What Kinds of Businesses Benefit from Inbound Marketing?

As a HubSpot Gold level partner we get this question pretty often from prospects and businesses starting to do research on various marketing 2.0 approaches, and from other marketing firms like Weidert Group interested in selling Inbound Marketing services.

They already know traditional methods aren't generating the quality or quantity of leads needed to achieve business goals, and they also know that the web should or could be a more productive new business channel for many business types. At the same time, if they've started to look into the capabilities needed to realize any improved online marketing performance, they know they'll need to either hire new people or pay someone to help fill their capabilities and capacity gaps.

In the past 2 years we've answered this question many different ways, sometimes from the gut relying on instinct and intuition, and sometimes armed with research and quantitative evidence to support a point of view. I just got a heavy dose of the latter doing research for this post when I found a recent study conducted by MBA students at MIT's Sloan School of Management, Return on Investment from Inbound Marketing through Implementing HubSpot Software. The good news: this study provides lots of great evidence that Inbound works; unfortunately it didn't help answer my question about types of business.

In fact, based on search results it looks like there hasn't been much written so far about the types of businesses that can benefit most from Inbound, so what I'm providing is based almost entirely on what we've learned first hand. So here are my top 5 characteristics of businesses that could enjoy attractive benefits from Inbound:

1. Selling a very considered purchase. A pack of gum is not a considered purchase. A compensation study, a warehouse conveyor system, or an emergency response vehicle are. So are snowshoes, canoes, and vacations. Whether it's B2B or B2C, when it takes research to make the right purchase, and being wrong has serious ramifications, purchases become 'considered' and sellers will benefit from Inbound by being found by serious considerers. Good indicators of considered purchases are the sticker price, the process businesses or individuals design to support the purchase, and the approvals required before it can be finalized.
2. Already spending big money on lead generation. Businesses that depend on lots of sales funnel activity because they primarily do project work or their industry has high customer turnover often rely on expensive lead generation services that pummel cold prospects. Research indicates Inbound can reduce the average cost of qualified warm leads by over 60% compared to traditional methods like direct mail, trade shows, call blitzes and PPC ads.
3. Heavy reliance on RFPs. Businesses that rely on requests to provide formal proposals (contractors, OEM equipment manufacturers, consultants) know that getting on the short lists of companies issuing RFPs is the biggest challenge. Companies using RFPs to make important purchases rely on search to update their short lists of potential vendors. Inbound Marketing can quickly improve SERP (search engine results page) rank and targeted visibility.
4. Meaningful and demonstrable point of difference. To create content that will attract qualified traffic a business has to possess real competitive advantage that is relevant and compelling to their target. You need to provide something in your product or delivery that reflects greater value to customers, compared to most alternatives. Your competitive advantage should be the foundation of your content strategy.
5. Lack of geographic sales boundaries. Specialty manufacturers and technology providers have long recognized that they have potential customers around the world, but some have relied too much on bi-annual trade shows or purchased mailing lists to develop leads. If you sell the best orthopedic dog bed, industrial dryer, or methane digester on the planet, your market should be the whole planet, and Inbound Marketing makes you visible to all potential buyers.

Is your business a prime candidate for the improved performance Inbound Marketing can deliver? Help yourself to our Step-by-Step Guide and decide for yourself.