What is digital marketing? Is it just social media marketing? NO! When looking at marketing today, a better way to look at things is to look at the old way of doing things — outbound marketing — and compare that with the new way: inbound marketing.
What is Inbound Marketing?
Inbound Marketing is NOT social media. Social media is one component of Inbound Marketing
How does inbound marketing differ from outbound marketing?
Outbound marketing is “traditional, old-style” marketing. It is:
- Flyers
- Sales calls (cold calling — you know, those annoying sales calls that always come at dinnertime!)
- Junk mail
- Anything that is directed out at you, that you didn’t seek out
Inbound marketing is about getting found by customers. It includes:
- Creating videos that customers want to see
- Writing blog posts and maintaining a blog that talks about subjects that people want to see, subscribe to, read, and interact and engage with
- Participating in the conversation about your brand and its principals on microblogging and social networks, such as Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn.
- Creating useful content that people want to read and engage with
There are three key components of inbound marketing. They are:
- Content: This is the substance of any inbound marketing campaign
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO): This makes it easier for your potential customers to find your content. Today, content isn’t king but rather optimized content is king.
- Social Media: Amplifies content
As you can see, social media’s sole purpose is to amplify and promote the optimized content that is being created in the first two components. Most of an inbound marketing campaign’s time should be spent on content creation and not sending content via social media. We will shortly post on how much time is required on a daily basis for anyone who wants to engage in inbound marketing.
According to HubSpot, “When your content is distributed across and discussed on networks of personal relationships, it becomes more authentic and nuanced, and is more likely to draw qualified customers to your site”
