photo; flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/cobalt/show/
interesting post on the tangy slice blog this morning – a fresh take on how web 2.0, and more specifically inbound marketing, will change the marketing world…but not quite yet. it’s true that in the social media orchard we can get tipsy on the koolaid from time to time.
definitions part i
however, frank’s post doesn’t really talk to the core premise of inbound marketing. his focus is on whether marketers can or should rely on online channels to get their message out when the big dogs of traditional media, while hurting, are still…big.
inbound marketing, though, is about more than where you choose to blow your horn – it’s about getting others to blow it for you.
it’s what’s inside that counts
the grail of inbound is content so compelling that others in your network want to share it. then others in _their_ network share it, etc. the end result is that people who need your widgets or service or whatever gain awareness not from a broadcast message (via whatever channel) but as a trusted referral.
sometimes you need a little more
to a drawback to this approach is the time needed to ’seed’ the target population with high value content. the amount of seeding required correlates to the size of the enterprise. if you are a consultant looking to gain five or ten new clients and your overhead is low, your funnel is pretty small. if you are volkswagen or kraft and the assembly lines are running 24/7, the sheer scale of the operation means that some accelerant is required in the form of awareness-building, broadcast messaging.
definitions part ii
I believe frank’s post relates more to the media strategy for that type of awareness-building than to a judgment on the utility of an inbound marketing program. whether you are promoting yourself or clients via 30 second spots in the superbowl or some local cherub’s version of icarly, you are still doing broadcasting a message. as noted, that’s not automatically a bad thing. but I think tangy slice blurs the line between in_bound_ and in_ternet_ marketing in today’s post.
what do you think about the viability of inbound marketing? is there a limit on the size of organizations that can use it effectively as a primary marketing strategy?
