Inbound vs. Outbound – The Revolving Door of Marketing

Revolving Door
By: Kim Gilmore
Founded Gilmore Marketing Concepts in 1991 as a creative, energetic design house and advertising, marketing firm. Built a successful full-time business with over 300 clients. Employ full-time and free lance writers, designers, brand specialists, SEO experts, media buyers, printers and video producers.
June 21, 2015

I am late on my blog. It happens right? You get busy, or you just don’t have any brilliant ideas of what to write about. This is a very bad thing. Blogs are uber important in the realm of SEO. (That is Search Engine Optimization for those of you that hate having to Google acronyms)

Since my blog is late this week, and I know this is a bad thing, I thought I would talk about inbound marketing. It is a term that will probably be on the 2015 list of buzz words that everyone is tired of hearing, BUT, it is important.

“Traditional marketing is going to get obliterated in the next ten years.The whole industry is going to get ripped apart.”

Lets start with Outbound Marketing. Everyone knows Outbound Marketing. It is everything you “put out there” in the world in the way of marketing. The billboards and radio ads, the display advertisements, tradeshows, brochures, e-mail blasts, cold calls etc. GMCI is damned good at Outbound Marketing.
Inbound Marketing is the marketing activity that brings visitors in, rather than you having to go out to get prospects attention. Inbound marketing gets the attention of customers by making your company easy to find on the Internet and draws your customers to your website when you produce interesting/educational content. (Like I am trying to do here!)

A 2012 article in Forbes magazine states, “Traditional marketing is going to get obliterated in the next ten years. The whole industry is going to get ripped apart.” They were speaking of Inbound or Earned Marketing turning Outbound Marketing on its ear.

GMCI has been working very hard to keep up with Inbound Marketing trends. Technology seems to move at the speed of light, and programmers are finding more and more ways to track your information and habits on the web. At this point in my article, some of you are going to get the chills at what all encompassing information we marketers can tell about you, without you even knowing we are watching. Through Google ad words, tracer ads, squeeze pages, heat mapping, URL tracking, click through, social media follows and purchases you have made, we can tell what your likes and dislikes are, where you shop, how you spend your internet time and who should be aiming their message at you. This is very valuable information for lead generation and purchase conversion.

So, like this blog, my presence on social media, our e-blasts, the white pages my company offers its clients, the videos we post and the contributions we make to industry newsletters, it’s all about conversion. Every bit of my online presence helps to direct people to my website, to learn more about how we can create this same experience for their customers. Inbound Marketing needs to be interactive, informative and value driven in order for people to take an interest. Just throwing stuff out there on social media or a blog without having a brand plan, is not going to get you anywhere. GMCI helps our clients plan and execute Inbound Marketing. Want to know the coolest part? It can all be tracked with total ROI! (Return on Investment for the Google shy)

Remember; all Inbound Marketing requires lead generation in order to work properly. How do you know if someone is looking at your site? Do you know how they got there and what they were looking at? Do you interact with potential customers on social media and create a relationship with these customers? Are your paid or unpaid SEO pieces aiming at the right demographic? Do you have the right message in front of the right client? This is what GMCI is working very hard everyday to make happen for our clients. At GMCI we have a 20-step process to our Inbound Marketing brand planning. Want to know more about it? Call me; I would love to spill the secret.

In the mean time, I think I just gave you some valuable information, so you can do a bit of inbound marketing yourself. It is not a quick process, it is long, and detailed, and you must be diligent in keeping up with your Inbound Marketing. See, this is why it is very bad that my blog is late! I promise to try harder next week!

Tags : Marketing | SEO

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