Inbound Marketing. You may have heard this term and were left wondering what it means? Wikipedia defines Inbound Marketing as; advertising a company through blogs, podcasts, video, eBooks, enewsletters, whitepapers, SEO, social media marketing, and other forms of content marketing. Easy enough right? Contrast this with Outbound Marketing which includes things such as; cold calling, radio, TV advertisements, spam, email marketing and traditional advertising. It is often said that with Inbound Marketing you are "earning your way in" with a potential customer. Whereas with Outbound Marketing you are simply "buying your way in". So which one do you choose?
According to Guy Kawasaki, Apple Co-Founder, "If you have more money than brains, you should focus on outbound marketing. If you have more brains than money, you should focus on inbound marketing."
If you are still on the fence, here are 30 stats on Inbound Marketing Strategy that might surprise you.
30 Stats on Inbound Marketing Strategy
1. 60% of companies will execute an inbound marketing strategy in 2013.
2. Marketers dedicate 34% of their department budgets to inbound tactics, but only 11% to outbound.
3. 48% of marketers will increase their spend on inbound marketing in 2013.
4. 34% of all leads generated in 2013 come from inbound marketing sources.
5.
Inbound practices produce 54% more leads than traditional outbound practices.
6. 17% of marketers say tradional advertising and direct mail are less important than they were 6 months ago.
7. Traditional advertising and PPC deliver the least leads of any form of advertising.
8. Only 6% of marketing leads originate from advertising or PPC campaigns.
9. Inbound marketers double the average site conversion rate, from 6% to 12% total.
10. The average website coversion rate is 10%.
11. 81% of companies integrate inbound marketing with larger marketing goals.
12. Marketers spend 55% more of their time than their money on blogging.
13. 82% of marketers who blog on a daily basis have acquired a customer through blog content.
14. 57% of marketers who only blog once a month have acquired a customer through blogging.
15. Only 5% of marketers have no integration between inbound marketing and overall marketing goals.
16. 17% of sales teams and 11% of executives fully support inbound marketing efforts.
17. 73% of marketing agencies are implementing inbound marketing strategies.
18. Marketing is 125% more likely than sales to provide inbound resources.
19. Increasing total lead volume is the top priority for 21% of marketers.
20.
Customers average a total of 9,100 leads after 1.5 years of inbound marketing.
21. 67% of marketers produced a blog last year.
22. Only 20% of marketers without a blog reported a positive ROI for 2012.
23. 15% of marketers say SEO leads have the highest sales conversions.
24. Social media delivers 14% of all leads and 13% of all customers.
25. 52% of all marketers have found a customer via Facebook.
26. 43% of marketers have found a customer on LinkedIn.
27. 36% of marketers have found a customer on Twitter.
28.
41% of marketers have adjusted their budget due to the success of inbound marketing.
29. 41% of CEO's report inbound marketing delivered measurable ROI.
30. Marketers with more than 15 blog posts per month average 1,200 leads per month.
