Modern day marketers need to keep up to date with the best practices In order to maximise their marketing efforts. The HubSpot ‘state of inbound 2014’ looks into the effect of inbound marketing in 2014 and gives you great facts and figures to help you gain the most out of your marketing.
Inbound Vs Outbound
The report states that in 2013, outbound marketing provided about 34% of lead sources. In 2014, that number dropped sharply to 22%.
What about inbound? According to the survey, inbound marketing provides 45% of leads. That's more than double the leads from outbound.
Outbound is proving to be less and less effective as potential customers now use all sources of information at their disposal to learn about a product or company before they even contact the sales team. As everything gets reviewed online, it's not hard to find people with the right experience to guide our purchase decisions. Outbound techniques like cold calling, mass mail marketing and advertising are getting less and less effective.
Having a Blog is Vital!
The report highlights that blogging needs to be at the forefront of a modern marketers plan. Numbers suggest that a company with blogging as a main strategy is 13 times more likely to reflect a positive return on investment, in comparison to others that do not use blogging as a key marketing tool.
Blogging and writing relevant content for your business is proving to be a major lead generator for business. By developing relevant content and blogs you can make sure your business is seen as the market leader.
SEO is still a big lead generation tool
Everyone is aware that having great content and a website is one thing, but if it cannot be found then it’s not generating leads and ultimately sales. It’s the same as having the best hotel in the world but it’s in the middle of the Sahara.
HubSpot’s report has shown that Search Engine Optimisation is playing a bigger role in marketing than we think. More than 80 percent of marketers who responded to the survey, claimed that SEO has become an increasingly important lead source over the last six months. This is compared to just about 60 percent of sales professionals who said the same last year.
Marketers Getting a Higher ROI
The report has identified that from the 3,750 marketers in the report more than 35 percent said that they are seeing an increase in ROI from inbound marketing compared to last year. This is proving that inbound marketing is the most cost effective solution to lead generation and maximising ROI.
Inbound Marketing is growing
Around 60% of marketers in 2013 were using inbound marketing. In 2014, this number has increased to more than 80% now using inbound marketing. This is a large spike in inbound marketing and has taken over as the dominant form of marketing a business, products and services.
Conclusion
The key overall message to take from the report is that inbound marketing is growing fast and is proving the best way to reach new customers effectively. One of the biggest reasons for this is the modern day consumer hates to be interrupted, and hates to be forcefully sold to. Inbound marketing helps consumers make their buying decision by giving them all the information required, without the interruptions of outbound marketing.
This is an overall insight into the HubSpot’s 54 page inbound marketing report for 2014. The report is available here via HubSpot’s website https://www.jdrgroup.co.uk/blog
JDR Group are a Platinum HubSpot agency, and one of the leading HubSpot partners in the UK. By working with a certified HubSpot partner you can get the most from HubSpot, and get more traffic, more leads, and more sales for your business.
Article by Dale Bonser
