It is a recent term , which began to be used just over a decade ago. However, it can be said that its popularity came later, with the publication in 2009 of the book 'Inbound Marketing: Get Found Using Google, Social Media, and Blogs', by the creators of HubSpot , Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah, with a prologue by David Meerman Scott, another of the pioneers of inbound marketing.
The title itself already identifies three of its pillars: Google (SEO and SEM), social networks and content creation for blogs. But there is much more…
In a nutshell, inbound marketing (sometimes called attraction marketing or, more or less literally, “inbound” marketing) is based on the use of non-intrusive tools (SEO, blogs, social networks, calls to action, landing pages, web analytics, etc.) to attract users and have potential customers search for and find the brand in an online environment.
The objective is to provide value to users, with useful, relevant content tailored to their interests , whether they are visitors, leads or customers, through process automation (marketing automation), with planned and coordinated actions.
Is it less aggressive than traditional list of democratic republic of the congo consumer email marketing?
Without a doubt. Traditional marketing is based on interruption. In contrast, inbound marketing is all about attraction, to try to get the user to reach the brand and not the other way around . This difference is best understood with some examples. Let's think about those 10 - minute advertising blocks when we watch television, that newsletter from a company we've never heard of, that brochure left in our mailbox at home or that phone call insisting on changing our electricity company. The examples are endless. That's interruption marketing (outbound or traditional), where the advertiser is the one who sets the pace.
In contrast, today's users are increasingly accustomed to setting their own pace , researching on their own on the Internet, looking for guidance, advice, comparisons, opinions... Inbound marketing considers these doubts, needs and objectives of its potential clients, and then creates and distributes content with answers to these questions, positions its keywords and waits for the user to find it when they do their research. Then it takes care of that contact and creates a relationship of trust.
Who is at the center of the strategy: the brand or the customer?
“I came here to talk about my book.” This well-known phrase by Francisco Umbral sums up the traditional concept of marketing. The brand is at the centre of the entire advertising strategy, it simply presents itself and its products or services. A rather egocentric idea, no doubt, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be effective.
