Focus Only On Inbound? The Great Inbound Marketing Hype

Inbound marketing is sexy. It’s a sexy topic because it’s not intrusive, it’s basically permission based marketing and involves no cold calling or cold methods to generate business. Sounds great doesn’t it? Talk only to leads that are qualified, and interested in what you have to offer? Who wouldn’t want that?

Venture Capitalists are pouring money into SaaS companies like Hubspot and others. IPO’s have happened for hubspot, Marketo and other companies even though those companies never have turned a profit and are very far away from that happening. From an investor standpoint I don’t think it’s even a high growth situation, just opportunistic marketing.

But that’s not the point of this post… the point of this post is to discuss inbound marketing, marketing automation and the HYPE behind a lot of it. Not hype behind its’ effectiveness, but hype behind the myths these companies try to put out there.

The GREAT Inbound Marketing Lies

I have absolutely no doubt there are going to be people that hate on me for this blog post. These companies have a cult like following paying a lot of money for their solutions, fan boys who don’t even use their stuff, and a huge following of expert marketers.

It’s easier to fool people than to convince them they have been fooled – Mark Twain

Here’s a quick video I made for this blog post…

Just to make it clear, I’m not against inbound marketing, I like inbound marketing. SEO is part of inbound marketing, lead nurturing is part of inbound marketing, I use a CRM and advanced analytic reporting, email marketing both cold and opt in. In fact, most of the webinars I’ve done for you guys have been on topics related to inbound marketing, like the lead nurturing webinar, SEO webinar, and email marketing webinar.

The problem I have with inbound marketing is like I said in the video, the way these companies try to sell you on their closed loop analytics, CRM and marketing automation software.

You Don’t Have To Choose Between Inbound and Outbound

One of the biggest problems I have with the way these companies try to sell other marketers, agencies and businesses, is that inbound marketing is the only way to effectively generate leads for your company.

That couldn’t be further from the truth.

In fact, I’ve used inbound and outbound methods to compliment each other for a long time.

I put together a case study for one of the big companies out there that asked for it, and it showed how you can effectively use both to compliment each other, how you can effectively use cold calling and put those leads into a lead nurturing campaign, and how the statistics and closing rate drastically improves instead of just using one method. Unfortunately, it didn’t fall into their agenda, and it was never published.

Inbound marketing, using content marketing, blogging, lead magnets, lead nurturing etc. is effective, nobody can deny that. However, it isn’t appropriate for all businesses to focus entirely on inbound instead of outbound. That’s probably why both HubSpot, Marketo and other larger companies implement cold calling and outbound techniques to drive sales to their own inbound platform.

But why would they publicize that? It contradicts their marketing materials and existence!

Try telling a lawn care company that they need to move their advertising budget toward just inbound marketing instead of just transitioning some of their budget to make sure it performs. The response won’t be good. Why would they move away from what has been working well for them?

I have a client that operates a large lawn care and landscaping company that does well over 5 Million dollars a year. They implement both inbound and outbound methods. They have 4 people making cold calls, canvassing, and they also use EDDM for direct mail to generate calls. Those are outbound methods. They also use PPC, and SEO to generate incoming leads online. They don’t have any lead magnets, advanced lead scoring system or closed loop analytics, they don’t need it.

I’m the first one to be on board and say that marketing online and getting your business online is increasingly important. I’m also one of the first to acknowledge there is indeed a world we live in that is not in front of a screen at all times.

It’s easy to cold calling, and say that you will never buy something from someone that cold calls you. That’s fine, you don’t need to, you aren’t my market, and there are a ton of people out there that WILL buy from cold callers.

Are you one of those people? It doesn’t matter… it’s just an example of how we need to diversify our marketing and that there is not a one size fits all solution available. Some people will convert into customers or clients through different mediums, whether it is a blog, cold call, direct mail, email, in person or online, your job as a business owner or marketer is to get in front of those eye balls whether it is via inbound or outbound.

