Surely on social media, web articles, podcasts and networking spaces, you have read or heard about inbound marketing .
This philosophy, aimed at attracting, interacting with and delighting consumers , has played a fundamental role in multiple business contexts and has opened an important path to debate and rethink the way in which we currently sell and consume products through the Internet.
In this article, we are going to explain what this term really means, what its methodology is and why we hear it everywhere, that is, the advantages and benefits that characterize it. So, let's start with the basics:
What is inbound marketing?
Inbound marketing is a business philosophy based on helping people. Its goal is to boost business in a more human way and establish meaningful relationships with strangers, prospects and customers, depending on the context in which they find themselves and the platforms and social networks they use.
To adopt this philosophy, your company must offer value in each of the experiences that consumers have with it . To achieve this, you have to address consumers social media marketing service in their comfort zones, find out what they like, what their motivations, problems and needs are, in order to investigate and make available to them information that helps them solve them.
In the business world, how you sell is more important than what you sell . That is why inbound marketing does not aim to generate a disruptive experience in which consumers feel like they are being sold something they do not need. On the contrary, the goal is to know exactly what a prospect needs and help them achieve it.
How did inbound marketing come about?
Inbound marketing was born in mid-2006 after its main precursors, Brian Hallingan and Dharmesh Shah, discovered the potential that blogs have to attract readers and create communities interested in learning about a specific topic.
After that, they devised a whole methodology to turn search engines and social networks into important elements to attract consumers.
They realized something was happening: people are increasingly using the Internet and specifically search engines like Google to research their problems, find possible solutions and acquire new knowledge that allows them to grow intellectually and professionally.
All this situation, added to the fact that companies began to employ bad advertising practices such as cold calls and spam emails, where personalization was almost non-existent and mass content was sent without knowing if the person was really interested.
This served as a reason to take advantage of those new technologies that were emerging and find a more friendly, human and empathetic way to reach those users who were making a living on the Internet.