Inbound Marketing Beats Outbound Marketing: A Case Study
Posted by
Ratu Lewis on Fri, Feb 17, 2012 @ 03:00 PM
Our friends over at HubSpot have provided us with a case study that proves just how powerful inbound marketing can be over traditional outbound marketing.
In the US during the Super Bowl, one of HubSpot’s customers decided to run an ad campaign during the game. Using outbound marketing, they hoped to increase website traffic and awareness of the business.
Overall, they had 3 in-game ads, and 17 pre-game and post-game spots that were televised in their local area for a cost of $54,000. The ads encouraged viewers to visit the business’s website but nothing else. In total, the potential number of viewers they would’ve reached was approximately 2.8 million.
On face value, the results may have seemed like a success. Their website’s traffic increased by 11% on Super Bowl Sunday and was up 4% the following Monday. However, in comparison to the traffic produced by their inbound marketing strategy, the results were disappointing.
The business’s blog and inbound leads brought in twice as much traffic as the $54,000 ads did. Worse still, the ads brought in no online leads, resulted in 7 total phone calls, and there were absolutely no customer conversions.
The business contacted HubSpot and informed them of the results, expressing how disappointing it was to see traditional ads brought them essentially nothing.
What should be noted, though, is that this business uses inbound marketing and, since doing so less than a year ago, has seen a 567% increase in organic traffic and a 583% increase in overall traffic. In short, inbound marketing is effective.
Nowadays, outbound marketing is just too expensive to justify the weakening returns. Inbound marketing, on the other hand, is proving its worth as a cheaper, more effective alternative.
What do you prefer? Traditional advertising or inbound marketing? Share with us in the comments below.
* Image source: scottchan / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
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