Inbound Marketing as a Sales Driven Strategy

There aren't many things that can occupy a business owners thoughts quite like sales can. What’s your return on investment? How much did you make this month in comparison to the last? What are your current marketing costs and do you have any room in your budget to get that one extra landing page created?

One of the best ways to both increase sales and to reduce sales costs is inbound marketing. Yes, you can actually both increase your sales and reduce costs. And we’ll tell you how.

It’s Easy to Use

If you have a physical store where you hire sales representatives, think about the amount of time that you had to spend just trying to find that one representative. You have to put out an advertisement telling people about the job opportunity. Then you have to sift through the resumes, selecting people you want to call. Then you have to interview them, make offers, train them, etc.

And here’s another shocking fact: people trust online marketing methods more than the sales representative in your store. Demandware recently reported that only 16% of shoppers felt that the sales associate was the best source of information, and Point of Sale News (May 2011) reported that 43% of customers do place more trust in the information they find on their mobile device than any sort of in-store technologies or a sales associate.

So what’s the point? Inbound marketing is easy to implement. The tools and technologies are already there and just waiting to be used by your company. Given that the marketing efforts you implement will also be present on the web, the more marketing efforts you have, the more effective it will be. You can continually build on what you’ve already created.

Inbound Marketing Knows No Holidays

The internet never stops, which means inbound marketing doesn’t either. It doesn’t matter if it’s 3am on a Sunday or if it’s Christmas day, your website will be there for anyone who’s interested in checking it out. It’s always there to help make and complete a sale, and it doesn’t even ask for overtime or vacation pay!

It’s a Tailored Strategy

Unlike a lot of other marketing strategies out there, inbound marketing strategies are all about finding qualified leads who will want to buy from you. Through use of strategies like keywords, content curating, and other smart tricks that professional inbound marketing firms implement, you’ll be able to target leads that are actually worth your while rather than dog lovers who will have absolutely no interest in your innovative kitty scratching post.

It’s Cost Effective

Outbound marketing is expensive. Spam and junk mail, cold calls, tradeshows – these all cost a lot of money. Inbound marketing, on the other hand, may have one somewhat costly start-up cost while you get everything going, and then it’s just a matter of low-cost maintenance from that point forward. An inbound marketing firm can set up your blog, your landing pages, your social media accounts, e-mail marketing software, etc., and provide you with the right tools to analyze this information. Once you learn how to analyze the information that you get from those tools, you’re ready to get going on your own.

Here’s another important consideration: inbound marketing will free up a lot of your time. Rather than spend a day or a weekend at a convention or an expo, you can then spend that time doing other things for your business while your inbound marketing efforts take care of your sales and promotional needs. Inbound marketing allows you to sit back and take care of business the way you want to and not force you to take time away from other important parts of the business.

Key Takeaways

Inbound marketing is the marketing strategy of the future. Any business that doesn’t have an inbound marketing strategy in place is already far behind the grade.

If you want your business to keep up with the competition, you need to implement a thorough, full fledged inbound marketing campaign. You’ll save on lead costs, advertising costs, and you'll enjoy enjoy a higher return on investment by having your marketing find the customers. The benefits will differ from business to business, but one thing is for certain: inbound marketing is a huge benefit for any business.

Need Help?

If inbound marketing is something you are interested in but are having trouble getting started, contact us today to schedule your free marketing analysis.