But Isn’t Inbound Cheaper Than Outbound?

One of my favorite myths. My assumption is that this line is used to justify the cost of marketing automation, and closed loop analytic software along with an agency to create all of the content they will need to publish.

Lets break this down though, platform cost aside because you don’t need an expensive platform to effectively implement inbound marketing…

If customer acquisition costs are lower using inbound marketing, then whatever study put that out is obviously skewed or biased if they claim that as fact. Or perhaps they were comparing the cost of inbound marketing like SEO, vs. television ads. Most businesses that advertise on radio or TV are spending a lot of money and their cost per customer is definitely higher than it would be with inbound, but most businesses don’t know how to effectively track that anyway.

If you exclude both radio and TV, and highway billboard advertisements, you’re left with some of the most cost effective forms of marketing out there, such as:

• Cold Calling
• Direct Mail
• Canvassing
• Networking Events
• Cold Emailing
• Face to Face prospecting
• Tradeshows

For example, let’s talk about my business and how I used 1,000 postcards to generate 10-12 sales the first time I ever used direct mail. I say 10-12 because I can’t remember exactly but let’s just say 10 for this example. The cost at the time was probably $400 total for 1,000 postcards, print, design, postage. 10 clients at a minimum sale of $959 = $9,590 total out of a $400 investment. My cost per customer acquisition was $40, $13 lower than the average acquisition cost using direct mail.

Now let’s take a look at Hubspot, a company offering marketing automation tools and closed loop analytics. The cheapest plan they have is $200/mo with a $600 indoctrination fee or setup/training fee. Over the period of a year, that is $3,000. Not bad, but for businesses using an inbound agency, you’re going to be paying anywhere from $1,500-$4,000/mo to have all the content created for you, the website designed using their CMS, lead magnets, the whole inbound marketing shabang. Let’s just use the low end of that spectrum and say it’s $1,500/mo. So on top of the $3,000/year you have to add an additional $18,000 which brings you to $21,000.

In order to match my cost per customer acquisition, over the course of a year, a company that chooses an inbound agency on the hubspot platform has to bring in about 520 new customers.

Now I already know the rebuttal… you’re thinking, well Nathan, it’s not fair for you to compare those two drastic examples because a lot of people using those platforms are marketers and agencies, they will create content and do all that stuff, they don’t need an agency, they’re just selling the services. I would counter, yes, you’re right, but the thing you aren’t factoring in, is instead of raw cost your financial investment is in the currency form of TIME, so I think it’s a fair assessment and comparison.

So Am I Saying Outbound or Traditional Tactics Are Cheaper?

Yes, I was insinuating that but even that isn’t necessarily true. What is true though, is that these statistics and claims are based on an agenda. Think about it, companies always have data available to support the sale of their product, or service.

If you’re selling Local SEO to businesses, you do it too! If you’re selling websites to businesses, one of your selling points might be mobile compatibility, because “50% of searches are done on a mobile device” but if you dive deeper, industries have different trends. Heck, even on this blog where the majority of the visitors are business people, techies, marketers, etc. only 18% of my visitors come from a mobile device.

The point is… a lot of these things are relative and have many different variables on what works and what doesn’t. For example, I can say cold calling doesn’t generate an ROI close to what SEO provides. That statement could be true, but what if the person I had cold calling only calls 10 businesses a day, and sucks on the phone, doesn’t know what they’re talking about, and doesn’t follow up with interested leads?

Inbound marketing, could certainly be more cost effective than “traditional” methods, and traditional could also be more cost effective than inbound.

Isn’t Inbound Marketing The Most Effective Though?

That’s impossible to answer. For some it will be the most effective and others it won’t be the most effective.

I think the better question to ask here, is what fits you and your business better? I love inbound marketing, the only problem with it is that you’re competing for eyeballs in a limited space. Content is booming, not from a marketing standpoint but a consumer standpoint. Consumers are practically being overwhelmed with content right now.

