Issue No. 3 / February 2017
By Creative Revolution
THIS MONTH’S FEATURE
Outbound Sales is Dead. Long Live Inbound Sales. When Inbound Marketing Won’t Work For you
Inbound Vs Outbound Marketing: Who is The Sore Loser Between the Two
What is inbound marketing? And Why You’re Crazy If You Are Not Doing It
Kerfab’s Results Soar Thanks to Integrated Inbound Marketing Plan
und R.I.P. Outbo
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Insights Issue One
Colophon
Editorial
Design & Cover
ChĂŠ Stevenson
Norman Barnett
Contributing Writers
Publisher
Alisha Conlin-Hurd
Creative Revolution
Tyla Feltwell ChĂŠ Stevenson
Contact Details
Disclaimer and Copyright
5444 0030
Insights is wholly owned by Creative Revolution, and is protected by Australian
2/586 Hargreaves St
copyright and intellectual property laws.
Bendigo, Victoria 3550
All work produced in Insights is subject to copyright and remains property of the
digital@creativerevolution.com.au
respective creators and owners. All written context expressed within Insights is not
www.creativerevolution.com.au
necessarily the views or opinions of the publisher.
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Contents
Contents
EDITORIAL
When Inbound Marketing Won’t Work For You ARTICLE
What is Inbound Marketing? And Why You’re Crazy If You Are Not Doing It ARTICLE
Inbound vs Outbound Marketing FEATURE
Outbound Sales is Dead. Long Live Inbound Sales. CASE STUDY
Kerfab Case Study
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Hello
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EDITORIAL PIECE BY CHÉ STEVENSON
When Inbound Marketing Won’t Work For You
n my humble opinion inbound marketing is the bees knees, but I can tell you – from bitter experience – that sometimes it just won’t work for you. It’s definitely tough to admit, but sometimes inbound marketing simply is not going to work. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a remarkable strategic framework for digital marketing, I can’t fault it, but when it comes to actually applying inbound marketing in your business, sometimes it’s just not meant to be. Here are my top times when inbound marketing won’t work for your business.
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Editorial
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When You Don’t Understand Your Customers
You might say, of course I understand my customers! But do you really, deeply understand your customers? Off the top of your head, can you tell me: • Age, gender, location, income, family status, ethnicity • Likes, dislikes, interests • Industry, job role, seniority • Goals and challenges as they relate to your products/services It’s only through a strong understanding of your target audience and their needs that you can create useful and engaging content that they really want. And it is this content that is at the core of your inbound marketing campaign. Inbound marketing lives or dies on the strength of audience insights.
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When You Don’t Have Time and/or Budget For Marketing Inbound marketing requires effort, a significant effort in building a multichannel digital marketing programme of content and promotion. This effort comes at a cost of time (if you do it yourself) or money (if you engage an agency) – often both, because you’re not going to be able to do it all yourself but your agency doesn’t have the intimate market knowledge that you do. I’m not trying to scare you off here, the rewards for successful inbound marketing are huge, but you’re not going to get there without and investment in time and money. It’s not a simple ‘set-and-forget’ style of marketing; it requires concerted ongoing effort over months.
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You Want A Quick Win Inbound marketing is about building a highly credible, highly visible presence online and waiting for your audience to come looking for what you are offering. It’s fishing with a net rather than spear fishing. It’s farming rather than big game hunting. Whatever the metaphor, inbound marketing requires patience and time. You’re not going to launch an inbound marketing campaign next month and be flooded with leads in the first week!
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04
When You Are Unwilling to Change Your Sales Process The term ‘inbound marketing’ was coined to distinguish it from what we would call ‘outbound marketing’. That is, forms of marketing that push a message out to the audience and interrupt their day-to-day lives in an attempt to get them to buy, such as: •
Cold call telemarketing
•
Email blasts
•
Print advertising
•
Direct mail
•
The list goes on…
When we say to ourselves “we want to sell hairdryers this month, let’s do a campaign”, we are engaging in outbound marketing. When we flip this, and say “what problems are hairdressers having right now, let’s create something to help them out”, we are engaging in inbound marketing. This change in mindset needs to be met with a fundamental change in sales processes. We’re not chasing customers, trying to win the sale. We’re helping customers out, and maybe our product or service can be of assistance.
