Digital marketing comes in many different forms. There is no one size fits all formula for every type of business. While it’s true that just about every business can benefit from a digital marketing strategy, the most effective one depends on a variety of factors.
For instance, one of the most effective in terms of cost and results is inbound marketing. While there isn’t a business that can’t benefit from that type of marketing, there are some that get much more out of it than others.
Inbound marketing is a system that is used by many digital marketing services that allows your ideal customer to find you instead of having to find them yourself. It is effective because the leads generate themselves since people that find you are very motivated to use your services or product.
In this article, we will go over the factors that go into whether an inbound marketing strategy is going to be best for your type of business.
1 – You sell complex B2B solutions
Selling to other businesses is something that can be complex and complicated. Other businesses don’t jump lightly into a purchase especially if it is something that is expensive and requires a precise solution.
Some of these purchases require support over the lifetime of the product or even services which will impact how much of a commitment people are willing to take on. There is more to consider when making a purchase like this.
There is also the case that these B2B purchases require a lot of people signing off on it before it can be done It takes time in many big organizations for the final decision to be made.
All this to say that many leads are not going to be warm when they arrive on your landing page or enter the funnel. It takes a well built funnel to turn them from leads to customers in this type of scenario and inbound marketing is ideal.
2 – Long lifetime customer value
There is a cost attached to every customer created How much is spent to turn a lead into a customer? And, then you have to determine if the return on investment is there. When your company continues to make money off of a customer over the course of a few years or more, then this is a situation in which it makes sense to have inbound marketing as your strategy.
The ROI analysis is fundamental to any type of marketing strategy, but since inbound marketing can take some time and covers many different platforms, it is a slam dunk when a customer provides revenue for a long time going forward
3 – You’re spending a lot on lead generation
Those using outbound marketing for leads end up spending much more for a conversion than in an inbound marketing system. For instance, direct mail, tradeshows, and cold calling are all traditional outbound marketing systems in which your company has to hunt down leads.
Inbound marketing lets your potential leads find you so they come into your funnel much warmer than in other lead generating systems. This gives a much better ROI and takes less effort. It does take time to cultivate a lead in an inbound system, but there is going to be a massive difference in the cost required to convert a lead into a customer.
4 – Heavily dependent on RFPs
If your business targets companies that are required to make requests for proposals (RFPs) then an inbound marketing system is a good way to get on their radar. Many of these types of companies are always searching for cheaper options for the services and products they need to do business.
Since there are many different platforms used in inbound marketing, it becomes very easy for the buyers in these situations to find you and understand your business right away.
The way that the funnel works is an ideal way to make it onto the short list of companies who are buying high ticket items like construction equipment or a software suite. The process they have to go through before they are authorized to make a purchase is lengthy and the inbound marketing funnel maintains contact throughout the entirety of it.
Conclusion
Inbound marketing is as simple as it is powerful as a tool to generate conversions. If any of the above scenarios looks familiar to your company then the chances of it working for you are very high.