"Inbound marketing" is defined as a set of marketing strategies and tactics focused on pulling the right prospects and customers toward your business and its offerings.
Common inbound marketing programs include organic search optimization, various forms of social media, and blogging. Traditional outbound marketing techniques include direct mail, print advertising, and telemarketing.
Businesses that use primarily inbound marketing strategies for lead acquisition consistently report lower cost-per-lead (CPL) rates than those using outbound-centric strategies, according to the 2012 State of Inbound Marketing report by HubSpot, based on a survey of 972 business professionals who are familiar with their company's marketing strategy. Some 72% of respondents are from B2B organizations.
Among companies with outbound marketing-dominated strategies—those that spend more than 50% of their lead-generation budgets on outbound marketing channels—the average CPL was $346 as of January 2012. By contrast, among inbound-centric companies (those spending over 50% of their lead-generation budget on inbound marketing) the average CPL was $135—61% less than the CPL of outbound-dominated businesses.
Blogging, social media, and SEO (organic search) are reported as low-cost marketing channels:
- 52% of companies that publish a blog report leads from that channel are "below average cost."
- 45% of companies that use social media report leads from those channels are "below average cost."
- 38% of companies using SEO report leads from that channel are "below average cost."
By contrast, trade shows (19%), telemarketing (33%), and direct mail (34%) are less likely to be ranked as "below average cost."
Sources: Hubspot 2012 State of Marketing Report
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