3 Reasons to Implement an Inbound Marketing Strategy

In HubSpot's 2023 State of Marketing report, it was noted that nearly 80% of marketers say that marketing has changed more in the past 3 years than it has in the past five decades.

If you are a marketer- you feel the reality of this statement at your very core. 

If you are the owner of a business and have kept even a small portion of your attention on changes in marketing, it may be safe to say you are feeling overwhelmed too. 

With all of the recent changes in marketing, is inbound marketing still a strategy you should invest in?

The answer is, yes. 

Inbound Marketing Is and Will Always Be About the Customer

What inbound marketing looks like has changed over the years. What it looked like in businesses in 2015 is different than what it looks like in 2023, and it will continue to change. Why is that? 

When you understand what Inbound Marketing is, you'll see why it changes.

HubSpot defines Inbound Marketing as, "A methodology to attract loyal customers to your business by aligning with your target audience's needs. Creating tailored marketing experiences through valuable content is the core of an inbound marketing strategy that helps drive customer engagement and growth."

It's about the customer, and it will always be about the customer. As the customer's needs change, so does inbound marketing. 

Think about the inbound methodology being what a helpful customer service rep would say and how they would treat a customer when they first enter a brick-and-mortar business all of the way through their decision and purchase. But, this is done digitally. Your website and other digital information are playing the role of the helpful customer service representative. 

You might be surprised how affordable inbound marketing can be, especially when you factor in all the benefits (you might even call it "lead generation") you get from inbound.

There's a cost involved. Nothing in life comes for free, except for the wisdom passed down by our grandmothers. When it comes to inbound marketing, you need to invest some money upfront in purchasing the necessary software. Additionally, it's wise to invest in real-life inbound marketing experts who can help launch your campaign with a user-friendly, search-engine-friendly website and compelling content.

But if you're running a mid-sized business, you're already putting money into a marketing budget.  Inbound is just another bucket in that budget. 

3 Reasons to Implement Inbound Marketing

1.  Inbound Marketing Provides Actionable Data  

If you're doing inbound marketing right, you're developing valuable content that your buyer personas need to find a solution to their challenge, and ultimately providing the solution to that challenge. 

But, just like dating, you don't start a date by asking the person, "Will you marry me?" So it is with your messaging. Don't start with, "Do you want to buy?" Take time to date and offer your prospects information and opportunities as they are ready. So, when do you pop the question?

This is part of the beauty of implementing inbound marketing using HubSpot. HubSpot is a robust tool that allows you to understand where a prospect is in their buying journey based on their behavior and interactions with your brand while they are online. 

The ability to track and measure engagement provides information to help determine your real return on investment. As technology increases the opportunities we have to interact with prospects and customers increase, and so will the need to view data to determine the effectiveness of marketing efforts. 

2.  Inbound Marketing Aligns With Other Marketing Tactics and Strategies

If you are staying the course and keeping your customer's needs front and center, chances are, you are already doing inbound marketing to some extent.

Implementing inbound marketing doesn't mean that you need to make a choice and scrap traditional marketing activities like advertising or trade shows.  But what you CAN do is develop content specific to those events or ads. 

You can lead people to your site with paid ads or paid search, and then offer them solutions to their challenges and content they can access via a form fill.  This allows you to capture information about this prospect and the data needed so that you can address challenges and concerns based on real user behavior. 

Eventually, what started as an unknown person who came across an ad, turns into a person with a name. 

For example, Mary Jane Smith, mother of three children just moved into the area and hasn't yet found a great pediatric dentist but she saw that ad that led to your site.  She was able to know what to look for in finding a pediatric dentist because she read your blog, "How to Find a Great Pediatric Dentist When You Move to a New Town."  Then she downloaded the ebook from your site, "The Tooth Fairy is Real:  Great Ways to Inspire Dental Health in Families."  And you found out more and more and more about Mary Jane and you kept interacting with her. Eventually, she brought her kids to your practice. And now she's one of your top referring clients. Sounds dreamy, right?  It can happen.

3.  You Can't Afford NOT to Do It

Inbound marketing is happening.  More and more people are realizing that attracting visitors, converting them to leads, turning them into customers, and then delighting them so that they become promoters of your business makes perfect sense. It makes so much sense that more and more businesses are doing it every day.  Your business can only benefit from being ranked higher on search engines, collecting relevant information from your website visitors, communicating regularly and relevantly with your leads, and turning those leads into customers.