Why Inbound? An Introduction to Smarter B2B Marketing

Inbound marketing is the best way to engage, attract and delight online, but marketers need a clear understanding before they engage an agency.

Picture of Michael Thornton Michael Thornton

Published: 28 Oct 2013

5 minutes read

Why Inbound? An Introduction to Smarter B2B Marketing

Just as the traditional job description of the marketer raised a white flag to the encroaching digital revolution, B2B inbound marketing is the latest formation into which the industry has shifted.

That initial scramble for marketers to do something, anything, digital for clients - a website, email campaign or social media presence - has thankfully passed, taking with it cowboy scattergun approaches to online marketing. Now the emphasis is on doing these things as well as possible to engage, attract and delight. This is inbound marketing. Only the true marketing sharpshooters remain without shuffle, unruffled, and primed to scope hits good enough to attract business.

Any B2B marketing agency worth its spurs should subsequently breathe a sigh of relief; its B2B marketing strategies are no longer just another grain of sand in the Wild West. Likewise, internal marketing managers need no longer feel like their efforts are tied to the tracks of an oncoming train - if they can help create a campaign that's good enough, they will escape. But what is good enough?

‘Inbound marketing’ - a loose catch-all you should define as ‘smart online marketing’ - is an approach designed primarily to pull people into the sales product. It isn’t pushing leaflets through a front door; it’s having the door held open before the bell has even been rung. A combination of its predecessors SEO, PPC, copywriting and design, it is the clock radio of marketing - saving customers multiple purchases and packaging itself as one.

For a marketing manager looking to consolidate their efforts, an agency offering full inbound marketing services represents a dream come true. Done properly, an inbound agency’s presence is the extension of a marketer’s vision; it’s that team their boss won’t pay for, only cheaper and without having to invest time in training. But that’s not to say that hiring an inbound agency will immediately place you as the company’s star performer, as plenty more needs to be considered first:

Brand

How easily relatable are the ideals and identity of your brand? If you don’t have these things nailed down, you’ll face an uphill battle channeling them through your agency to your customers

Needs

What does your marketing have already, and what does it need? It may be that you have the best content in the world on your website, but it isn’t reaching anybody

Success

“What does success look like for you?” sounds like pretentious marketing speak because it is, but it’s still important - where exactly is the point you can take your results to your boss, confident that you have performed? Good B2B marketing strategies start by going backward before moving forward.

The words ‘inbound marketing’ will ring through the marketing departments of B2B companies like an intrusive wake-up call in the near future - raising marketing managers with a start - but through proper planning and preparation with the right B2B marketing agency, attracting customers to your company will no longer cause sleepless nights.

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An Introduction to B2B Inbound Marketing.

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