Since the industrial revolution and the massive expansion of American capitalism in the last 25 years, marketing and advertising has exploded, driving American industry and finance to the largest levels in the world to date. Throughout the last century, the art and science of outbound marketing has revolutionized American consumption of goods and services, utilizing every tool they have possible.
Before the technology boom of the 90’s and 2000’s, outbound marketing utilized billboards, TV commercials, radio ads, and mailing lists to reach their target markets. No matter how expensive the outbound advertising content became, the payoff was higher for massive corporate enterprises, leading to inflated advertising prices for small local businesses that many just couldn’t afford. However, for small businesses, the industry has shifted in its favor to a new, more powerful, targeted form of marketing also known as “inbound marketing”.
The Development of Internet Marketing Technology
When technology was introduced a few decades ago to personal consumers, society slowly began to find utility in the power of computers. The new industry worked hard find its niche in the marketplace, working hard to advance and mass produce better semiconductors, microprocessors, and computer software that would benefit the end user. As the industry worked to find its purpose in society’s life, a newly commercialized technology surfaced that lit the fuse, leading to the largest market expansion in global economic history. This technology became known as the “world wide web”, or as we call it today, the internet.
In the matter of only a few years, the entire world found itself on the web, and the frequency of users and the amount of time spent on various websites and applications became ever increasing. And with the inception of powerful engines such as “Google”, “YouTube”, “WordPress”, “Twitter”, “Facebook”, and various other user friendly and free of cost formats available, BILLIONS of people use the web every single minute of every single day. It is the Holy Grail of marketing!
The Inception of Inbound Marketing and how it Works?
Although the internet became the number one source of information in the world and also had the highest traffic of any platform in the world, the format of the internet gave the viewer an experience that traditional outbound marketing tactics couldn’t work with. Because users of the internet have so much conscious power of what they see, outbound marketing tactics such as “pop-ups” only frustrated users who would then click out of them. The solution for advertisers became known as “inbound marketing”.
Inbound marketing specializes in having potential customers come across your company’s website or blog by searching for specific information or seeing it on social media networks. This can be done by using a variety of techniques including:
- Blogging
- eBooks
- Social Media
- Search Engine Optimization
- Email Marketing
- Website conversion
The concept for advertisers and marketing firms was difficult to grasp as it is so different than the traditional direct marketing tactics of outbound marketing. However, the evolution of inbound marketing and the success it has had in assisting customers find what they want has been astronomical. And because it is much more directed at its target market, it has also saved firms millions of dollars in outbound marketing costs, while providing the same turnaround that firms rely on to stay in business.
Inbound marketing companies are quickly making their way up the ladder as Google and other social networks continue to make changes to their algorithms. This forces advertising agencies to change their strategy and the marketing strategy that won’t fail against these changes is inbound marketing.