Marketing has undergone considerable changes over the past few years with the rising popularity of social media and blogs as well as the waning favor with pay per click advertising. The difference lies in the advertisement’s approach. Traditional marketing such as pay per click, TV and radio commercials, and print advertising is known as “outbound marketing”; that is, it presents advertising content to the consumer. In contrast, the kind of marketing in favor today, “inbound” marketing, does the exact opposite. Rather than directly approach the consumer, the content of inbound Internet marketing is accessed by the consumer. Advertising content posted on Twitter or Facebook pages are examples of inbound marketing.
Inbound marketing tools are being widely used as the importance of social media and search engines is becoming more prominent. Roughly three-fifths of all American businesses use inbound marketing services of some kind. Overall, it just makes sense. Consider, for example, that inbound marketing leads to 54% more sales leads than outbound marketing. Also notice the fact that a third of all businesses have gained leads via Twitter and 20% have even close sales from Twitter.
From the consumer perspective, four-fifths of social media users claim to prefer connecting with companies and brands via Facebook. Moreover, more than half of Facebook users claim that they will stop following a business page if the content becomes too repetitive or dull. Put these facts together and you get a clear picture of what the consumer wants and what businesses should expect from their marketing strategies.
Inbound marketing strategies have proven widely successful for the businesses that use them, large and small. After all, what business doesn’t have at least one social media account? Social media has given Internet users many things, among them the ability to search for anything they want instantly. In order to best capitalize on this, companies all across the country have used inbound marketing tools for their advertising needs.
