8 charts to combat your boss's skepticism of inbound marketing

8 C h a r t s t o C o m b a t Yo u r B o s s ’s

S k e p t i c i s m o f I n b o u n d M a r k e t i n g !

D a t a t o B a c k Yo u r A r g u m e n t

77%

83.40%

34%

41.80%

10.80%

8.60% 6.40%

7.40%

Percentage of Online B2B Research!

Google Search

Supplier's Website

3rd Party Website

User Review of Products

Blogs

Social Media

I do not participate

Other

Source:2014 State of B2B Procurement Study, Aquity Group

Your argument for the previous chart . . .!

By now, your boss has likely used online search for personal purchases. However, when it comes to your

company (assuming you are B2B), he/she is reluctant to invest in inbound and search engine marketing because the common myth is that B2B purchases aren’t the same as B2C. You know, though, that this is a false assumption,

and the chart on the previous slide shows that Google Search is utilized 77% of the time for online product

research even for B2B.

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

Content markeCng is a subset of inbound

markeCng

They are synonyms Inbound markeCng is a subset of content

markeCng

The two are fundamentally different

Rela%onship Between Inbound Marke%ng & Content Marke%ng According to HubSpot Customer/Non-‐Customer Survey

HubSpot Customer

Non HubSpot Customer

Source: State of Inbound, HubSpot, 2014


While your boss may not be completely familiar with inbound marketing, content marketing is something that’s

surely come up in the board room. Since content marketing is likely more familiar to your boss, it may be easier to combat skepticism by explaining that content marketing is really just one tactic important to inbound marketing. And, your company will have an edge over

competitors who have yet to take advantage of all tactics of inbound marketing.

0.00%

500.00%

1000.00%

1500.00%

2000.00%

2500.00%

3000.00%

3500.00%

Native Advertising vs. Inbound Marketing ROI!

Buzzfeed's NaCve AdverCsing Campaign

Fractl's Content MarkeCng Campaign

Source: “The Reach, Engagement, and ROI of Content MarkeCng vs. NaCve AdverCsing (New Research)”, MoZ, 2015


In a 2015 report from Fractl and Moz, the ROI in terms of shares, links and traffic generated from native advertising vs. inbound marketing was compared. Considering the high cost of native advertising, the chart on the previous

slide from this report shows that there is a higher ROI potential with content marketing, especially if your

company’s goals are to increase organic search rankings, drive brand awareness, and optimize for conversions.

0"

5"

10"

15"

20"

25"

30"

35"

40"

Per

cen

t o

f R

esp

on

dan

ts

Inbound Marketing ROI

Inbound Marketing ROI!

Great ROI than previous year

Lower ROI than previous year

About the same as previous year

State of Inbound, 2014, HubSpot


Of course, because marketers haven’t always had the best reputation of successfully proving the ROI of campaigns,

your boss’ main line of skepticism is going to be whether or not inbound marketing will be worth the investment. For

marketers already adopting it and surveyed in the State of Inbound Report, the evidence is clear that inbound

marketing produces a higher ROI than the previous year.

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60%

0-‐1K 1K-‐10K 10K-‐50K 50K-‐100K 100K-‐1M 1M-‐5M 5M+

Website Visitors per Month by Revenue Achievement

Not Achieving Revenue

Achieving Revenue

Exceeding Revenue

Demand GeneraCon Report 2014, HubSpot


One of the main goals of inbound marketing is to increase visitors to your website. While your boss may push back

and say that website visitors do not equate to sales because not all visitors are your ideal buyers, you can

push back with this chart that shows revenue is correlated to the total number of website visitors.

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10%

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50%

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70%

80%

1-100 100-500 500-1,000 1,000-2,500 2,500-5,000 5,000-10,000 10,000 +

Leads per Month by Revenue Achievement !

Not Achieving Revenue Achieving Revenue Exceeding Revenue

Demand GeneraCon Report, 2014, HubSpot


Another main goal of inbound marketing is to increase lead conversions from your website. The chart on the previous

slide shows what your boss probably already knows – more leads means more revenue. What your boss may not

know, however, is that inbound marketing delivers 54 percent more leads into the funnel than outbound

marketing.

14.60%

1.70%

0.00% 2.00% 4.00% 6.00% 8.00% 10.00% 12.00% 14.00% 16.00%

SEO leads

Outbound leads (e.g. direct mail or print advertising)

Close Rate of SEO Leads vs. Outbound Leads!

Source: The UlCmate List of MarkeCng StaCsCcs, HubSpot


Not only does inbound marketing convert more leads than outbound marketing, but a major channel in inbound

marketing, SEO, actually has a 14X’s higher close rate than outbound marketing leads.

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$50##

$100##

$150##

$200##

$250##

Co

st

Pe

r L

ea

d

Company Size

Cost Per Lead!

Inbound Outbound $70

$37 $27

$102

$220

$45

51-‐200 1-‐25 1,000+

State of Inbound, 2014, HubSpot


By now, you’ve likely combatted your boss’ skepticism about inbound marketing, but if he/she is not convinced

yet, the cost per lead comparison should do the trick. For companies of any size, the cost per lead for inbound marketing is lower than outbound marketing, but the

biggest impact of inbound marketing on cost per lead is for companies between 51-200 employees.

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