Inbound Marketing Insights

Did you know that 54% more leads are generated by inbound marketing than by traditional marketing tactics? In addition, as marketing budgets continue to be stretched, inbound marketing actually saves companies an average of $20K per year than spending on traditional marketing tactics. 

Here are 5 inbound marketing trends to consider as part of your digital marketing strategy:

1. Automated Marketing will Increase Even More in Value
If you don't already use some sort of marketing automation, you're missing out on a $5.5 billion industry according to brandpipe.co.uk.  You already likely spend approximately 50% of your time generating the content, so why spend more time than necessary to generate and nurture leads?  Use your time more wisely to generate the content that drives people to your product and close more leads.  Let marketing automation and automated workflows do everything in between. 

2. Inbound Will be More Interactive Than Ever
While your consumers today desire information delivered to them simply and concisely, they also want to be entertained.  Consider leveraging interactive elements in your workflows to engage potential leads and gather critical information about prospective clients.  Tools such as quizzes, calculators, generators, and graders can all be used to pique the interest of your target audience, all while putting your hard-working content and research to use.

3. Relationship Marketing Continues to Increase in Importance
Relationship marketing essentially sets out to build long-lasting customer loyalty and long-term customer interactions.  One of the biggest ways we see relationship marketing take hold is through the use of technology, specifically smartphones. Smartphone users (on average) check their phones 262 times per day.   Having your brand, content, and social strategy mobile-friendly will make all the difference in capitalizing on this emerging trend.  Hint: If your website isn't already responsive, move that to the top priority on your list of things to do first.

4. Search Will Go Beyond Search Engines
While Google is still the top search engine, "search" has begun to become quite a science across social media as well.  One of the biggest benefactors of this new trend is businesses where instant "buy buttons," as well as payment options, have become commonplace across social networks such as Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter.  Inbound can help you leverage the "internet of search" to improve sales, gain more leads, and get new customers.

5. Digital Advertising Will Start to Overtake Traditional Advertising Methods
Television advertising and other traditional advertising methods are overwhelmingly expensive traditional marketing tactics that only the largest companies can undertake. And according to The CMO Council's recent annual survey, the disparity between traditional and digital advertising will only continue to grow.  What this means for you is more value for the content you're creating and a much more vast marketing environment from which to stake your claim in the marketplace.

Where there once were major gaps to be filled between small businesses and major corporations in terms of marketing and technology, access to marketing technology promises to bridge those gaps and bring a significantly greater competitive advantage to anyone choosing inbound marketing as a complement and key component to their cohesive marketing strategy.

Do you want more information on inbound marketing with insight from over 3,900 marketers and business professionals around the globe? Download your digital copy of the State of Inbound Marketing & Sales Report from HubSpot. 

Note: This post was originally published in 2016.