5 differences between content and inbound marketing
Inbound marketing enables software publishers to generate leads by bringing prospects directly to their brand. This marketing technique is increasingly replacing the more traditional sales-oriented methods used by software publishers in the BtoB sector. So how does it differ from content marketing, whose aim is also to attract prospects by writing search-engine-optimized web content? Our 5-point answer: motivation, interaction, socialization, automation and collaboration.
CONTENTS
The end of outbound marketing?
Before developing an answer to the question posed, it's important to understand that in the space of just a few years, outbound marketing has created a number of partly counter-productive uses for software publishers. In fact, outbound marketing is above all advertising marketing on more or less omnidirectional paid channels, such as TV commercials. But in the age of online advertising, Internet users are over-solicited with poorly targeted transactional marketing messages to which they pay less and less attention.
What's more, outbound marketing budgets can quickly become very high for advertisers, with no measurable performance or profitability. Traffic managers, those responsible for generating web traffic on a site and managing outbound campaigns - such as Google Adsense, to name but one classic lever - are well aware of this difficulty, and won't deny it.
For software publishers in particular, this situation accelerated in 2015 with the arrival of Adblock technology, which prevents advertising banners from being displayed on websites.
The arrival of content marketing
Content marketing was developed on the basis of this observation. Content marketing encompasses a number of similar terms, such as brand content. The latter refers to promotional content about a brand, to enhance its visibility and reputation, rather than about a theme related to a company department. The aim of both is to create powerful content with real added value, in line with the search engine queries of Internet users, in order to acquire leads.
White papers, case studies and company blogs have been appearing on the web for almost 10 years. Content marketing integrates a brand or service communication logic into a relational, rather than directly transactional, media marketing. Content marketing is therefore well suited to BtoB software publishers, who are looking for inbound contacts through communication that is close to their raison d'être and know-how.
However, over the last 4 years or so, content marketing has reached its limits, with more and more software publishers writing content... As a result, inbound marketing quickly became the logical evolution of content marketing.
5 differences from inbound marketing
Inbound marketing also seeks to attract the attention of prospects by offering them quality content that provides them with a genuine service; but its scope of action is much broader.
In fact, inbound marketing manages the entire lifecycle of a prospect and of a software publisher's value chain. All communication axes (product, marketing and sales) are impacted, from a visitor's first contact with a brand, through to purchase and renewal.
Inbound marketing therefore encompasses all marketing-sales processes with the brand: content production becomes just as important as sharing it on social networks or reusing it in relational emails. Motivation, interaction, socialization, automation and collaboration are the 5 fundamental elements that differentiate content and inbound marketing.
1) Target engagement
Inbound marketing combines quality content with the use of incentives, i.e. rewards and actions that motivate web users to pass on information about their profile and expectations. Sending a white paper to a well-known mailbox, an eBook that can be consulted online after a "LinkedIn connect" or an infographic shared on a Facebook profile, with data retrieval in the process. The possibilities are endless.
2) Interaction
Inbound marketing seeks to convert prospects via more than just a website. The provision of call-to-action buttons and the creation of personalized landing pages, for more targeted interactions based on a search, are the two main levers.
3) Socialization
Inbound marketing makes advanced use of social networks to promote content (Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter...), to propose new content in a particular format (YouTube and Dailymotion for video, SlideShare for presentations, Pinterest for infographics...). Content curation can also enable a publisher to become a source of intelligence to connect with influencers and ambassadors.
4) Marketing automation
Inbound marketing instills a culture of contact (nurturing) with prospects, in order to maintain a close bond with them while awaiting the act of purchase. The automation and management of interactive actions (or marketing automation) as well as lead scoring make it possible to measure the potential of prospects for a software publisher's services.
5) Collaboration
Finally, inbound marketing streamlines the sales process to improve the service offered , with systematic measurement and monitoring of traffic: prospect-to-customer conversion studies, real-time ROI analysis, shared dashboards between departments to create genuine co-constructions between marketing and sales departments.
Conclusion
Inbound marketing enables software publishers to create a real relationship with their prospects. The idea is to offer less intrusive content and interaction. It's no longer enough to offer an interesting service; you have to be able to create a strong universe around your brand, where each of your prospects will want to belong.
Article translated from French