Value: [rating=4]
Recommended link: Inbound Marketing Research, Update European Edition Now Available
Marketing in Europe? Hubspot have just released their European report on Inbound marketing, after gathering insight from over 400 Marketers in Europe to find out the key tips and strategies of how Inbound Marketing is successfully adopted, priorities and challenges this year. It also shows comparisons between marketing in Europe Vs the US.
Top 3 sources for lead generation for European Marketers is Social Media, SEO and Blogs!
Inbound Marketing is no longer the latest ‘buzzword’ since companies have been implementing it for years now since digital and social media marketing channels have been available. The question is: how effective is it? The notable shift from ‘interruptive push marketing’ to 'permission-based marketing' through the purchasing cycle, and greater customer expectations has created many opportunities, but also challenges of how to manage inbound marketing.
Hubspot, who coined the term, have just published their 5th State of Inbound Marketing Annual Report. It runs to 175 pages with some fascinating insight based on 3,300 respondents Executives, Business Owners and Marketers across six continents. Within this audience (likely advocates of inbound marketing), inbound is certainly growing significantly:
' .. nearly 60% of marketers have adopted inbound marketing strategies and more than 80% of those executing inbound marketing have integrated it into broader company goals. People are also investing more in inbound, as budgets for this strategy have grown nearly 50% in each of the past three years'.
Our summary covers what we see as the most significant findings that can help marketers inform their inbound marketing strategy and implementation.
Opportunities of Inbound Marketing
'One-quarter of marketers report that their top challenge in 2013 is proving the ROI of their inbound marketing efforts'.
We thought these were the key questions and charts from the research.
Q: How integrated is your company's inbound strategy with your larger marketing strategy?
81% of companies are taking an integrated approach but 5% are not.
Q: What are your company’s top marketing CHALLENGES? (Segmented by business model)
The diagram 'speaks for itself'', showing ROI as the most difficult challenge.
Q: What percentage of your company’s leads come from each of the following sources?
The findings show heavy investment in channels which generate lower than average lead volumes such as PPC, Direct Mail and Traditional Advertising. The report indicates that this could be due to companies not yet having confidence in the ROI from Inbound until it becomes more transparent.
Q: Please estimate your company's cost per lead for each of the channels listed below vs. your overall average cost per lead.
Findings in the report highlight that ' Social Media, Email Delivery Lower Average CPLS, 27% of Marketers report below average CPL for both email and social media'.
Also please note that there are cost differences across industries.
Q: What percentage of your company's leads generated in the channels listed below convert to sales vs. your total lead conversion?
We hope you find our summary useful, do let us know your thoughts on what has or hasn't worked for you.
By Susanne Colwyn
Susanne is a Marketing Consultant and Trainer, with over 20 years marketing experience in the public and private sector. She's passionate about supporting companies with practical result driven marketing, to help focus companies on evaluating and driving their marketing forward. Experienced in Integrated Strategic Marketing Planning, Data Segmentation, Customer Relationship Management Systems, Customer Insight and reviewing internal systems, data and processes, to maximise conversion strategies and the customer experience. You can connect with her via her LinkedIn or follow her @Qtymarketing.
Turbocharge your results with this toolkit containing 11 resources
The Digital Marketing Strategy And Planning toolkit contains:
Start your Digital Marketing Plan today with our Free membership.
Recommended Blog Posts
Our compilation of the latest social media statistics of consumer adoption and usage of social networking platforms Social networks have transformed marketing and, as this post shows, their popularity is still growing in our latest global social media statistics research …..
What are the six essential parts of a campaign planning template? Today’s marketing campaigns are complex since they need to reach and engage audiences across a range of digital and traditional channels as shown by our RACE growth system visual. …..
Why use a framework to create an integrated marketing strategy? I believe that implementing a digital marketing strategy framework to follow is essential to ensure the success of your integrated marketing strategy. Importantly by agreeing on a marketing plan structure …..