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Editorial
When No One is Looking for What You Are Offering My final circumstance in which inbound marketing won’t work for you is a tough one. Sometimes your product or service is so new and innovative that your audience literally has no idea that it exists. People just aren’t looking for it. It’s a problem they don’t even know they can solve. Maybe it’s a cure for sleep “Nev-R-Sleep” (man, I’d buy that!), or a way to teleport coffee over long distances “Tele Café” (if you’ve invented this one, please call me!). Seriously though, if this is you, you can create content, promote it, get it in front of your audience. Your campaign may have elements of content creation and digital promotion, but it won’t be inbound marketing. Inbound marketing requires the audience to at some point to step out and seek a solution to their problem. Then your net will catch them and deliver them to your door. But if the audience never sets foot outside of their cave on the seafloor, you’re never going to catch them. Your campaign will need to become interruptive; you’re going to have to get down there and interrupt that little cave-dweller and show them what you’ve got! With all of this said, in most cases inbound marketing is a great fit. You just need to know your customers, be willing to put in the work, and patience to get it right.
Creative Revolution, Winner 2016 Excellence in Strategy for Online Presence in Bendigo
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An Introduction to Inbound Marketing If the Digital Age had an anthem like “Video Killed the Radio Star� the lyrics would sing the praises of inbound marketing and lament the decline of traditional forms of outbound marketing like purchasing advertising space, buying email lists and digging around for leads. Inbound has left an indelible mark on the online landscape since 2006, and more and more businesses are leaving those old marketing methods to gather dust on the shelf, the same way we did with those old VHS copies of classic 80s movies. Join us as we define inbound and bid a fond adieu to outbound.
What is Inbound Marketing What exactly is inbound marketing? Simply put, inbound is all about creating quality content that encourages people to engage with your company and become aware of its products or services. That makes it sound manipulative in some ways, but it really is all about finding out what interests your customers and coming up with material that resonates with them in some way. Crafting content that aligns with their interests will bring potential customers to you, ensuring that you can convert, close and delight over time.
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4 Stages of
Article
Inbound Marketing
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AT TRACTOR
PROCESS
CONVERTING VISITORS TO LEAD
One Attract
This one seems simple, right? You want to attract lots of people to your website. While partially true,
Two Convert
Getting eyeballs to your website can be the hardest part of this process, and the next step is to convert
it comes with a caveat: inbound has its emphasis
those visitors to leads by collecting their contact
on attracting the “right� type of traffic to your site,
information. This information is like gold bullion
the people who are most likely to become leads
to marketers, and in order to make the trade you
first and satisfied customers second. The way to
generally need to offer people something in return.
nail this strategy is to be very clear about your ideal
This can take the form of free content like e-books
customer, which is also known as a buyer persona.
or white papers, but whatever it is must have value
Once you know who they are the trick is to start
to your buyer persona. Forms, call-to-action and
attracting them to you with things like blogging,
landing pages will be some of your most important
SEO, social media and quality website content.
tools when it comes to converting visitors.
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Three Close
Once you have attracted the right type of visitors and converted them to leads the next step is to transform them into customers. You need to close
Article
Four Delight
The delight stage is where inbound really comes into its own, revealing why it has had such a transformational impact on marketing in the digital
the deal, like Michael Douglas in that dusty old VHS
age. Inbound is all about the customer, and is
copy of “Wall Street”. Kind of. Closing in inbound
always striving to find novel ways to amuse, inform,
marketing is somewhat different, and involves
entertain and delight them. Remarkable content
a number of tools like customer relationship
engages your customers, and done well it can
management (CRM) systems, closed loop reporting,
also turn clients into your best advocates as they
marketing automation and email. They sound fancy
voluntarily share your content with their social
but it all boils down to building trust with your
networks. This stage utilises a number of tools,
prospect and helping them become ready to buy.
including surveys, smart calls-to-action, smart text and social monitoring.
