The Most Cost-Effective Marketing Channel

Inbound marketing proves to be the cheapest lead generation tool for online marketers

Inbound marketing efforts, which give Internet users information or tools that they find valuable, outperforms outbound, or interruptive, marketing efforts.

This data comes from HubSpot, an inbound marketing solutions provider. The research shows that businesses focusing on inbound marketing experience a 62% lower cost per lead than businesses that engage in outbound marketing more.

HubSpot found similar results in 2010 as well.

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Those who participated in the research study said that 41% of their 2011 lead generation budgets will go towards inbound marketing efforts while 24% of their budgets will go towards outbound marketing. The other 35% of their budgets were not disclosed.

For inbound marketing, SEO ranked at the top of priority list, followed by trade shows, PPC and social media; blogs, direct mail and telemarketing rounded out the list.

It personally is a big surprising that SEO and blogs were so far apart on the list. What type of SEO do these businesses expect to spend money on? A blog frequently updated with SEO content would likely be the most beneficial for them in this process of inbound marketing.

When it came to turning leads into customers, inbound marketing was also seen as effective. Almost 60% had acquired at least one customer through a company blog or LinkedIn. Furthermore, nearly 50% attained a customer or more through Facebook and while Twitter was productive in gaining a customer for 42% of the businesses.

For B2C, Facebook was seen as the most effective while LinkedIn was the best for B2B.

Since nearly 60% experienced success through a company blog, and SEO is the highest priority for inbound marketing efforts, Internet marketers need to realize the value in housing a frequently updated, SEO-filled blog that reports on the industry in addition to the actions of the company.

For more, take a look at this article from eMarketer.