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Inbound Marketing

Definition

What is inbound marketing?

Inbound marketing is a marketing approach that involves the creation of valuable content and tailored experiences in order to attract new customers. Its main goal is to solve problems for potential customers long before an attempt to sell is actually made.

If you want a more in-depth understanding of this topic, check out the FAQ section below:

Question #1: What are some examples of inbound marketing?

Inbound marketing is a marketing methodology that involves creating meaningful content carefully crafted to suit the preferences and needs of the target customer.

Examples of inbound marketing collaterals and techniques include:

  1. Newsletters
  2. Infographics
  3. Blogs on relevant topics or valuable keywords
  4. Social media posts
  5. Videos
  6. Online seminars or webinars
  7. eBooks
  8. Podcasts

Question #2: What is the main difference between inbound marketing and outbound marketing?

Inbound marketing, as the name suggests, focuses on getting the target customer to come to you. In contrast, outbound marketing does the exact opposite, going after the target customer instead.

While it uses valuable content to attract potential customers, outbound marketing actively pitches to them via things such as:

  • TV advertisements
  • Billboards
  • Radio ads
  • Advertising in print media

Question #3: What are the benefits?

The benefits of inbound marketing are:

  1. It helps you make a great first impression because it does not involve interrupting your target customer
  2. It does not have to cost advertising money because it involves letting your target customer find you
  3. It helps position yourself as an expert in your field because you are providing valuable content in your industry
  4. It helps earn the trust of your target customer because you are doing them a favour first before selling anything

Question #4: What are the disadvantages of doing this kind of marketing?

The disadvantages of doing inbound marketing are:

  1. It may be challenging to get target traffic in the beginning
  2. It takes time to see any significant results
  3. It can get challenging to compete with more established brands, especially if you operate in a highly competitive market
  4. There is no single, guaranteed way to succeed

This is why, if you have the resources, you should consider doing both inbound and outbound marketing at the same time. But if you can only choose one, pick outbound marketing because it can help you get in front of your target customers much more quickly.

Question #5: How is inbound marketing related to digital marketing?

Digital marketing is the easiest way to do inbound marketing because it allows you to easily reach your target audience—by producing content that they might find valuable, or, at the very least, interesting—wherever they are in the world.

For instance, if you own a mattress brand, you may optimise your website to use keywords like best mattress, mattress stores, or queen mattress to boost its chances of appearing in search engine results pages (SERPs) whenever potential customers perform a search using said keywords.

A social media specialist or blogger, on the other hand, may create posts that appeal specifically to their brand’s target audience. For example, a cookware brand may put out a lot of content about seasonal recipes, complete guides to buying and caring for cookware, or newsletters with informative articles and tempting promotions.

The same goes for YouTube. Those doing affiliate marketing may do reviews of products that they want to recommend to their audience. Those selling a course on investing, on the other hand, may put out a lot of videos on investing tips and tricks, case studies, and common mistakes.

Question #6: Should my brand focus only on inbound marketing?

No, as we have seen earlier, your brand should not focus only on inbound marketing. It is more challenging now than ever to reach your target audience organically, considering how much content is published every single day. If you want to quickly get in front of your target customers, you would need to incorporate outbound marketing into your campaigns as well.