CLOSE DEALER
Why Are Businesses Embracing this Model? Once you have attracted the right type of visitors and converted them to leads the next step is to transform them into customers. You need to close the deal, like Michael Douglas in that dusty old VHS copy of “Wall Street”. Kind of. Closing in inbound marketing is somewhat different, and involves a number of tools like customer relationship management (CRM) systems, closed loop reporting, marketing automation and email. They sound fancy but it all boils down to building trust with your prospect and helping them become ready to buy. Inbound marketing is very much here to stay and is a proven methodology for the digital age. Put simply, it’s the best way to turn strangers into customers and promoters, and no serious business can afford to ignore it. That would be the marketing equivalent of slowly rewinding those dusty old VHS tapes while everyone around you is streaming movies on Netflix.
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ARTICLE PIECE
If “Inbound vs Outbound Marketing” could be billed as some sort of title fight it would be less like pairing George Foreman and Muhammad Ali in their prime, and more like one of those perennially mismatched bouts where the lesser contestant gets KO’d in the first couple of rounds. Because truth be told, inbound marketing has overpowered it’s traditional rival with a deft and speed that’s almost embarrassing. So how do the two shape up, and why has inbound eclipsed its old marketing rival?
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Article
Outbound: The Elder Statesman of Marketing Outbound marketing seeks to BUY our attention. Traditional forms of outbound marketing include trade shows, email newsletters, purchased lists, cold calling, telemarketing and print/ television advertising. These methods are used in order to go out and “find” potential leads, with the ultimate end goal of turning them into customers. It’s the sort of marketing that we grew up with as we munched on popcorn at the cinema while waiting for the movie to start or watched mum politely fending off the cold callers who always rang in the middle of dinner. Outbound is interruption-based marketing from businesses vying for – or buying - our attention.
Inbound: The Scrappy Young Marketing Upstart Inbound marketing seeks to EARN our attention. It does this through a combination of engaging and useful content, which attracts the interest of their desired target audience or buyer persona. This content adds value in some way, creating a positive connection with potential customers and encouraging them to engage with your brand, product or service. Content can take many forms, including company websites, social media, blogs, podcasts and other forms of free content like e-books or white papers. The rationale behind inbound marketing is that people seek out your business voluntarily, because you’ve come up with content that entertains or educates them.
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What Are The Differences?
Five Reasons Why Outbound is on the Way Out
Inbound has a better ROI
1. It’s more expensive
Inbound keeps surpassing outbound because it has
Inbound marketing has taken the lead over outbound because it costs
a much better ROI. In fact, inbound marketing costs
significantly less than traditional marketing. Billboards, print ads and tv
62% less per lead than equivalent forms of outbound
commercials all require a large investment to procure and produce.
marketing. They don’t just generate leads – they also generate revenue.
2. It’s more likely to be ignored Most direct mail never gets opened, people go to the toilet during ad breaks,
Inbound is a two-way conversation
we flick past print ads and we zone out or click out if the websites we visit
The rise of the digital age has completely changed
have too many intrusive pop ups or banners.
the playing field when it comes to marketing, and the internet has created a space that enables two-
3. It’s old-fashioned
way communication between businesses and their
One-way communication is so last millennium, and today’s consumers are
customers.
much more savvy – and talkative. Instead of being spoken at people want to join the conversation, and you can’t shoot the breeze with a billboard.
