HUB SPOT INBOUND MARKETING AND WEB 2.0 Case Solution
Question 1
Do you agree with Hub Spot that the ‘rules of marketing’ have changed? If so, how? Is inbound marketing the answer? Why or why not?
Answer)
According to the case, the rules of marketing have changed with the passage of time and also the software companies had to bemore than just a software company to achieve success in the market. With respect to the traditional ways of marketing such as television commercials, radio messages, print advertisements, sales promotion, packaging and pricing etc., these techniques cannot be ignored because these marketing tools target the larger audience and markets the product or service to the mass market.
However at a broader perspective, we may disagree with the claim because the general idea of using marketing techniques is similar as it was in the past. Traditional marketing strategies include informative and persuasive methods to target the customers and the policies regarding the strategy remain same, which is to create brand awareness and create brand recall, repurchase.
Therefore,it would not be correct to say that the rules of marketing have been changed because the main concept regarding marketing strategies remains the same, which is to create brand awareness and brand recall. However,it can be said that new and innovative methods of marketing are arising in the marketplace in the modern era.
The concept of inbound marketing techniques is on the rise in the market. Inbound marketing is a collection of strategies and methods, which focuses on gathering specific prospects and customers towards a business and its offerings. Inbound marketing offers important information, tools, methods and techniques, resources such as human resource and natural resource to gather the attention of customers and attract potential customers to the company’s offerings during the time when a customer is involved in searching a particular product or service. Similarly, inbound marketing strategies focus on those customers who are willing to focus on the company rather than focusing on the larger audience who do not even want to purchase the company’s product / offerings.
On the other hand, outbound marketing activities focus on interrupting customers in their daily lives usually when they don’t want to get interrupted.An example of this could be when people are spending their leisure time watching televisions and spending time with their family simultaneously, they are usually interrupted with heavy advertisements and as a result, they tend to ignore such advertisements. Therefore, it would be better if the companies try a new approach to attract customers instead of displaying advertisements.
This is where inbound marketing comes in which makes use of blogging and writing content about a particular product regarding its features and attributes so that people can know the message of the company and would be able to contact the company if they are interested in the company’s products/services. Inbound marketing attracts people towards a particular offering, and instead of interrupting customers with television advertisement, the inbound marketers develop videos that customers want to see. Moreover, instead of buying display ads in print media, the inbound marketers create their own blogs which customers find more interesting and attractive. Inbound marketing helps in targeting those customers who are never targeted by the outbound marketing activities;they are usually those customers who have the ability to become potential customers.
Inbound marketing is not an easy task and requires employees to have three distinct set of skills and capabilities which are as listed below:
1) The ability to write detailed and effective content that attracts the customers and should be interesting enough that a customer reads it completely and does not leave it unread.
2) The ability too distribute the content so that it is easily found by customers with a minimum effort by using search engines....................
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