Technology is also behind the effectiveness of inbound marketing. Control of the buying process has shifted from the seller to the buyer. Buyers perform search engine queries to learn about solutions to the problems they face and to find potential solution providers. They research companies on social media to learn how satisfied their customers are with their solutions and customer service. Inbound marketing simply sells the way buyers want to buy.
Inbound marketing is a series of processes designed to:
Here is a graphical depiction of the process courtesy of inbound marketing software provider HubSpot:
Here are 5 reasons your technology company should be using inbound marketing:
According to HubSpot's 2013 State of Inbound Marketing report, 60% of companies will execute inbound marketing strategies in 2013. If you're in the 40% that isn't using inbound marketing, you're probably losing leads to your competitors. It takes time for inbound marketing to gain traction. It takes time for Google to index your website and the content you're creating. It takes time to develop social media reach. While you're ramping up your inbound marketing program, your competitors have hit full stride and are gaining momentum. If you don't start now, you'll just fall farther behind the competition.
The HubSpot report mentioned above found that inbound marketing delivers 54% more leads into the marketing funnel than traditional outbound lead generation tactics. Inbound marketing not only produces more leads, it also produces cheaper leads. HubSpot found that inbound leads are 13% cheaper than traditional outbound leads. If you're depending on your sales team to generate enough leads to hit your growth goals with cold calling, good luck. With inbound marketing, your sales team is closing leads by helping buyers solve problems, not getting frustrated by an inefficient cold calling approach.
The Corporate Executive Board found that buyers complete 57% of their sales process before ever contacting a sales person. They perform pre-purchase research by looking up information about the problems they face and potential solutions on the internet. If they're not finding you when they do research, it's highly unlikely that you'll ever sell to them. On the other hand, if you're publishing blog articles, videos and eBooks regularly that answer the questions they have, you have a great chance of getting the opportunity to participate in their buying process.
One of the best ways for sales professionals to generate leads from social media is to help people who have questions. For example, LinkedIn Groups are a great opportunity to generate B2B leads. When a potential buyers asks a question in a LinkedIn group, responding with a link to a well-written, helpful blog post creates opportunities to interact with the potential buyer. Your inbound marketing content will help your sales people create reputations as trusted advisors in your industry. Beware! Don't try to sell on social media, try to help people.
Inbound marketing analytics let you gauge the effectiveness of everything you do. You can measure:
This marketing intelligence lets you optimize your marketing by replicating what's effective and helping sales people craft their outreach by knowing what content your leads are consuming and which website pages they're viewiing.
In today's business environment, inbound marketing is no longer optional. Unless you're happy with your existing customer base and have a 100% retention rate, you need to use inbound marketing to grow your company. Want to learn more about how you can use inbound marketing in your company? Contact us for a free consultation.