The ideal scenario for a company is having maximum domain authority with little to no content surplus within its industry. The worst-case scenario for a company is having minimal domain authority and maximum content surplus within its industry. In this scenario marketers can’t just rely on inbound marketing, but must use earned and paid media, too. Thus, increasing the amount of time, energy, effort and budget required to gain the visibility necessary to be successful online.

In this scenario it’s much more likely that a company’s industry is in a state of content surplus. This is where the amount of content on the internet for the industry exceeds the average domain authority for said industry. It also means that there is more content on the internet than people looking for that content to solve their problems.

Industries come and go every day in this world. As a result, there will always be industries in a state of content deficit or surplus. We must have a strategy that taps into owned, earned and paid media – combining both inbound and outbound. Since most of inbound marketing content is considered top-funnel, helpful and “non-salesy,” our efforts should rely on those channels and methodologies that help drive visibility to said content.

And because of inbound’s popularity, it’s tough even for quality-focused marketers to break through the noise. Inbound isn’t cheap, either. Inbound is designed primarily to attract new customers, which can cost five times more than retaining old ones. 

A targeted combination of inbound and outbound approaches can alleviate the problems of an inbound-only strategy. Take these five steps to make the most of your marketing budget:

1. Know your total addressable market.

2. Build an ideal customer profile.

3. Stop wasting money on automated targeting.

4. Use account-based intelligence to identify targets.

5. Track, measure, optimize, and nurture leads.

In recent years inbound marketing has received much media attention as an effective stand-alone marketing strategy. While inbound surely is an efficient portion of an overall marketing strategy, we set out alongside Demand Metric Research to find out if inbound tactics alone are really enough to drive a business.
Download this study for insights into:

• Which tactics are driving business, leads, and revenue
• Average annual percentages of inbound and outbound spend
• Top inbound and outbound marketing tactics
• Where marketers plan to invest their marketing spend in the near future
• Benchmarks so you can compare approaches

 

1. Maintain an active organic presence wherever your customers are
Make sure your ideal customers see you wherever they like to spend their time. The inverse is solid advice, too — make sure you don’t waste your time and money on platforms where your audience isn’t active. Put some significant time into researching the blogs and communities where you might find relevant customers, and look at the social channels where they’re most likely to be.

2. Identify and reach out to your customers on social media
Through your active presences on various online channels, you’ll be able to find your prospects and reach out to them directly — especially if they’re on Twitter, where it’s largely acceptable for anyone to initiate a discussion with anyone else. Offer free advice, based on what you know about them and their interests.

3. Retarget with banner ads to remain fresh in prospects’ minds
Retargeting your website’s visitors on other websites they visit is key to keeping your brand fresh in their minds. Use a tool like AdRoll to set up sequences of ads that can follow individuals across multiple websites, social networks and devices.