During the talks that I give I'm often asked "what is
Inbound Marketing". Well, simply it's a combination of elements woven
together into a system, a contextual marketing system, that is data-driven and
produces superior ROI (Return on Investment). That's the short and easy answer.
I think that the term "Inbound Marketing" is
misleading - and outdated. What we are really talking about here is "contextual marketing", a data-driven
marketing system that turns traditional marketing on its head. It's a system
that earns us customers by providing
content that is relevant, important and compelling to them - it's content that
solves a customer's problem.
What we are talking about here is understanding the context
of the environment that we market into and gain deep insight into our customers.
It's essential to understand our customer and what they are looking for from us
prior to the creation of any content and then understanding the context in
which our users are using our content.
The good news is that we have the capability to understand
these things now. Using a combination of the readily available (and free or
inexpensive) tools that are available to us today each of us has the ability to
turn our own marketing departments and efforts into powerful machines that
produce more qualified leads, a vast reduction in customer acquisition costs
and superior ROI. More good news; Contextual Inbound Marketing is scalable.
Anyone, or any business of any scope or size can and must do it.
Understanding what our customers are looking for, and then
giving it to them, and then discerning what they do with the content we provide
them are the "keys to the kingdom".