Are you afraid of bothering people? Do you lack confidence? It would seem that inbound marketing would be more up your alley but if you generate an inbound call and you’re lacking confidence, and are afraid of bothering people so you don’t bother to follow up with a lead, then what good is it doing you?

When it comes down to it….

Look… you’re reading this because you’re either in business or a marketer. There’s no reason for anyone else to be reading this, this content is for you.

There are some people that are okay with waiting for results. There are others that like control (me) and don’t want to wait for revenue to come in.

Inbound marketing is great to supplement your leads, whether it’s just SEO, or content marketing, social media, etc. you want to constantly look for depth in your marketing to continue bringing in leads. However, I like people and businesses that are motivated to take action and go out and get what they want. Why wait around for the phone to ring?

You’re a business owner… an entrepreneur… a marketer. You need to MAKE THINGS HAPPEN. You can’t wait around for it to happen or it never will.

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The Truth About Inbound Marketing

Here’s the real, hard truth about inbound marketing for YOUR business.

It’s beneficial for sure. The majority of businesses can benefit from SEO, right? A lot of you that are reading this can use content marketing to generate leads. It works. However, it takes time and the results are anything but quick.

It’s one of the reasons the majority of bloggers fail. They rely ONLY on inbound marketing and they don’t have the patience to see it pay off.

You want results this week? Talk to people, call them, email them, go visit them in person, do something that can get you results NOW. Inbound Marketing in general is not a short term strategy, it is a long term strategy that can provide you compound interest in the form of leads in the long run.

The investment required

You don’t need to use an expensive platform with a lot of shiny features. You do however, need to have time available to invest into an inbound strategy. Not just SEO, but a full blown strategy where SEO is only a part of the bigger picture.

Creating content can be time consuming. Promoting that content can be even more time consuming. So if you’re wanting to place a big focus on inbound to generate clients or leads for your business, be prepared to make that time investment.

Don’t Forget To Use Both Inbound and Outbound.

Seriously, those that are stuck with only one tactic of bringing in leads have increased their risk of doing business and limited their chance for success drastically.

There’s no reason to not use both tactics, online, offline, traditional, inbound, outbound, digital, etc. Don’t be afraid to try new things or new platforms.

Gary Vaynerchuk was speaking at a conference and talking about marketing. How one of the biggest mistakes people make are focusing on “width” of their marketing. How many followers they have on twitter, how many fans they have on facebook, instead of focusing on the DEPTH of their marketing. Depth is more important than width. In other words, don’t limit yourself to one tactic over another.

Inbound Leads Are Typically Higher Quality, But Lower Quantity

When you generate a lead through inbound methods, the lead is usually a much higher variety of lead, especially if they CALL you opposed to filling out a form.

Your ability to switch up your sales techniques, and the fact that you’re better positioned will boost your conversion rates. However, you’re limited in the amount of leads you will get.

Those of you that use Adwords, will know exactly what I’m talking about using this example. You find an awesome, converting keyword that isn’t too high in cost, it works well for you and the clicks are high quality. General thinking is, well lets just scale it up with other keywords… but it doesn’t work like that, those other keywords don’t perform the same, some perform at a loss, and you’re limited to that one keyword that performs great. You can’t scale that up.

You can’t FORCE people to be looking for you, which is what inbound relies on. You will always be limited in that regard.

Once again, this goes back to the whole thing about diversifying your marketing, and focusing on “depth”.

Why wouldn’t you have a strategy where you’re getting limited, high quality leads, while also using other methods to generate a deeper pool of leads to boost your revenue? Everyone says focus on quality not quantity… I say focus on both.

Summary

Inbound marketing is great… but so is outbound marketing. I think companies like Hubspot put out amazing content, and I’m glad they’re around. I hope this clears up some of the misconceptions they tend to spread though.

You don’t have to choose one thing over another, ever. Doing so, is limiting your potential and your business’s potential.

Did you like this? Hate it? Agree, or disagree? Let me know in the comments below.