Moving from outbound to inbound marketing? Here's how to start

Are you the kind of person who rips a Band-Aid off all at once or the kind who slowly peels it away to avoid that painful transition?

While you may personally be of the "rip it off" variety, corporate strategies typically lean more toward a slow, careful transition to ease the pain of change.

For organizations transitioning from outbound marketing strategies to inbound methodologies, it is possible to make the change less jarring by integrating inbound methods with existing traditional marketing methods at a measured pace.

Combining outbound and inbound methods enables you to
bridge the gap between the two marketing strategies. 

Why inbound is worth the effort

You may be wondering why to transition to inbound at all. Salesforce's "2015 State of Marketing" provides a compelling answer. With more than 5,000 marketers responding to the survey, 64 percent of those marketers identified a company website as a very effective tool for revenue growth. The centerpiece of your inbound marketing strategy is your website, making the choice to use inbound methodologies a wise one.

Why integration is a good idea

A key driver in any organizational decision is the cost factor. Traditional marketing methods cost a considerable amount of money. If your organization has been using traditional marketing for some time, it has made a significant investment.

Merely scrapping your outbound marketing strategy completely will likely result in not being able to recoup the investments already made. Therefore, integrating inbound with your traditional marketing strategy allows you to protect your organization's investments.

More and more marketers are seeing the value of using online data to optimize the offline experience for their customers. This Econsultancy article looks at three brands that have been especially successful at connecting the online and offline experiences of their customers. These techniques include using apps to streamline and enhance a customer’s interactions at brick-and-mortar locations.

Bridging the gap between outbound and inbound

Hubspot's "How to Painlessly Transition Your Company to Inbound Marketing" provides a variety of cost-effective tips to get you started with inbound while still using outbound methods. Here are a few of Hubspot's suggestions:

• Integrate a social media campaign with an existing traditional campaign.
• Use existing research, case studies, brochures, and other marketing materials to craft content for your digital media outlets.
• Incorporate a QR code or URL on your printed marketing materials to draw your audience to your landing pages.
• Bulk up your company blog with relevant content culled from your traditional marketing sources.
• Guest blog for others in the industry to get links back to your blog.

Measuring results to make the case for inbound

One of the most useful elements of inbound marketing is that it is imminently measurable. Use that to your advantage by tracking and analyzing the results of your inbound initiatives. Proving positive ROI for inbound marketing will help ease the corporate transition from outbound to inbound and help you secure the funding you need to expand your inbound marketing strategy in the future.

For some additional advice on measuring your ROI, check out our article, "4 tips for measuring the ROI on your inbound marketing efforts."

One of the greatest benefits of inbound? Nearly everything is measurable. 

Making the transition even easier

In a digitally-savvy world, inbound marketing is strategically advantageous. Combining traditional outbound strategies with inbound methodologies can yield a variety of positive results in terms of ROI and business growth.

Get your free copy of our eGuide, “Marketing In-House vs. Hiring an Agency,” to determine if hiring an agency or using your own team is the better option for your brand to manage your marketing campaigns. Each alternative has unique benefits, and this guide can help you decide which approach is right for you.

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