While these issues may seem like common sense to many of us, I have found that in speaking with many of my prospective customers about Inbound Marketing (as opposed to Outbound Marketing) I am surprised at how many folks simply don't have any understanding about them! This makes it tough for these folks to adapt to the new & current ways of doing business online. All businesses, especially advertising agencies, need to take advantage of doing biz on the web. Here's 5 reasons why:
1) On the internet, there is a huge advantage to being first (especially with the mostest!). Trying to play catch-up to your competitors is much more expensive & time consuming than one might think! That being said, a small regional chain of brick & mortar places using Inbound Marketing can get "overtaken" by a huge national chain (with a virtually unlimited budget!). In this regard, it is interesting to note that IBM has over 10,000 bloggers!
2) The huge advantage that Inbound Marketing has over Outbound (traditional) Marketing is that customers overwhelmingly want to have input into their transactions with most of their suppliers. People want to have a dialog with the companies they give their money to. You can't do this with the one-way action of Outbound Marketing: it's really tough to call a TV advertiser to tell them you hate/like their advertising! Plus, on the internet, it's straightforward to measure exactly who, what, where, when, why & how! At best, in Outbound Marketing, these numbers are really fuzzy! Or maybe even not much more than an educated guess!
3) There is simply no comparison between the reach of Inbound Marketing and traditional marketing channels! And this disparity is getting larger every day! The internet is growing faster than most folks can imagine and there are 3 main areas where this growth is concentrated: video, mobile and geo-location. I see a substantial convergence of these 3 areas in the near future (1 - 2 years!)
4) From personal experience, I can assure you that customers fully expect to be able to conduct business on their own terms: on their time and wherever they are. The best way to accomodate your customers is to have an Inbound Marketing channel up & running smoothly!
5) We all must adapt to new ways of doing things or get relgated to the dustbin of history. Or lose out to whoever is in first place! Business, at least, is not a horse race: i.e., a sale can only go to whoever finishes first; there is no sale/transaction when you come in second, or third, etc., no matter how close the finish is! The fast pace of change means a 4 yr. old computer or phone is almost worthless! (Although I confess that Don Slevin from www.fyscomputers.com built me a server that ran flawlessly for 11 years!!!)
So when you are looking for ways to achieve consistent, measureable growth for your small & midsized biz, make sure you have a strong & vibrant web presence - your Brand - and you work on & in this part of your company as hard & as smart as any other division. The opportunities are huge & not to be missed!
As always, I'd love to know about your experiences & thoughts.
Dave Heinrich from WebTechUniverse.com.
