Attracting vs. Interrupting: Get Permission with Inbound Marketing

Inbound marketing is the best way to avoid being a pest to your audience because you’re attracting them instead of interrupting them.

In case you hadn’t heard, traditional maketing, now known as interruption marketing just isn’t working anymore. Of course there are always exceptions, but for the most part your potential customers are sick of telemarketers, they’re tired of direct mail, and they’ve become experts at ignoring old-fashioned marketing efforts. The average small business can’t afford to throw away money on marketing techniques that fail. Stop interrupting and ask your customers permission to build relationships; not only will you get more customers, but at 61% of the cost of traditional marketing, inbound marketing techniques will also save you money. Read on to learn more about the benefits of employing inbound marketing techniques and the pitfalls with using traditional marketing today.

Telemarketing

2/3 of US Citizens, or 2 million people, are on the FTC’s do not call list. Telemarketing has gotten a pretty bad rap, and American’s just don’t like being interrupted to chat about a newspaper subscription during dinner. Also, Telemarketing is really expensive. The average cost per lead is among the highest of any marketing form at approximately $309.

Direct Mail

44% of direct mail is recycled or tossed without a second glance. Depending on whether you’re sending out catalogues or postcards, prices per lead can average up to $75.32. It’s a costly endeavor environmentally too: the direct mail industry uses 100 million trees and 28 billion gallons of water annually.

Television Advertising

No one ever accused commercials of being cheap. Video production and editing costs aside, running a 30-second commercial costs thousands to hundreds of thousands of dollares. Since the average American watches nearly 5 hours of television daily, it’s sure to be a guaranteed way to get noticed, right? Actually, Americans just aren’t interested in commercials: 86% skip over ads.

Radio Advertisements

Running radio ads is among the more cost-efficient forms of interruption marketing. While prices widely vary by radio stations, businesses typically pay a flat fee of around $100-$500 dollars per spot to have their clip put in rotation, and can pay a little more for a prime spots. Bank Rate estimates that around 90% of radio ads don’t result in any profit. In our era of iTunes and Spotify, it’s hard to connect via radio waves.
In today’s digital age, consumers react better when you ask for their permission to connect. Rather than waste your precious budget on interruption marketing, turn to inbound marketing to build trust and develop relationships with potential customers:

Social Media

5% of US consumers under 35 access Facebook on a daily basis. 15% of millennials check in with their favorite brands at least once weekly on social media. Only 28% of younger consumers directly search for their favorite brands, with the remaining 72% of millennials discovering brand pages through their friends’ activity in their news feed. If you’re looking to connect with younger consumers, television or radio ads aren’t your best bet. Publishing content that will inspire your younger contacts to like, comment and share is the best way to extend your reach. Plus, when you combine social media marketing with other inbound techniques, the reach and engagement potential is even more potent.

Blogging

81% of Americans consider blogs a reliable source of advice and product recommendations. 61% have made purchase decisions based on blog content. Blogs don’t just dramatically increase your company website’s search rankings, they have real social influence over your market, drive leads, and are a magnet for inbound links. 57% of companies that maintain blogs have acquired a customer from that channel.

Marketing Automation with Email Marketing

Email marketing works, and it’s becoming more effective as Americans adopt smart phones. Emails opens on a mobile-enabled device increased 80% in the first half of 2012. 59% of business to business marketers say that email had the biggest positive impact on revenue of any marketing channel. The more you segment, the better your success: customer loyalty program emails have a 40% higher open rate.
As long as you are producing quality and original content across multiple channels on a consistant bases, you can expect to see the positive results of inbound marketing. The numbers don’t lie: at over 60% less per lead and with close rates averaging from 9-15% (a opposed to the 2% traditional marketing gets), inbound marketing is the most sensible solution for small and large businesses alike. Inbound marketing works and it’s the most cost-efficient method of marketing your brand today and in the new year.

Stop interrupting your customers with telemarketing calls and disposable mail and start using social media, blogs and email to build relationships. Contact us to get your inbound marketing inventory and success plan today!