Inbound Marketing - Low Cost with High Return for Small Business Owners

March 12, 2012 - PRLog -- Studies show that businesses who spend more than 50% of their lead generation budget on Inbound Marketing channels report a significantly lower cost per sales lead than those who spend 50% or more of their budgets on outbound marketing channels. For example, the average cost per lead for outbound-dominated businesses was $346, while inbound businesses reported their cost per lead $135 on average.

The term “Inbound Marketing” is a concept based on renowned author and public speaker, Seth Godin, and his idea of permission marketing. It refers to a style of marketing that focuses on getting businesses found online by new visitors, converting site traffic into leads, and closed-loop analytics performance tracking.

Unlike traditional outbound marketing, where businesses push their messages at consumers with techniques that include direct mail, telemarketing and trade shows, these methods have become less effective over time as buyers have behaviorally and technologically (e.g., DVR, spam filters, ‘do-not-call’ lists) tuned these interruptive campaigns out. Inbound marketing is becoming widely accepted because it complements the way buyers make purchasing decisions today—they are using the Internet to learn about the products and services that best meet their needs.

A survey of 972 professionals familiar with their business’ marketing strategy was conducted in January 2012 by HubSpot, a marketing software company based on Cambridge, Massachusetts. In this survey there were five key takeaways that every small business should know.

The five key takeaways from this survey were:

1. Inbound Marketing Brings Low-Cost Leads
Inbound marketing channels are maintaining their low-cost advantage. Inbound marketing-dominated organizations experience a cost per lead 61% lower than outbound marketing-dominated organizations.

2. More Spending on Inbound Channels
The distribution of marketing budgets continues to shift to inbound channels. The difference between inbound and outbound marketing expenditures grew by 50% from 2011 to 2012.

3. Social Media Growth
2012 saw growth in social media use across the spectrum. 62% of companies said that social media had become more important as a source of leads in the past six months.

4. The Rise of Google+
Google+ has started to affect social media marketing. Within six months of its launch, over 40% of marketers consider it “useful,” “important” or “critical.” It’ll be interesting to see how Google+ affects marketers in the future.

5. Increasing Value of Blogging
Businesses are increasingly aware their blog is highly valuable. 81% of businesses rated their company blogs as “useful,” “important” or “critical.” An impressive 25% rated their company blog as “critical” to their business.

Download a free copy of the complete 2012 State of Inbound Marketing survey results at www.nanzoriginal.com/2012-state-of-inbound-marketing/.

Learn more about nanZoriginal, Inbound Marketing Specialist at www.nanzoriginal.com

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nanZoriginal is an Inbound Marketing Specialist helping small businesses target audiences with useful information & tools that attract qualified leads, as well as interact & develop relationships with potential customers using inbound marketing solutions.