NBC has sold all the commercial airtime for the Feb. 5 Super Bowl game in Indianapolis and even has a waiting list of advertisers. The average cost for a 30-second spot this year was $3.5 million, with some time slots costing as much as $4 million! How long will it take you to generate $4M in sales from that ad? How much is that 30-second exposure worth?
By the way, when your ad is showing, that’s my time to get a beer or some more chips. Sorry, I won’t even see your commercial!
This year, Hyundai is buying a $4 million spot on the Super Bowl
While the Super Bowl ad pricing is extreme, consider how much we ignore this type of marketing today. In fact, new devices and services to block these ads keep coming out and are very popular.
- Tivo – skip your TV ads?
- Pandora – skip your radio ads?
- Do Not Call list – skip your telephone sales?
- Email spam blocker – no more email ads!
- Yellow page ads – did we even GET a phone book this year?
For the past 50 years, these type of “interruption marketing,” or “hey-look-at-me-marketing,” have been the norm — but not so anymore!
More companies are getting started with inbound marketing
Inbound marketing is based on the concept of earning the attention of prospects, making yourself easy to be found, and drawing customers to your website by producing content customers value. Blogs, podcasts, video, eBooks, enewsletters, white papers, free trials, free assessments, free tools, SEO, social media marketing, and other forms of content marketing are considered inbound marketing.
This type of content distribution helps to start the conversation between your company and your target audience, as well as boost your company’s presence in search engines.
- 67% of B2C companies and 41% of B2B companies have acquired a new customer through Facebook.
- 57% of businesses have acquired a customer through their company blog
- 42% have acquired a new customer through Twitter
Inbound marketing shows you how to leverage the potential that Web-based communication offers your small business. Finally, you can speak directly to customers and buyers, establishing a personal link with the people who make your business work. And it doesn’t cost $4 million!!
Low-cost leads from inbound marketing
Companies that use inbound marketing find that their leads have a 61% lower cost per lead than companies who do not use inbound marketing. Average cost of a “sales-ready” inbound marketing lead in 2012 was $135.
The use of social media and company blogs as marketing tools not only gets your company better brand exposure, but it also generates leads that result in real customer acquisition.
LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and other social media platforms become more useful in lead generation and customer acquisition each year.
Businesses are re-focusing their marketing efforts to inbound marketing
Traditional outbound marketing techniques are becoming less effective. Buyers are not only finding ways to tune these messages out, but more importantly, they now have the capability to evaluate the products and services they need on their own.
As a result, businesses are transforming their marketing efforts to focus more on inbound programs that allow customers to find them. Companies that aggressively practice this are capturing more leads more effectively and at a significantly lower cost.
Those companies that move first are more likely to reap the tremendous benefits of inbound marketing.
Small business alert – inbound marketing levels the playing field
By its very nature, inbound marketing levels the playing field for small businesses to compete on the web, without the need for expensive budgets or specialized talent.
Small businesses are more nimble and forward thinking than their big-company-competitors. They are more flexible with their assets (time, money, expertise) and typically are very excited about proven new ways of driving business.
Want to learn more about inbound marketing? Read our FREE Guide to Internet Marketing and get started with inbound marketing in your company right away!
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