Today's world of blogs, tweets, facebook and technology is making it harder for traditional marketing to get the message across. Not that this affects small business too much, as the cost of traditional marketing has been out of reach for most. Instead, it is making modern methods of marketing within reach and more affordable to small business than ever before. Inbound Marketing is one such method currently taking business by storm...

Traditional (or outbound) marketing methods such as television, radio and print advertising are developed around the concept of interrupting audiences to get the message seen, heard or read. However, today's technology and audiences are increasingly able to block out those messages driving forward the need for new ways of delivering a marketing message that will get through. (Consider the role of the remote control - giving audiences the ability to turn down the volume during advertisements or switching channels.)

What is inbound marketing?

Imagine having a story to tell, a hot tip or funny video that is so inciteful, useful, funny, whateverful - the customers are coming to you to see, read or hear it? Do you think they'd try coming back again to see the next chapter? You bet! That is inbound marketing at its best - people coming to you and leaving wanting more.

Inbound Marketing is about creating and distributing relevant, marketable and quality content that draws people to your message. This content can be distributed through a range of online channels such as blogs, ebooks, video, websites, online presentation and seminars. The goal of inbound marketing is to increase traffic and lead volume.

What kind of content should you use?

The content you use should ultimately be content that your (potential) customers are interested in and looking for but it should NOT be about your products and services. It should be about informing, educating or entertaining while still being relevant to the products and services you offer. It should not be promoting and selling your products and services in any way.

Potential customers have stopped to read because the information is of interest to them, they don't want to be hit with a sales pitch half way through. This type of content is useful for building relationships though, so that future marketing campaigns which do involve the "sales pitch" will be met with a more positive attitude and response.

How do you get your content "out there"?

1Website: this is obvious, but having good quality content that is well optimised can help improve your website's rankings in search engines which may lead to increased traffic and leads.

2Emails: You have a list of past, current and prospective customers - use it. Good business practice should have you staying in contact with your customers at least once a month and an email newsletter is an ideal way to achieve this without resorting to heavy sales tactics. The whole email could be your inbound marketing message, but I would only do this if I was confident that the recipients would find it useful. Alternatively, publish the full story on your website and link to it from your email.

3Blogs: If updating your website with this kind of content isn't easy, or if it doesn't quite fit in with the structure of your site - then setting up a blog and linking it to your site is an ideal way to easily update content with inbound marketing copy. If you already have a blog, then hopefully you are already updating it with content of this nature.

4Video: We've all seen some unique youtube video clip hit the primetime news and chatshows. If you can achieve that with some kind of business related link, you're a genious. Upload your video to youtube, imbed the youtube clip within your website and hope your hosting can cope with the traffic.