Combining high-quality content with digital tools has enabled enterprises to deliver a 72% increase in new leads and a similar rise in conversions, according to a new study on the power of inbound marketing by Visual Objects.
Inbound marketing is a technique centred on the use of valuable content and tailored digital experiences to attract new customers, as opposed to outbound marketing, which focuses on promotions and hard sells via advertising.
The latest study of more than 500 businesses in the US found that 79% are now deploying inbound marketing campaigns and that in doing so, these brands are reaping the rewards with a sharp jump in leads and conversions, which then has a positive knock-on impact on sales and revenue.
Enterprises are also using content across the entire sales funnel. Blogs are a popular medium as the majority of brands said that they are using the written word to drive “awareness” at the top of the funnel and then using call-to-action buttons to push them further down, with the final aim of prompting “action”.
In addition to investing more in blog content, respondents also said that they will double down on search engine optimisation (SEO) and visual content as they look to provide engaging and informative material to audiences. Attracting leads and converting them also remains the top priority overall.
“To really run effective campaigns takes expertise,” Silverback Strategies’ VP of Creative Ben Kirst noted. “There’s a degree of impatience and unwillingness to really invest the time and resources needed to gain that level of expertise. We want results and we want them now.”