There is a scene early in the TV series Mad Men where Don Draper, the creative director at a New York advertising agency in the 1960s, has just successfully pitched a new marketing campaign to an initially reluctant client. As the client is being escorted from their office, he turns to Don and says enthusiastically, “I think you may be right about this.” And Don replies, “Well, we will never know, will we?” The client is taken aback, and Don reassures him by saying, “It’s not a science…we’ll do our best.”
You don’t have to watch TV to understand the importance of marketing your business. It’s how you raise awareness of your brand to get new customers. It’s probably why you became interested in Calgary web design to begin with. Your company’s success depends on the effectiveness of your marketing campaign. Understand the choices you have —especially when it comes to inbound and outbound marketing.
Outbound vs. inbound: What’s The Difference?
Traditionally, marketing has almost always focused on outbound strategies. Commercials on radio and TV, print ads in newspapers and magazines, catalogs, and many corporate websites are all examples of outbound marketing. Essentially, a company sends out a message hoping to attract and engage an audience.
Outbound marketing, while popular, has its disadvantages. It is difficult monitor effectiveness, so tracking your return on investment can be a challenge. TV, radio, print are all very costly, which is why prime time TV advertising is dominated by large corporations. And, in recent years, technology has made it easier for people to avoid much outbound marketing altogether. As Brian Halligan writes on the venerable HubSpot blog, “your average human today is inundated with over 2000 outbound marketing interruptions per day and is figuring out more and more creative ways to block them out”. Why would you sit through an advertisement when you can press the fast forward button on your DVR remote? Think for a moment and try to recall the last time you read an email in your spam folder or took a phone call from an unfamiliar number?
Inbound marketing allows you to cut through the noise and target a core audience by offering them useful content that will draw them in and encourage them to learn more about your business’ products and services. It brings the qualified prospects to you. Technology made outbound marketing less effective, but inbound marketing relies on it. A successful inbound campaign requires a responsive Calgary web design and social media engagement.
Because inbound marketing is targeted at interested consumers rather than broadcast to everyone out there through traditional (and expensive) methods, it is more affordable for smaller businesses. And, unlike the scattershot approach of traditional campaigns, inbound marketing provides you with a lot of useful data about your potential customers. In addition to their contact information, you can learn how users got to your site, and what they were searching for, among other things.
Calgary Web Design: Your Inbound Campaign Begins Here
Your website is the key to your inbound marketing campaign. Effective SEO strategies on your site allow you to start a conversation with potential customers before they even come to your site. When someone searches for something related to your business and SEO brings them to your site rather than a competitor’s, you’re on the way to a sale.
Inbound marketing has transformed the possibilities of what you can do with a website. By creating original, useful content on your site that your customers want to read and posting links to it on social networks, you can entice your customers in for more. Linking to social media also gives them the opportunity to share your content, bringing in even more interested consumers, and you don’t have to do a thing!
The ad men of the 1960s didn’t have the web as a tool. At Emphasize Design, we understand the potential of the web and can turn your Calgary web design into the most powerful marketing tool your business has for converting qualified leads. Follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook to join in the conversation.