Inbound entices rather than entraps Outbound marketing wants to distract and disrupt you
4. It’s intrusive
in order to forcibly capture your attention. Inbound,
Let’s face it, no matter how fancy or entertaining your advertisement is it’s still
on other hand, entices you to engage voluntarily
designed to interrupt whatever I’m doing and insist that I pay attention to it -
by producing content that interests, entertains and
which is irritating at best and kind of rude at worst.
delights. 5. It’s been superseded The internet changed the way we spend time, consume media, research products and make purchase decisions. People stream content to avoid ads, register for “Do Not Call” lists and no longer buy print media. The old media is slowly dying. Outbound still has its place but there’s no denying that the advent of inbound marketing has transformed the way businesses communicate with their customers. At it’s heart, inbound has a much more egalitarian dynamic, and the shift to digital forms of media has empowered consumers in ways that weren’t possible when outbound reigned supreme. The great thing about inbound – and the reason for its growing success - is that it creates a win-win situation for the customer and the company.
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Article
“ Outbound still has its place but there’s no denying that the advent of inbound marketing has transformed the way businesses communicate with their customers. At it’s heart, inbound has a much more egalitarian dynamic, and the shift to digital forms of media has empowered consumers in ways that weren’t possible when outbound reigned supreme. The great thing about inbound – and the reason for its growing success - is that it creates a win-win situation for the customer and the company. ”
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Insights Issue One
Outbound Seven Sim Steps to Sales isWD a Successf Long Liv Business B Inbound
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Feature
d mple Writing Dead. ful ve Blog Post Sales.
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Insights Issue One
Is your sales team struggling to generate leads through cold calling? Is the volume of calls required to generate those leads increasing all the time? If you answered a weary “yes” to both of those questions, rest assured that you’re not alone. Outbound sales used to be a tried and tested way of generating leads, but its effectiveness has steadily declined since the advent of the digital age. If outbound sales are becoming less and less profitable, how are successful businesses generating leads these days? The answer: inbound sales.
rior to the arrival of “that thing which destroyed sales as we knew it” aka “the internet”, buyers needed salespeople to help them make their purchasing decisions. Without other means of obtaining that information the salesperson held all the cards, and their knowledge and experience was a valuable asset to the customer. The Internet changed all of that, and with thousands of websites available at the click of a keyboard all of a sudden the sales dynamic shifted. What that means in terms of your day-to-day operations is that your sales figures are probably dropping, your team is demoralised because they aren’t achieving the targets they used to and your cold calling is getting the cold shoulder from potential customers. Why is this happening?
*Play ement s i t r e v d A Here*
R.I.P. Outbound
The Internet killed outbound sales. If you are still relying on outbound sales to generate the bulk of your leads we have bad news for you: you’re relying on a slowly dying sales technique to keep your business alive. Back in the olden days “Before Internet”, marketing used to be about cold calling, trade shows, email list buying and other activities that would be derided as spam in today’s media savvy age. The internet has changed everything we ever held sacred about sales and marketing, and it has turned the buyer-seller relationship completely upside down. Today, buyers can find all of the information they need to make their purchase decision at the click of a button – at any time of the day or night – and this shift in power has given buyers the upper hand. They don’t really need Ye Olde Salesperson anymore.
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Feature
It’s not all bad news. The Internet loves inbound. We’ve dangled the term “inbound” in front of you like a carrot several times already, so it’s probably time to talk about it. Inbounds sales transforms selling so that it matches the way people buy. With the modern buyer no longer dependent on the salesperson to access information, inbound salespeople transform the sales experience so that it is personalised to the buyer’s context.
In short: the sales strategy is based on serving the buyer, not the seller. Inbound sales describes the process of focusing on individual buyers and their personal needs, pain points, frustrations and goals. This means that the role of the inbound salesperson is all about prioritising the buyer’s needs above your own. One of the key benefits of this is that the sales relationship is no longer adversarial: it becomes about building trust and offering advice rather than closing the deal. Eschewing the secrecy and gatekeeping of information that is characteristic of outbound methods, inbound attracts customers with appealing content, relationship building and transparency. Contrary to the old outbound methods, being generous and open with information is seen as a way of building trust with people, and giving the business more credibility with their customers.
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“The internet has changed everything we ever held sacred about sales and marketing, and it has turned the buyer-seller relationship completely upside down. Today, buyers can find all of the information they need to make their purchase decision at the click of a button – at any time of the day or night – and this shift in power has given buyers the upper hand. They don’t really need Ye Olde Salesperson anymore.”
