New Marketing Data: Inbound Campaigns Consistently Delivering ROI

The 2015 State of Inbound Report included some very interesting data on the effectiveness of inbound marketing campaigns (in case you’re unfamiliar with this report, head over to this previous post of mine for background information). Before I dive in to this great data, let me offer up a little background on this whole “inbound marketing” thing.

What is Inbound Marketing?

Inbound marketing is based off the premise that the way consumers make purchase decisions has changed. In the digital age, it is commonplace for consumers to conduct their own extensive online research before deciding to buy. With inbound marketing methods, you are attempting to reach customers who are already interested in and researching your niche, product or service online. You attract these customers to your brand through blogging and other website content (landing pages, guides, webinars, etc) optimized for search engines with targeted keywords and distributed through publishing on social media networks. Inbound marketing pulls potential customers to your company by attracting them with engaging content that appeals to their interests. This content is meant to be informative or helpful, rather than promotional. The antithesis of inbound is “outbound marketing.” Traditional marketing methods that fall under the umbrella of “outbound marketing” include cold calling, salesy emails, emails sent to purchased contact lists, trade shows, and paid online and offline advertising.

Proof is in the Pudding

If your marketing efforts are targeting people who are already interested in your product or service and voluntarily tuning into what you have to say, naturally it is to be expected that these efforts should have higher ROI than traditional, interruptive outbound marketing techniques. And this is where the really cool data from the 2015 SOIM comes in. The report found from the nearly 4,000 marketing and sales professionals surveyed that companies are 3x as likely to see higher ROI with inbound marketing campaigns.

“Every company we surveyed – regardless of marketing spend – was three times as likely to see a higher ROI on inbound campaigns than on outbound.” – 2015 State of Inbound

Even more impressive than that, this was seen to be true across all organization sizes, regardless of marketing budget:

Other than just being downright impressive, the reason this is significant is often companies with less resources feel like inbound marketing is more difficult to do successfully because of the amount of time they feel is necessary to commit to it. But the big takeaway here is no matter your resources, inbound marketing is still tops for return on investment and thus pursuing strategies that return their worth should be a priority for companies with smaller budgets. The key for companies that have fewer resources is to really focus on the targeting and strategy of your content. Should you feel you need help in this area, get in touch with us today.