Inbound marketing—offering customers informative and engaging content that they can actually use—is a great way to position yourself or your business as the leading expert in your field or niche. When potential customers learn from you and come to you to find answers and solutions, they are more likely to recognize you and act when they are ready to purchase. The familiarity and comfort level you’ve already established is a great icebreaker and can significantly influence your prospect’s decision when it is time to make a purchase. Inbound marketing is known for having a great ROI – but what’s so urgent about adding inbound techniques to your strategy today? If you’ve been thinking about adding content marketing to your strategy, the time is now. Here’s why:
3 Reasons to Start Inbound Marketing Now
If you don’t Educate and Inform your Customers –
Someone Else Will
One of the biggest reasons for urgency in inbound marketing is the sheer availability of information and the level playing field for competition. In an increasingly information-hungry digital environment, word about the high ROI on inbound marketing has spread, so your competitors are rapidly working to position themselves as the go-to authority in your field.
The earlier you get into the inbound marketing game, the better. Piles of helpful posts, videos, papers and updates that stretch back for months simply help you establish yourself as a leading expert in your field – and someone to go to for help when a problem arises. If you are not focused on and working towards becoming the leading expert in your particular niche, someone else will grab the top spot. Inbound marketing is not a secret, so if you don’t include it in your strategy, your competitors will be happy to help all those prospects find the information they need.
Your Local Edge is Gone
You may once have dominated one territory simply because you were there and able to visit prospects in person; the Internet takes geography out of the equation. Thanks to video marketing, web conferencing and other innovations, you (and your competitors) don’t actually have to visit a client in person to make a sale. Some people still like face-to-face meetings, but the availability of information and your competitors’ focus on inbound marketing could tempt even local customers away.
Inbound Marketing is an Equalizer
Outbound marketing is expensive – so it automatically excluded some businesses and startups from competing with you at all. A new business might not have the funds to invest in paid advertising, but if they have savvy content creators and an understanding of what your target demographic wants, they could easily become a major player in your field. Inbound marketing makes it easy for small companies to compete with larger ones. You can use this to your advantage by shifting some of your focus to inbound techniques – or you can get left behind by a smaller, hungrier competitor.
When is the best time to plant an apple tree? 20 years ago. When is the second best time to plant an apple tree? Today.
This old adage about trees is true for inbound marketing as well; the sooner you begin sowing the seeds, the sooner you can begin reaping rewards from your content and strategy.
