….so, which is it? Is your style of marketing Inbound, where people are looking for you, or is it Outbound, where your focus is on finding (or, sadly, chasing) prospective customers?

If you are using traditional techniques – what we would call ‘Outbound’ marketing today – then cold-calling, print advertising, T.V. advertising, junk mail, spam and trade shows may be concepts you have used.

While these approaches have been successful over time, many of them have been over-used to the point where we, as consumers, have become increasingly adept at avoiding their message.  We may not ‘kill the messenger’, but we are certainly happy to delete an email, silence a commercial, ignore the pesky dinner-time phone calls, or take the shiny mail flyers directly to the recycling bin.  The reality is double-barreled here = these are expensive tactics, and they don’t work like they used to.

Technology has turned much of this upside-down.  In the last couple of years, the stars have aligned and the technology, the tools, and the public’s use of them have converged at the point where Inbound Marketing is practical, economical and mainstream.

Hubspot CEO Brian Halligan applauds Inbound marketing because it maximizes results while it minimizes the impact on your budget.  The reality has been to level the marketing playing field; now if you have the skills to communicate with your customers – your content will count more than a giant advertising budget.

In 2006, a man in a New Jersey liquor store started talking to people about wine, online, using video.  Legendary now is the fact that it took him quite a while to get traction, but in two years Gary Vaynarchuk used his Wine Library TV to create a $50 million dollar/year business.  Was it work?  Of course.  Was he consistent?  You bet.  Did he deliver good content? Absolutely. 

Just think about it, though. What Gary did showed the world that using tools (good content, SEO, a flair for social media) which have become mainstream ……. the scale of your business can become unlimited.  What’s the ROI on that?

So, if Inbound marketing is sounding attractive to you, here’s a clue: tell the truth (give people good content that relates to what you do), give people a reason to self-select themselves and look for you, and invest in quality content so they keep coming back.

Think about someone you really, really, really liked in High School.  Which felt best: you chasing them….or them liking you?  That’s the key to Inbound marketing.  You may find it’s the start of a beautiful  relationship.  Enjoy!