Is it time to switch more of the budget to inbound marketing

There is one school of thought that terms many of the traditional marketing communication tools such as, display advertising, exhibitions, email campaigns and telemarketing, as outbound marketing. These methods are deemed interruptive because advertising messages, emails and telephone calls intrude into your  life. It is also pointed out that the means of blocking these intrusions using time shifting to avoid TV advertisements, junk mail filters to swerve around unwanted email traffic and caller identity to filter telephone calls is making these traditional communications less effective.

The new world is termed inbound marketing where instead of the vendor targeting prospective customers, the customers find the vendor. It is argued that buyers typically start the process of researching products and suppliers on the Internet. So the first goal is for your prospects to find your web site. A modern take on the notion of 'build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door?' So, how out of the millions of web sites do buyers find yours? Unlike the traditional method of identifying target audiences and building or buying lists that deliver your message to the market population - either individually or collectively - you wait? Well not exactly, you focus your efforts on creating compelling content that will bring prospects to your web site, on search engine optimisation to propel search results to your content high up and hang out in the social media space where your customers go.

Content should be informative and can exist in many different formats, all designed to present your business as knowledgable and authoritative - in short as someone the buyer will have confidence in buying from and considers qualified to provide products that will serve their need. Examples of content are news stories and feeds, white papers, ebooks, videos, blogs and case studies.

SEO is a complex and ever evolving art ensuring the web site has all the right tags and titles, analysis of keywords and search terms and link building strategies.

So what about social media? There are many players, but usually Twitter, blogs, Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn and special interest forum are the favourites. These alone can be extremely time consuming in providing a timely flow of quality content. Twitter - the microblogging site - is great for broadcasting headline news and links say to your blog. Here the story can be developed in more depth but in a friendly less formal style than a press release. YouTube can be a great place to post videos demonstrating the products or for third party testimonials. LinkedIn has something of the professionals response to Facebook and offers opportunities to create and participate in special interest groups.

A final thought - should inbound marketing be part of the marketing mix? Yes. But as with any marketing communication programme an appropriate combination of techniques should be used to work harmoniously in an integrated campaign.