As every year, Hubspot has released its new report with figures on inbound marketing. A comprehensive study carried out with more than 6,200 people from 99 different countries and working in different industries and business sectors. Once again this year, the famous State of Inbound 2018 highlights the many advantages and strengths of inbound marketing.
The state of inbound marketing in 2018
1. Inbound marketing priorities in 2018
Regarding their inbound marketing strategies, French professionals are mainly focusing on creating more blog posts, optimizing their SEO to increase their online presence, and implementing a marketing automation strategy.
Inbound marketing priorities in 2018 are the same as in 2017. However, we can see that in 2017, creating blog posts was the priority for 71% of respondents, compared with 52% in 2018. The same applies to SEO optimization as well as the creation of long-form content. Whereas if we look at the priorities that were ranked in the last positions for 2017, such as the creation of online tools or webinars, we can notice a significant increase in 2018.
It therefore seems that French professionals have more technical inbound marketing priorities compared with previous years. We can also see that the use of video format has become a priority for more French professionals compared with 2017.
2. Inbound marketing, an effective strategy.
Among the French professionals surveyed, 58% of them say that their inbound marketing campaigns generate a higher ROI than outbound marketing campaigns, compared with 41% in 2017. Companies are therefore seeing real results thanks to inbound marketing. Thanks to these figures, we can also see that French professionals are placing more importance on measuring their marketing actions, since in 2017, 27% of those surveyed said they did not know how to answer this question, compared with only 11% in 2018. These results are positive regarding the use of inbound marketing, since more and more professionals are becoming interested in it. Inbound marketing has already proven itself in most French companies, which allows those who are not yet convinced to become aware of the positive results that inbound marketing brings.
When professionals are asked whether the ROI of their inbound strategy has increased compared with the previous year, 53% of respondents indicate that, indeed, the return on investment of their inbound marketing strategy has increased compared with last year. This is a real strength for companies, because they are increasingly looking for a quick and significant return on investment compared with what they invest.
We now see that 65% of respondents also state that the leads generated through inbound practices are of better quality than leads coming from other marketing practices. These figures are not surprising since this is one of the key advantages of an inbound marketing strategy.
What do we mean by “better quality”? Better-qualified leads, that is to say leads that have a real interest in your product and/or service. Thanks to these better-quality leads, your sales teams save time and optimize their conversion rate.
Finally, inbound marketing budgets have increased compared with the previous year, since 59% of professionals indicated that they allocated a higher inbound budget in 2018. Given that respondents are aware of the results of inbound marketing, they decide to invest more and more over time. But what is important to remember from these figures is that companies are much less wary of inbound marketing.
In conclusion, inbound marketing proved itself during 2018 and succeeded in convincing more professionals. French companies using inbound marketing are growing and are confident about the future
Marketing Automation, the ally of Inbound Marketing?
If we look at the 2018 marketing priorities, we find:
- Convert more leads into customers
- Increase traffic to the website
- Grow sales
If we now add the inbound marketing priorities to these results:
- Creating blog posts
- SEO optimization
- Implementing a marketing automation strategy
We realize the potential of combining inbound marketing and marketing automation. Indeed, integrating marketing automation into your inbound strategy will allow you to optimize your conversion rate and therefore be more effective, the top priority of the professionals surveyed.
How does marketing automation impact your inbound marketing strategy?
- Lead generation : thanks to integrated forms on your various landing pages, you will be able to collect valuable information about your leads, and then launch personalized inbound actions.
- Qualifying prospects : marketing automation allows you to easily qualify your prospects by combining prospects’ demographic data as well as behavior. This qualification will allow you to clearly identify your buyer persona.
- Lead nurturing : marketing automation helps you know where your prospect is in the buying journey. Indeed, marketing automation allows you to have a history of the different activities carried out by your prospect. Thanks to this data, you will be able to carry out personalized actions tailored to the behavior of your prospects to “nurture” them and make them more ready to buy.
- Lead scoring : assigning points to your prospects according to the actions they have previously taken will allow you to clearly and quickly identify the hottest prospects (the most interested) as well as the coldest (the least interested).
- Improving your ROI : marketing automation allows you to test several strategies and select the one(s) that work best (the “test and learn” method). You can therefore continuously improve your inbound campaigns.
In conclusion, inbound marketing and marketing automation are key topics for French professionals in 2018.
Nevertheless, this does not mean that you should write off more traditional methods such as outbound marketing, especially in certain specific cases. For companies with financial resources, advertising campaigns can have a real impact.
That said, inbound marketing brings you a better return on investment, more leads generated and, above all, better-quality leads, while being less costly than an outbound strategy.
Integrating marketing automation into your inbound marketing strategy can be a real asset for your company! It allows you to acquire even more leads, qualify them, support your prospects throughout their buying journey, etc. All with the aim of improving the performance of your inbound marketing campaigns as well as their ROI.
