Scott Design

Marketing today involves the same principles of promoting your company and products to your potential customers. However, the number of ways you can promote your company has multiplied with the widespread adoption of Web 2.0 technologies.

The objectives of marketing include the following:
•    grow brand awareness
•    build a positive brand association
•    drive business development
•    broaden customer base
•    increase website visits and page views
•    convert leads into customers
•    create a connection between company and customers
•    manage crises
•    provide customer service
•    humanize your company
•    generate buzz

The particular marketing tactics you use to achieve these objectives can be put into two basic categories: outbound marketing and inbound marketing. (Some people refer to the two categories as Marketing 1.0 and Marketing 2.0.) Outbound marketing tactics include TV, radio, print, and yellow page ads; direct mail; telemarketing; e-mail blasts; and events and tradeshows. Inbound marketing tactics include online content creation (including blogs, videos, podcasts, presentations, eBooks, and news releases); social media marketing (such as Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace, Twitter, and StumbleUpon); and search engine optimization (including optimizing online content for search engines, getting quality links to your online content, and more).

So, why choose inbound marketing tactics over outbound marketing tactics?

Using the internet has become part of what people do every day. Unless you’re providing services to people with limited internet access, chances are you should start with inbound marketing tactics and supplement with outbound marketing tactics, if appropriate. Here are a few reasons why inbound marketing tactics might be a better choice today:

1. Buyers start the purchasing process by doing an online search. More and more people use the internet to locate your solutions, and then find out what other consumers, reviewers, and the media have to say about you before making any buying decisions. You need to make sure information about your company appears in search results when someone is looking for the services or solutions you provide. That means having plenty of online content, optimized for search engines, created by you and your customers.

2. Inbound marketing tactics can cost less per lead than outbound marketing tactics. With traditional marketing, there are cost outlays for design, placement, postage, telemarketing, e-mail blasts, and tradeshows. With inbound marketing, the only costs are time. If you have limited budgets, but you have someone with time to write blogs, participate in online media, or optimize your site, inbound marketing is for you. And, some of this investment of time can yield long-term results. Good site Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and interesting content can serve to lead visitors to your site for years to come.

3. Inbound marketing tactics are more respectful of your customer’s time. An ad during your favorite TV show, a phone call during dinner, a billboard on an otherwise lovely drive: all of these disruptive outbound marketing tactics intrude upon your customers’ lives. With inbound marketing, your customer decides whether or not to read your blog, watch your video, become a fan of your Facebook company page, follow you on Twitter, or click on your URL in a list of search results. If you’ve done your content creation, networking, and SEO work correctly, you will get found when someone’s looking for you.

4. Inbound Marketing tactics allow you to listen to your customers. Back in the day, if someone had a bad meal in your restaurant, they asked to speak to the manager. Now, they post a review online. The only chance you have to respond to someone’s criticism or comments is by participating. Make sure you set up a Google Alert on your company’s name and any important keywords in your industry and you can monitor what people are saying. When someone makes a comment, you should reply with an honest, open response. Don’t try to put a marketing “spin” on your answer, as that will tend to decrease your credibility. Customers today expect total transparency and direct, open communication with the companies they use.

5. Inbound marketing is more targeted. Because the audience for inbound marketing tactics is self-selecting, they tend to be more likely to be ready to purchase. Someone who searches for your solutions or services is more likely to want to buy them than someone you reach out to with outbound marketing. Similarly, someone who subscribes to your blog or belongs to the same online group probably has more use for your services than someone off the street.

The marketing tactics you decide to use depend on your audience, the service or products you provide, and your budget. But, be sure to plan on including inbound marketing tactics in your marketing strategy to take advantage of the benefits and the lower costs.

P.S. Check out “Getting started with Twitter,” “Getting Started with Facebook,” and “Getting started with LinkedIn” if you need help opening and personalizing your accounts.

Tags: blog, facebook, linkedin, Marketing, myspace, search engine optimization, seo, social media, twitter

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 17th, 2008 at 6:44 pm and is filed under Marketing, Technology . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.