Inbound marketing is extremely underrated, especially when it comes to larger organizations. The reasoning behind this is clear: we live in an impatient business world, and inbound marketing is a long-term strategy.

In this article, I wish to briefly highlight what inbound marketing is. I will then proceed to explain why it is not optional but essential to implement an appropriate inbound marketing strategy. 

What is inbound marketing?

So, to provide a full overview, I will define inbound marketing in two ways:

Definition 1 | Formal & academic

Inbound marketing refers to strategies and practices that discuss, evaluate and correlate with the audience needs, wants and psychological profile (yes, I came up with this myself and did not steal it from somewhere else).

Definition 2 | Informal

Inbound marketing is about creating content for your audience and reaching out to them without talking about what you sell. 

The key factor is content creation. This can be in various forms such as SEO, email marketing, video creation, guest posts, research, webinars and so on. The purpose of content creation within an inbound marketing strategy is to resonate with your audience’s wants and needs. 

The business world, sadly, is guilty of a key marketing flaw. 

Inbound marketing is often compromised for outbound marketing and direct sales

Arguably, the majority of companies often focus on direct marketing methods and generating full life-cycle leads themselves. 

This article is not to devalue outbound marketing and direct contact methods. However, one goal of this piece is highlighting the current dynamics of the business/marketing world. In doing so, I wish to reflect on how inbound marketing can be leveraged as a primary strategy for each business. 

We live in a hyper-competitive world 

Have a new business idea? Somebody has already come up with it. Have a cool new brand name in mind? Somebody else has thought of it already. Launched a new business? There’s a good chance there is a comparative competitor. Already scaling? So is your competitor……

The above serves as a brief verbal demonstration of the global environment in which business is conducted. 

We are living in the age of “innovation”.

From a small business perspective. Everyone has access to the enhanced commercial technologies today, such as Shopify. 

Therefore, everyone is now somehow self-legitimised to be known as a “businessperson” or a “CEO”. And sometimes, there’s no issue with that, everybody has to start somewhere. 

The point of this is to show that it’s now somehow about “what” you sell, but “how” you sell it.

Likewise, larger corporations also ought to be innovative in their marketing agendas.

The issue with outbound marketing is that it is easily replicable and overly used by all stakeholders, from companies to other marketing stakeholders such as agencies.

Innovation cannot be applied to “cold calling” per se. Unless you wish to sing people a song on the phone, which I would strongly advise against. 

Inbound marketing is innovative

In contrast, inbound marketing leaves a great amount of room for creativity. 

One basic, and advanced, example is a website’s blog / SEO. You can use your blog for so much. 

However, you would be impressed to see how far subject knowledge combined with SEO proficiency can get you. 

Plus, this approach to marketing allows you to target your specific audience by using subject awareness and thought leadership.

Generate loyal prospects

Building on the last point and the early definition provided, inbound resonates with a consumer’s needs and mindset. 

In the context of written content/SEO in an inbound campaign, it is the consumer who is seeking content on a particular subject. This particular subject also somehow pertains to the work of the company. 

Let’s consider an example: my work as a business consultant working with skilled migrants. 

I write blogs on issues such as business visa policies. I’m not an immigration lawyer, nor a government representative. However, these are subjects that my prospects / future clients are interested in, and frankly so am I in my own case. 

This practice has not only attained clients, but also warm qualified leads, as well as prospects on social media such as LinkedIn followers. 

Cost-efficient (but not time-efficient)

Outbound marketing has the advantage of generating results in the short-term. However, those results come at a cost, such as time, staff, planning and more. 

Outsourcing is accordingly a costly option too. 

However, inbound marketing, mainly requires “subject knowledge”. Therefore, there is this added element of “skill” within this strategy. However, it can generally be done at a more cost-efficient arrangement. 

And this principle applies to a range of stakeholders, from solo founders to large organizations.

Nonetheless, developing successful inbound marketing campaigns and achieving results take time. It is important that entrepreneurs and companies adopt inbound marketing strategies with a thorough awareness of its long-term nature.

Inbound marketing can be a game changer for your business. Need an expert’s opinion?

Get in touch with me to discuss your inbound marketing plans!

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About | My name is Sohrab Vazir. I’m a UK-based entrepreneur and business consultant. At the age of 22, and while I was an international student (graduate), I started my own Property Technology (PropTech) business, StudyFlats. As a solo founder, I grew my business to 30+ UK cities, with a global client base across 100+ countries. Following the Pandemic killing my precious work/business, I now transfer my knowledge to other entrepreneurs.