There is a lot of talk in the marketing world these days about inbound versus outbound marketing. Here are some stats from the 100 Awesome Marketing Charts and Graphs (free download) from HubSpot:
- 61% of B2B marketers are shifting their budgets toward inbound marketing such as social media, virtual events and marketing, and SEO.
- More than half of marketers increased their inbound marketing budgets in 2011.
- The average budget spent on company blogs and social media has nearly doubled in two years from 9% to 17% (from 2009 to 2011).
- Inbound marketing costs 62% less per lead than traditional, outbound marketing ($143 for inbound marketing vs. $373 for outbound)
What does this mean for print? Print is still a critical part of the marketing mix. It will remain critical for lead generation and other outbound pushes. At the same time, these are numbers are a reality, too. So while your clients want to continue to print, how they use that print might be changing.
Instead of sending a prospecting letter, for example, you might want to encourage your clients to beef up their SEO, draw people to their websites, and let them request a printed follow-up materials on demand. Instead of sending a calendar or poster, they might draw people in through social media, then encourage them to input their personal information on the online request form and receive a personalized version instead.
There are lots of ways to use print as a follow-up to inbound marketing. Stirring that into the marketing mix might be a great way to encourage your clients to start thinking differently about print.
