The playbook of advertising is constantly evolving and in many ways is turning inside out. Facebook has augmented the social web experience in ways we never imagined a decade ago. The amount of content available for immediate sharing is overwhelming. In time, marketers learned that social sites would provide the widest audiences possible, so they started an outbound marketing strategy by flooding YouTube and Facebook with ads. Sounds like a good idea, right? After all, that is where most people spend their time online. Not necessarily. These channels are a vital part of the marketing mix but in terms of lead generation and converting sales are some of the least effective options if not part of a broader strategy.
The problem is that you simply don’t have the individual’s undivided attention. So much information is thrown at us that we have become somewhat numb to it, immune in some cases. The solution is an inbound marketing approach that focuses on investing back into the company through social participation, blogging, and search engine optimization (SEO). These tools provide a substantive way to show the engaged consumer how the brand is unique. The idea is that the consumer comes to you and not the other way around, so online lead generation is more organic which will increase the probability of sale tremendously. Organic leads are also the best way of increasing the probability of a repeat sale and eventually of building the brand loyalty we all wish for.