You can ready article after article about changes in advertising and about creating valuable and long-term value customers through inbound marketing. But has anyone really explained why inbound marketing is currently so popular? And why it is considered so effective?
We try to give a considered option here...
The case for traditional marketing
- Known entity: traditional marketing has worked for decades if not hundreds of years. Coca-cola invented Santa Claus in a red suit in one of their adverts and that is now totally ingrained in many cultures. This does give a certain amount of credibility.
- Industry: there is a large marketing industry with the skills and experience to run traditional marketing campaigns and they can do that effectively.
- The value is established: you know what you are going to get and how much it will cost. The only thing that is changing is the effectiveness (which is creeping downward).
- The response is declining: the way that consumers - both B2B and B2C - behave is changing and that is reducing the effectiveness of traditional marketing methods. They just don't work like they did.
- There are a wide variety of approaches: telemarketing, TV advertising, radio, newspapers, magazines, Direct Mail, posters, exhibitions, seminars, workshops and more. There is a place for them all and every one works in its own way. This is complicated.
In summary, traditional marketing can be good in certain circumstances but those are starting to shrink. Additionally, traditional marketing is less accurate than content marketing. On the upside, you will be able to spend your marketing budget with great agencies who know what they are doing and will do it well.
The case for content marketing
- Consumers have changed: customer behaviour has changed dramatically. It has gone online. A few years ago if we had a question about a new company or service, then we would look it up in Yellow Pages. We now use Google. And now that the Google algorithm is even better, you can put in phrases and long-tail key words and get quick, accurate results. Are there any other ways that consumers have changed? Well, we spend a lot of money online - e-commerce is here to stay. It is going to continue to expand.
- It's very cost-effective: inbound marketing is more accurate, in that very quickly you will be dealing with an known individual and you will not be marketing to those that don't fit your profile. There is less wastage in terms of budget spend. And, lastly, because you're dealing with digital media, then you're not wasting money printing literature and then paying for postage (or the infrastructure in a call centre if you are into telemarketing).
- It's great to nurture prospects: work flow is very a interesting development in marketing technology. It allows automated responses so you can build a trail to nurture and develop your relationship with a prospect over a given period of time. It's more about context marketing, allowing the prospect to move forward at the right time in the cycle. It is so much more efficient than a shotgun approach of blasting out messages, hoping one or two will hit the right prospect at the right time.
- Lots of different social media: there are different social media possibilities for all types of businesses. Whilst Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Google+ and (with the biggest audience and most effective for e-commerce) Facebook. Lots of opportunity to pick the right medium for the audience and provide them with the material they want in the way they want it.
So, which is better?
That is a very difficult question because it depends on context.
There are times when the traditional forms of marketing will be useful and effective. Someone that tells you that is not the case, then, perhaps they're not in total charge of what is going on and can't put it all in context.
However, one thing is clear. Consumer behaviour is changing and only in one direction. We are becoming increasingly digital. And that means that inbound marketing tools, such as Hub Spot, will only become even more relevant and important. It's probably better to start thinking in terms of blog content and other new marketing skills sooner rather than later.
Which is more effective?
Effective: what does that mean exactly? In this example, we'll define it as being the ability to identify and communicate with a prospect efficiently and accurately. Essentially, all marketers want to speak to their target market and positively influence them into becoming customers whilst spending (wasting) as little budget on communicating with visitors who will not purchase.
So, it's about price per contact. It's about accuracy. And it's about data and information. Very difficult to do this to any scale without marketing software. It is extremely difficult, complicated and expensive to control adn exploit otherwise. And it is possible to link to other systems which enhance the information even further - links to a finance systme (SAP Business One, for example), and to an e-commerce platform (Magento) allows a blend of best customers over specific periods to be segmented out. It is extremely powerful.
Which is more cost-effective?
For the majority of the time, Content Marketing is more cost-effective. There are other ways that traditional marketing can be cost-effective too. While working at a previous company, they used TV advertising and got a fantastic, large response. However, it was expensive to shift out who were good prospects and who were not actually in the target group.
If we were to take the example above of the e-commerce company integrating the information from its three key systems, then you would typically get a positive Return on Investment within nine months (via increased sales, cross-selling and up-selling to various customer segments).
What do you need to achieve this?
The most effective way to get the benefit of inbound marketing is via a content marketing agency and using Marketing Tools, such as Hub Spot. That would give you the capability of improving B2C and B2B content marketing.
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