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Feature
We’re going to wrap things up by listing the key takeaways from this piece, because the internet loves bullet points (in the same way that it loves funny cat videos, memes about bacon and the YouTube video of “Gangnam Style”, which has been viewed more than 2 billion times). • Outbound sales is a rapidly declining relic of an earlier age. • Customers hate cold calling like commuters hate Wi-Fi black spots. • The buyer-seller dynamic has changed. Ignore that at your peril. • The internet has made traditional salespeople redundant. • Your salespeople need to adapt or die out (metaphorically speaking!) • Inbound sales is the new outbound. So while the news is all bad for outbound it’s not all bad for your business. Armed with information about inbound sales techniques it is possible for your business to embrace this new model, and for your organisation to transform your B2B sales by turning everything you ever knew about sales on its head. With a new outlook, support from management and the right training, your sales team can also turn those frowns upside down.
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Insights Issue One
CASE STUDY
Kerfab’s Results Soar Thanks to Integrated Inbound Marketing Plan An integrated inbound marketing strategy can completely transform a businesses results. Kerfab learnt just that when they realised something was missing from their current digital marketing plan.
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Case Study
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What We Did:
Inbound Marketing Marketing Strategy Social Media Marketing
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Who is Kerfab Kerfab is a wholly owned family business that manufactures equipment for the agricultural, industrial, civil, and waste handling industries throughout Australia and New Zealand. Kerfab, unlike other material handling specialists, have the ability to provide the design, engineering and manufacturing of their products all within their own network.
Online Advertising The Problem Website Lead Generation Unlike some of our other clients Kerfab were not new Email Marketing
to the digital scene. Originally they contacted Creative Revolution to create some print advertisements. We got
Search Engine Optimisation
talking and soon realised they had a digital marketing program in place with another agency but they didn’t
Brand Refresh & Brand Style Guide
love it.
Brand Collaterals
Results weren’t great, reports were complicated and confusing and there was no integration of the marketing strategy to the sales team. Kerfab knew inbound marketing was valuable, but felt their current strategy just wasn’t quite right.
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Case Study
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Insights Issue One
The Solution Upon reviewing Kerfab’s existing strategy we recognised
their customers wanted at that particular time of year.
straightaway what was missing – structure and
Each campaign was then executed through all channels
integration. Inbound marketing is super effective, but
from website lead generation, email marketing, online
it has to be implemented in a way that compliments all
advertising as well as the introduction of a social media
other facets of a business.
presence.
This lead to the first step: develop a brand new inbound
Kerfab’s issue of complex reporting called for a simple
marketing strategy that provided an overarching
yet detailed breakdown of results. This was achieved by
structure to all marketing and sales efforts. Once this
creating a monthly report that featured a dashboard of
strategy had been developed it was time get started.
overall results for the month as well as a breakdown of each area of the campaign. This way they knew exactly
Enter multi-faceted monthly campaigns. Due to Kerfab
how each campaign was performing, as well as what did
operating within a seasonal industry we recognised the
and didn’t work when planning future campaigns.
value in running campaigns that were relevant to what
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Case Study
The Outcome Thanks to an updated inbound marketing strategy Kerfab
There you have it, a business that originally came to us to
have excelled with results improving month after month.
produce three print ads a month now has a real focus on
Over a 12 month period they experienced a 46% increase
digital. And as for those print ads, well we only produce
in leads generated by their website and a 54% increase
one of those every few months now, so we think the
in visitors from social media and online advertising.
effectiveness of inbound marketing kind of speaks for
Due to these impressive results we are currently in
itself.
the process of reviewing the current strategy to begin planning the next 12 months for Kerfab.
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Case Study
For general or project enquries, please don’t hesitate to contact us on: 5444 0030 digital@creativerevolution.com.au www.creativerevolution.com.au 2/586 Hargreaves St Bendigo, Victoria 3550