your business.

The primary benefits of using the inbound Methodology are quite simple:

• Prospects will begin to identify your services as a need for their company
• You become your prospects new trusted Expert
• Prospects will begin to refer their friends
• Boost Sales and revenue Growth
• It saves Time & Money
• More consistent results of what is working vs. what is not working

Start thinking about how inbound methodology could work for your business by asking questions like: Am I currently doing more inbound or outbound marketing? Is my current strategy helping us reach our marketing goals? How valuable is this method for my business in the long term? What are the advantages/disadvantages of using this method?

As a certified HubSpot partner, Technology Advisors can help you answer these questions and take full advantage of HubSpot’s inbound tools. Inbound can be mixed with outbound marketing, or you can shift your focus entirely to inbound as HubSpot has successfully done. Understanding where your business lands in that spectrum requires some reflection, some analytics, and (we like to think!) some help from TAI.