Inbound marketing isn't a brand new concept.   It's known as a business methodology that attracts customers, by creating valuable content and experiences tailored to them. Isn't it about time that we took the same approach across the whole business?  Let's take a look at the value an inbound strategy can provide, when viewed from a wider perspective:

“Inbound is a more helpful and human approach to growing your business. It’s a method of attracting, engaging, and delighting people that provides value, and builds trust.” 

It’s important, at this point, to understand the main elements of an inbound strategy and what that means for your overall business.

It might seem simple, but the truth is that customers don’t want to be sold to, they want to be educated.  Inbound tactics can deliver the kind of information your prospects and customers need to help them make smart, well-informed decisions and, ultimately, help them grow.

Before we make a purchase decision, 60% of us rely on word-of-mouth, friends, and social media; 49% on customer references; 47% on recommendations or reports from an analyst; and 44% of people rely on media articles.

More importantly, the majority of this happens before they talk to you! Before your sales team even has a chance to contact a prospect, he or she is already 57% of the way through the sales process.  Despite this fact, some salespeople are still cold calling as if buyers have no awareness, and others can expect to spend 7.5 hours of cold calling to get ONE qualified appointment, according to a Baylor University study. 

How to do Inbound

To do inbound, you need to think inbound, and this means using a specific set of strategies along the way. You’ll need to define your inbound principles and how this relates to your company’s purpose- how your business goals align with your buyer personas, and their experience. In addition to processes, content strategies and other elements, companies will need the right tools to ensure the business can execute on each one of your initiatives.

That sounds like a lot of work, but we’re here to get you started. As your inbound partner, our role is to guide you on this strategy, help you translate it into key initiatives, and drive the maximum benefit from the tools on your behalf. 

The Inbound Methodology

Our world has become characterised by infinite information, whenever and wherever we want it. The way we do business has to evolve in order to remain relevant to the people we want attract as customers. More emphasis is placed on engagement at scale and ensuring delight - giving clients a fantastic experience of your business.   

As a certified HubSpot solution partner, we often point new customers to this short video, for an introduction.

So, an inbound approach provides a structure for this to work in practice, today. Take a look at the automated tools and processes we can employ, when we wrap these around a customer-centric strategy.  

Yes, these work for the marketing team, but they are also great for the sales department and service teams too.  More on this in the coming weeks, as we take a closer look at the advantages of Inbound outside of marketing.  

Can we improve Sales conversion rates with Inbound?

If you're looking for more immediate results, then Inbound Sales is a good place to start. Companies using a blend of inbound and responsible outbound techniques, are better positioned for success in this new realm of buyer awareness. In fact, research shows that 64% of teams that use inbound selling reach their targets; as opposed to 49% of sales teams who use only outbound sales. IBM, for example, increased their sales by 400% after implementing their own inbound sales program. 

The good news is that you don't have to be the size of IBM to benefit from this new approach. Sales people will still need to talk to customers with Inbound.  The key difference for many of our clients is the structure and intelligence it provides to the team - before, during and after the call.  Here’s an example...

Is it a big investment?

Inbound is often seen as a fundamental shift in the way that you do business, but has more to do with re-structuring the way you work, over the investment you need to make in tools and additional software.  This is more than how to attract more visitors to your website, it spans all parts of your business. Many customers work with us to develop an inbound growth plan, that works to their own timeline and budget - start at your own pace and increase investment in-line with planned growth. 

Build your Inbound plan with Bud

Bud can help you establish your very own Inbound growth plan.  Book a free discovery meeting with one of our inbound experts, where we'll provide all the project templates and milestones you'll need, to get underway.  This includes our free HubSpot CRM offer, for those who don't already have a current solution. 

Book a meeting today or find out more about working with us