What does marketing mean to you?
Perhaps it looks like a few flyers and business cards you typically handed out at business meetings.
Maybe what comes to mind is flashy billboards along the highway, or the shoppable Instagram pop-up that came across your mobile device as you were scrolling?
Even that catchy jingle associated with a popular cereal company’s television adverts that became ingrained in your memory.
While these are all great examples of advertising tactics used in marketing campaigns, they are all associated with just one level of marketing, which is external and outbound.
These methods and tools used to market to audiences are more focused on broadcasting messages, rather than creating two-way communication between a brand and their audience.
Which is why at Chirp, we focus on using value-add methodology and tactics inside of Inbound Marketing campaigns to bring the customer experience into full circle communication.
Understanding the Difference Between Inbound Marketing vs. Outbound Marketing
As a seasoned agency, Chirp has witnessed the transformation of consumer behaviour first hand over the past decade of how audiences are demanding more value and more engagement from the brands they buy from.
Especially now that a purchasing decision can be made with the push of a button or in this case, a swipe of their finger.
Because of the rise of digital adoption, Online Marketing is more prevalent than ever and in particular, Inbound Marketing has made head way to provide the solutions audiences are asking for.
So what is Inbound Marketing? According to the popular marketing automation software company, Marketo, Inbound Marketing is described as:
Here are the Top 8 Benefits of Inbound Marketing that’ll have you reconsider traditional marketing campaigns.
#1: Inbound Marketing Builds Brand Awareness
The most important factor to successfully launching a brand is building on-going Brand Awareness to have your business’ messages delivered to the right people.
For independents and small-business owners, Inbound Marketing and Online Marketing services can do just that to have you connect with your target audience and convert qualified prospects more effectively than Outbound Marketing tactics.
Chirp works with a number of our clients using Inbound Marketing services such as Online Marketing and Branding to transform the way they communicate with their online followers.
Since launching Connie Jakab’s website and Online Marketing, Connie has seen a 121% increase in traffic, 230 more leads, and over 1200 monthly readers on her website’s blog.
It’s a bonus for agencies like us when we have purpose-driven people behind the brand to establish that awareness and their willingness to participate in being part of the conversation.
#2: Inbound Marketing Establishes Trust and Authority
When you consider what avenues you can be pushing out your marketing on, paid promotion is not always the best way to establish trust with your audience.
Zimmer Radio and Marketing Group reports that a staggering 54% of consumers do not trust sponsored or branded content. Many consumers have had negative experiences through Paid Ads by not meeting customer expectations.
Through Inbound Marketing, you can provide transparent pathways from the moment a consumer interacts with your brand.
Inbound Marketing tactics such as Social Media Marketing allow you to share about your brand in an authentic and open environment, that gives control back to the consumer to become educated, informed and allow two-way communication at your customer’s finger tips.
#3: Inbound Marketing is Cost-effective
Compared to Outbound Marketing practices that involve Paid Advertising tactics such as Display Ads, Social Media Promotion and other paid avenues, Inbound Marketing is by far the most cost-effective tool in your marketing toolkit.
While these disruptive advertising tactics may be somewhat effective in producing results, users are approached with a less intuitive interaction with Paid Advertisements that come across their feed and often require to be served an ad upwards of 7X before taking an action.
Through Social Media and Content Marketing however, many online platforms are free to use for businesses and the ability to publish your own content cost next to nothing.
With the right support and guidance from an agency like Chirp, you can start creating content in no time at a fraction of the cost of traditional marketing efforts.
#4: Inbound Marketing Improves Customer Retention and Loyalty
Within Inbound Marketing, there are a number of tools and tactics that can support the way you build your relationship and loyalty with your customer without having to break the bank.
A review on Customer Retention Strategies by HubSpot shows data from multiple clientele, point to creating a full-circle approach to improve customer satisfaction, ultimately resulting in greater ROI and customer loyalty.
One study showed that R&G Technologies found that gathering valuable customer feedback through Survey Tools helped improve and create long-lasting relationships with their clients and identify unhappy customers before they churn.
So next time you’re not sure where to go with your next big marketing move, consider creating an open opportunity gather feedback from your customers to improve your processes, products and services and overall serve your customers better.
#5: Inbound Marketing Increases Your Website Traffic
Unlike traditional marketing tactics, Inbound Marketing through online avenues can increase your overall web traffic through a number of tactics such as Search Engine Optimization, Social Media Marketing, Blogging, and more.
SEO guru and Digital Marketer, Neil Patel, emphasizes the value of building brand awareness through Inbound Methodology tactics such as Blogging to attract new customers and build thought leadership.
Once integrating Inbound Marketing methodology into their strategy, businesses found a 92.7% increase in generating leads.
Furthermore, Patel extends that when creating your inbound marketing, you should focus on creating content that is useful, usable, desirable, findable, accessible and credible.
Blogging for lead generation is one of our more prominent services at Chirp that has supported our clients is qualifying 3x more leads than their competition.
#6: Inbound Marketing Provides Real-time Research Opportunities
In comparison to the types of content you might produce for your brand, Inbound Marketing can be interactive for your audience and harbour greater research opportunities with your potential prospects.
Dubai-based web design and development agency, Go Gulf, found that in a recent study:
At Chirp, we empower our clients to seek new ways to create interactive content through our Content Creation coaching so they’re able to create these types of interactive content.
For example, an interactive content piece may be to experiment with a social media poll or a live video to get real-time consumer feedback on an upcoming product.
#7: Inbound Marketing Encourages Engagement
When you look at what marketing has really captivated your attention and earned your engagement, it’s likely based around something that conveyed Curiosity, Urgency, Relevance, Value and Emotion. One prominent tool that trumps traditional marketing tactics in this department is Video Marketing.
Inbound Marketing strategies from expert marketers have learned to incorporate some level of Video Marketing into their marketing campaigns as social platforms evolve and integrate real-time video creation tools such as Live Video Streams, IGTV and more.
Social Media Today’s 2019 Video Marketing Infographic reports that:
Businesses that utilize video in their posts have received 10x more engagement than those posts without video.
And the great part is you don’t have to feel the pressure to make it perfect either! Even a casual conversation captured in a 1-min video is more likely to outperform a static post with your customers.
#8: Inbound Marketing Cultivates Community
Lastly, we’ve discovered the value of Inbound Marketing comes from its ability to cultivate community. Inbound Marketing strategies can expand your reach to untapped markets and audiences by creating the space for community to grow.
What some of these community hubs might look like is a Facebook or LinkedIn Group, a Twitter Chat, or even an Instagram Pod. These hubs can be used to educate consumers, create two-way communication channels and even learn from your audience in real-time on their overall Customer Experience.
Leading Social Media Management platform, Hootsuite, found in a recent 2019 Facebook Statistics Report that:
There are over 200 million people of meaningful Facebook groups.
These micro-communities are a prime resource for businesses to build affinity with their customers and keep connected with their most devoted fans, while occasionally promoting their latest news, products or services.
Summary
Overall, Inbound Marketing will continue to rise and prevail as a key driver in business growth and success as digital plays a vital role in the Customer Experience Lifecycle.
If your brand is ready to transform the way you do marketing, reach out to Chirp Media for a complimentary marketing assessment below.
Article by Richard Walsh
As a certified inbound and content marketer, Richard believes in the need to create high-quality compelling content, that drives engagement and interaction. Richard has been developing brands and high-quality web experiences since 2001. Book a meeting with Richard to talk about your branding and marketing efforts.
