Turn the tables for a minute and be the recipient. When’s the last time you enjoyed receiving cold call? Or yelled, “Hot diggity! Another spam email!” as you clear your inbox?

Maybe you’re into marketing masochism, I don’t know.

I doubt it. If you’re anything like most people, you’re tired of interrupting and tired of being interrupted.

It’s time to put the phone and the yellow highlighter down and back away slowly.

No old-school marketing for me, thanks.

There’s a better way to marketing. A way that makes strangers seek you out, knock on your door and ask, “can I buy from you?” A way that guides them along a path from strangers to visitors, to leads, to buyers, and eventually to evangelists.

“What is this secret voodoo marketing of which you speak?” you may ask. It goes by a few names, but for this post, we’ll simply call it, “inbound marketing.”

What is inbound marketing?

Inbound, briefly stated, is serving content that attracts visitors and turns them into buyers.

It’s more complicated than that, but at it’s core it’s marketing by addressing concerns and solving problems.

When you produce content that solves people’s problems, make it interesting, and deliver it in the right medium, you have the basic structure inbound marketing.

Sounds good, but is it for me?

Yes.

No really, is it for me?

Businesses can leverage an inbound to varying degrees of success. Your ROI may vary. The ones who see the most success are:

• A product or service that has a longer sales cycle.
• A company that needs to generate leads
• Individuals wanting to expand their role as thought leaders.

There are many, many more examples, but here’s a real-life one.

A real life example of someone who needs to start an inbound campaign

A good example comes from a recent exchange during a consulting visit. The doctor I was visiting did a fantastic cutting-edge procedure that decreased the likelihood of surgery using the patient’s own body to accelerate healing. The procedure was so cutting-edge that it was almost never covered by insurance. His goal: increase his monthly patient visits and help more people heal.

A worthy goal, right?

He stated that his ideal patients arrive knowing most of the ins-and-outs of the procedure, which cuts down drastically on in-clinic education.

These patients have a problem, research a solution online, make a decision about who will provide the best service—choosing him, and then show up with cash in-hand.

Not bad.

Aside from the fact that they trickled in at a fairly slow pace, there was another problem discovered during our discussion.

The conversation went something like this:

Doctor: “My ideal patient knows what they want before they walk in the door.”

Me: “How do they get their education about the procedure now?”

Doctor: “From other sites on the web.”

Ah yes. From other sites. Not his.

When he produces his own content he will not only see more business, but he’ll be able to control his own message and boost his business. Additionally, he’ll be instantly regarded as a thought leader in his field. Win-win-win.

Inbound marketing, FTW

The true winners in the new marketing paradigm are businesses that own and deliver relevant content to the right person at the right time.

Because of that, companies doing inbound reap the rewards. Clients and patients are attracted and often show up ready to buy.

If inbound looks like it could benefit your company, stay tuned for our next post where we’ll cover the basic structure of inbound marketing.