How would you rather develop a relationship with a business: Being disrupted by something you may find interesting, or interacting with the business of your own free will? What many advertisers don’t realize is that outbound marketing techniques thrive on the disruption of consumers’ daily lives. Inbound marketing, however, “focuses on tailoring content to individual users’ needs,” according to a study by Visual Objects.

“Inbound marketing is a long-​term effort that allows businesses to get to know their customers personally through targeted content and digital tools that track the content’s performance,” says Visual Objects. This type of marketing creates customers through a sales funnel consisting of four stages. 

The 4 Stages of Inbound Marketing

• Awareness: making content available that an individual may consider useful or interesting (such as how-​to videos, blog posts and non-​advertising social media posts), even if they aren’t researching a purchase decision
• Interest: as a result of the content, the individual navigates to the company’s website or landing page
• Decision: once on the website, the company can promote its products or services through deals and offers in order to sway the individual’s buying decision
• Action: now familiar with the company and its offerings, the individual makes a purchase from the business

According to Visual Objects, within the last six months, businesses that use inbound marketing have experienced an increase in both leads (72%) and conversions (55%). Now you know how it works, but where should your clients be placing their content during the awareness stage?

Most companies (90%) use social media for their inbound marketing efforts. Others use blog content (53%) and search engine optimization (53%) to raise awareness. If you want to learn which channels will work best for your client’s specific target audiences, head to AudienceSCAN on AdMall by SalesFuel. There, you’ll find hundreds of audience profiles, from Cooking Recipe Experimenters to Techies, detailing demographic, purchase intent and marketing information, including where they have last seen non-​advertising information that led them to take action.

Your clients don’t have to bug consumers to make sales. Using inbound marketing, their customers will come to them. They just need the right strategy.