Marketing Is A Lot Like Dating – It takes a Lot of Mr./Ms. Wrongs to Find One Mr./Ms. Right.

June 23, 2011 - PRLog -- When it comes down to it, marketing is a lot like dating.
Think about it: you meet, you discover shared interests (“I need that product/service,” “Hey, we’re really good at that service/product”), you ask around about your potential partner and, ultimately, you discover it’s a long-term match or you move on to find a better fit.

But it takes a lot of Mr./Ms. Wrongs to find one Mr./Ms. Right.
The same could be said for marketing – you need a steady stream of prospects to make one sale. And clever marketing  is the only way to keep funneling those prospects into your sales process. When it comes to filling the top of your sales funnel there are two main schools of thought: outbound marketing and inbound marketing.

Outbound Marketing
Just like it sounds, outbound marketing involves tactics that “go out” to generate leads. This includes generating leads via cold calling, email blasts to purchased or poorly culled lists, trade shows, television advertising, etc. It occurs when marketers put their message out there for the masses, whether those potential customers are shopping for that product or service or not.
Inbound Marketing

In inbound marketing, you draw the leads “in” to you. The foundation for all inbound marketing lies in creating content around the buying cycle; this is key to inbound marketing because it allows you to “meet prospects where they are” and then lead them into your sales funnel. This is done by creating content around the questions your prospects are asking during each step of the  buying cycle (i.e., the research stage) and putting it out there to get found via online communities, social media sites, blogs, online search (SEO), etc.

Not only does inbound marketing put you right in front of your customer, it also costs less than outbound marketing. A recent study sponsored by HubSpot reported that in 2011, the average cost per lead for outbound-dominated businesses was $373, while inbound businesses reported their leads cost on average $143. The study also found that “54 percent of those businesses surveyed for HubSpot’s “2011: The State of

Inbound Marketing” are increasing their inbound marketing budgets.
Back to our analogy, think of inbound marketing as the eHarmony.com version of dating- you’re more likely to find the right match in a community of like-minded people than you are on a night out on the town.

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David Schwartz
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davidschwartz@sosemarketing.com
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