What Is Inbound Marketing?

Since the internet became a staple of modern life, marketing has been evolving to keep up with changing consumer behaviors and expectations. Many businesses have struggled to understand these changes, let alone adopt a new way of thinking and new methods of connecting with their audience. It used to be commonplace to purchase print ads and spend countless hours shaking hands and sending follow-up notes.

While finding results using those methods may not have gone away entirely, businesses who have adopted the inbound marketing methodology have found that 54% more leads are generated by inbound tactics than traditional paid marketing. This results in major growth and in dramatically higher ROI. In addition, companies that invest in inbound save $20K per year on average over traditional marketing investments.

How Inbound Marketing Works

Inbound works by creating a wealth of knowledge that serves to answer the questions of your prospective customers. When they head to search engines seeking answers, they are introduced to your content. After that introduction, a series of automated (and sometimes manual) events occur that allow you to cultivate a strong relationship of trust over time. With that trust, when prospects are ready to make a purchase decision, your business is the first one they consider and often the one they choose to do business with. Below is a diagram of how inbound marketing works.

The graphic above illustrates how strangers who are introduced to your brand become customers and eventual promoters over time. While this approach takes a sustained effort to establish a foundation that begins to generate leads, the growth associated with this model is sustainable and exponential.

Your investments in inbound marketing can be compared to the compounding interest associated with a long-term retirement plan. Fortunately, you will achieve a return on your inbound investment much faster and you won’t experience the fluctuations that the market causes on a retirement account.

Working with Xponent21 to develop and automate an inbound marketing strategy for your business, you can expect a team of partners who have your growth interest as our top priority. Your success will allow us to continue to prove that the inbound methodology can work across industries and for every business that commits to it.

If you’re ready to make a shift in your own marketing strategies and think that inbound might be right for you, please reach out to us.

Xponent21 Inc is a brand and inbound marketing agency located in Richmond, VA. We provide an array of digital marketing services including website design, sales and marketing automation, SEO, digital ads, social media management, brand strategy, and more. Explore our capabilities.

Graphic via HubSpot.