In 2013, most marketers have probably heard the term “inbound marketing,” but may not
have a solid idea of what it means and how it can help their organizations grow. In a sentence, inbound marketing involves creating and sharing objective, informative content designed to appeal to your ideal customer, which in turn attracts more qualified leads to your business and establishes a more targeted, relevant and personalized sales experience. It truly sounds like the ideal marketing solution! Yet, for a number of reasons, many banks and financial institutions have been slow to add inbound marketing to their existing marketing mix.

So why should you adopt an inbound marketing program at your bank or financial institution?

Here are 5 simple reasons:

Inbound marketing is 100% measurable and 100% justifiable:

One of a marketer’s largest challenges in traditional (or outbound) marketing and advertising is measuring a program’s success. With inbound marketing however, you can quantify the direct results of your actions within your programs. Create and promote more content, the more visitors you will get to your site. Track which content is pointing your most qualified visitors to you and create more targeted programs around that subject matter.

It’s where your best prospects are:

In this world of Google and YouTube, smartphones and 24/7 connectivity, the first place your customers go when looking for information is online. Whether they have questions on refinancing, the best place to open a checking account, or how to best invest their money, they’re looking for answers (advice, not a sales pitch) through internet searches.  If you think about it, most of the sales and decision making process falls in the hands of your the prospect.  Things like Google searches, online reviews, message boards, social media, and blogs (shameless!) are where people go for these types of answers before even engaging with a company.  Shouldn’t your bank be the expert that provides the advice?

It’s an incredible way to differentiate your institution from your competitors:

Inbound marketing is still fairly new or even nonexistent for most financial institutions, but your banking customers are online looking for answers. Establishing your inbound marketing program while the playing field is still fairly limited will give you a huge leg up over your competition.

Inbound marketing is less expensive. Way less...

Let’s face it, there is no such thing as a marketing budget that is too large. You need to make every penny count. On average, organizations with established inbound marketing programs report that the cost per lead is 61% lower than in outbound marketing*.

Inbound marketing delivers higher quality leads that are usually "sales-ready": 

So what’s stopping you?

*From the HubSpot State of Inbound Marketing Report: Based on surveys conducted each year from 2009 to 2012. The 2012 results are based on responses from 972 professionals who were familiar with their business’ marketing strategy. These professionals included marketers, business owners, entrepreneurs, and executives at companies of various sizes. 72% were B2B.