Is Inbound Marketing Right for My Business?

Is inbound marketing right for my business? In short, yes. It’s smart to consider inbound marketing no matter what business you’re in. Inbound marketing is fast becoming the right strategy for promoting businesses because today’s customers don’t respond to traditional marketing tactics like they used to.

Does that mean it’s the only option you should use? Well, not exactly. You should always test a variety of communication channels to tell customers about what you have to offer and to see what they respond to.

Inbound marketing might be a good place to start, however, depending on what business you’re in. Let’s look at what inbound marketing means and some ways to tell if it’s right for you.

How Inbound Marketing Helps Your Business

Simply put, inbound marketing means attracting customers to you.

No telemarketing, no paid advertising, no email spam. You create valuable content by writing blog posts on interesting topics, including helpful advice on your web pages, and sending newsletters to keep customers informed. This useful stuff helps people solve their problems and save money. You become the expert they trust, and then they turn to you when they’re ready to buy.

Three Examples Where Inbound Marketing Works

1) You have a service to sell.
Where inbound marketing can really shine is when you’re in a business where your knowledge is what “sells” you. If service is what customers are buying, or if they’re buying your expertise as much as they’re buying your products, then inbound marketing is going to be one of your best tools.

2) You seek to inform.
If one of your business goals is to entertain or to inform your customers, inbound marketing can be a big help here, too. The content of your marketing naturally comes from your business operations. You just have to create it and get it out there where people can find it! (This is where social media comes in.)

3) You have a long-term goal.
Inbound marketing will benefit any business that has a long-term vision and plan in place. Creating valuable content, getting customers to respond to it, and then measuring that response takes time. This means at least months, and maybe even a year or more. You have to know exactly where you want to be and then use your interesting content as a step to getting there.

Inbound marketing takes time and consistency, but it’s worth it. To sum up, it’s a great choice if you’re a business that relies on expertise or services, seeks to inform or entertain, or has a solid long-term business plan already in place.

One More Thing About Inbound Marketing

The days are over where marketing meant interrupting people’s dinners. You don’t want to annoy your customers, you want to delight them! When you do, they’ll create some good word-of-mouth buzz that will be invaluable for your business.