Where Is Inbound Marketing Headed?

by @MDGadvertising B Where Is Inbound Marketing Headed? Where is it headed? In a word: online. Here, we explore why inbound marketing is gaining ground on outbound, and look at inbound channels that will continue to grow in years to come. Increasingly Inbound Increasing Spending A majority of businesses are increasing their inbound marketing spending in 2011, due in part to past success with inbound marketing. Why Businesses Are Increasing Budgets 54% 54% Increasing Inbound Marketing Budgets Past Success With Inbound Marketing 15% 35% Economy No Change 14% Change In Management 11% 21% Cutting Inbound Marketing Budgets Other Shift to Inbound Marketing Compared to two years ago, more marketers are shifting their lead generation budgets inbound channels. 2009 Lead Generation Budgets Inbound - 38% Outbound - 29% Not Classified - 33% 2011 Lead Generation Budgets Inbound - 41% Outbound - 24% Not Classified - 35% A greater share of inbound marketing budgets is now being allocated to company blogs and social media: 18% in 2011, as compared to 9% in 2009. The recent growth of inbound marketing can be partly attributed to the fact that cost per lead is typically 62% lower for inbound-dominated organizations than for outbound-dominated organizations. The Low-Cost Advantage Average Cost Per Lead A significant number of businesses identify more inbound marketing channels as having below average cost compared to outbound channels. $373 Percent of respondents who identified each channel as below average cost Inbound Channel Outbound Channel Channel 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% Blogs Social Media SEO/Organic Search $143 Telemarketing Direct Mail Paid Search Inbound- dominated businesses Outbound- dominated Trade Shows businesses Success Through Channels Converting Leads More companies are acquiring customers through blogs and social media in 2011 compared to 2009. Company Blogs LinkedIn Facebook Twitter 46% 57% 41% 57% 44% 48% 41% 42% 2009 2011 2009 2011 2009 2011 2009 2011 For companies that seek to acquire customers through a blog or social media sites, success depends on whether the goal is B2B or B2C. LinkedIn was more successful for B2B marketing, while Facebook was most successful for B2C. Success By Audience Percent of users who acquired a customer through that channel В2в В2С .***........................ ................................ ... 61% in LinkedIn 39% 55% 8 Company Blog 63% 41% f Facebook 67% ----..... 39% E Twitter 53% Looking Ahead As inbound marketing spending increases, much of that will be devoted to online. Within the online space, several inbound channels are poised to grow over the next few years. Online Marketplace Social Networks On The Rise Blog Popularity Boost Inbound marketing will increasingly take place The meteoric rise of social networks is expected Similar to social networks, blogs are enjoying to continue for the next few years. Inbound marketers will have a growing number of users online. By 2014, analysts project that more than increased readership. It's projected that by one-fifth of all media ad spending will be online. 2013, 58% of all Internet users will be regular to tailor their campaigns to. blog readers. Projected Online Ad Spend (Of Total Media Ad Spending) Projected U.S. Social Network Users Projected U.S. Blog Readers 20.3% 58% 65.8% 18.8% 64.7% 56.5% 63.5% 17.4% 16.2% 61.2% 53.5% 2011 2012 2013 2014 2011 2012 2013 2014 2011 2012 2013 Search Remains Strong Despite a growing number of channels for consumers to research products, the search engine is still the most popular. Sources Used To Begin A Search On Branded Products (According To U.S. Online Buyers) I reach out to Facebook friends for recommendations 3% 57% Istart with a search engine and look for top search results 20% Istart with the brand's site I search at a retailer to compare a series of brands 18% Ipose a question on Twitter 2% mdg mdgadvertising.com Sources: HubSpot.com, eMarketer