Inbound Marketing: Just a Buzzword?

I always look for information on Inbound Marketing, and during my search I’ve found ambiguous explanation. I always consider Inbound Marketing like the one described in Wikipedia, but I always open for different explanations.

Just to clarify, I don’t really care about definition. To me, “Inbound Marketing” is a buzzword. It does explain something, but that something is rather blurry. How so? Because there are not a single explanation that can cater to all audience well.

Nevertheless, those blurry explanations mean a lot to me. Why? Because they give me a fundamental to craft my marketing strategy in such a way that it delivers. I want to learn about Inbound Marketing not for the sake of the definition, but because I want to learn how it can cut your marketing spending; how it can effectively draw people to visit your site or buy from you simply because you are offering value they can’t find elsewhere.

If you are wondering what Inbound Marketing is and why it matters, you are not alone – even the experts are still discussing on what counts as Inbound Marketing. It’s a good discussion though… but be warned, you might end up getting confused even more!

For the sake of basic definition, I’ve found a pretty cool infographic explaining about Inbound Marketing, not by definitions, but by what it can give your business: How Inbound Marketing costs you 61 percent less per lead than traditional marketing (called “outbound marketing”); how it’s done and how to make it delivers value.

Here’s the infographic via Innovation Simple:

I like result-oriented marketing. I want my marketing to be real, not faked or generic; I like to know the ROI of marketing efforts I do. I always interested in things that can give the most bang for my buck. “Inbound Marketing” can offer me just that, even if it’s described using other buzzword. THAT’s why I explore deeper about it.

Takeaway

I like how AJ Kohn explained in the discussion I mentioned earlier in this blog post about the whole conflicting ideas on what Inbound Marketing should be defined as. Here’s his comment on the discussion:

The definition isn’t a term, it’s what we do. We are marketers (or we damn well better be) and our job is to help build those businesses for which we are affiliated. We shouldn’t be attached to the dogma of a term but to being better marketers.

Oh, yeah! I agree – as I mentioned above, marketing is all about results, no matter how you call it. If your marketing efforts result in sales and happy customers, I don’t really care even if it’s called “stupid marketing” – the bottom line, if it works, it works. Period.

So, what do you think – is Inbound Marketing just a buzzword?

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