2015: The Year You Adopt Inbound Marketing

As you’re putting together your budget for 2015, you notice that your director of marketing has added line items for content marketing and social media. You’re confused as to how this is going to help your bottom line. After all, the goal for the company is straightforward, and everyone knows it: 20% growth. 

You decide to press the issue. How does this help us grow the company next year? Social media and content are nice, but we’re looking for tangible results. Why not just keep doing what we’ve been doing? Trade shows and paid ads have gotten us this far; why shouldn’t we just put more money into those efforts?

Your director is onto something.

The ROI for companies who emphasize content is head and shoulders above those who don’t. According to HubSpot’s State of Inbound 2014, marketers who blog are 13 times more likely to have increased ROI year over year. When your business publishes a blog post, it becomes an owned brand asset for your company. It’s yours forever, with the potential to generate leads for as long as it’s visible on your blog. That means that the effort you put into creating thoughtfully-written content continues to provide value to your company long after you’ve hit publish.

Another important benefit of a blog is its ability to generate well-educated leads. The higher the average selling price of a service or product, the more online research a prospect will do before they make a decision. If you have quality content online for your prospects to research and educate themselves, you will set yourself apart and create a positive experience for them. 

This can also help prospects start to make a decision to purchase your product or service, often before you’ve ever had to pick up the phone. By the time your sales team gets in contact with a lead who’s been reading your blog, they’ll find the process easier to navigate; the lead will already be familiar with what you offer and how you can solve their problems. According to the State of Inbound 2014, over 50% of inbound leads are somewhat knowledgeable about a product or service prior to speaking with a sales person. 

As an added bonus, inbound marketing is one of the most cost-effective methods of lead generation. Leads sourced through inbound practices are consistently less expensive than outbound leads. This is because the content you produce is an investment that you keep, as opposed to paying to rent access to your prospects’ attention via paid ads or events. 

Inbound marketing is a proven methodology that gets results. Adopters are benefiting from establishing their websites as sources for quality information. Want to learn what results other companies are getting from inbound marketing? Check out these 10 Powerful Marketing Charts from the State of Inbound 2014.