The internet has connected the world like never before. 2.7 billion internet users all across the world log in to get their fix on a wide range of topics, issues and for entertainment. We can easily say that no medium of communication has been able to break this, even the ubiquitous newspaper. The reach and power of the internet is capable of magnifying any issue to enormous proportions today. Businesses are clamoring for this fine piece of prospect real estate and the biggest medium has turned out to be social media. America reigns supreme in terms of internet penetration and there is a specific set of reasons for this.
The American social media breakdown
In this chart, we can see the share of viewership the big 4 social networks have today, led by the ever increasing Facebook.[tweetable]The number of Americans online today stands at 191.4 million[/tweetable]. This, coupled with a per capita income of $52,804 for 2014, Americans are some of the best prospects to cater to. We say that social media is the best way to reach them and the reason for this being that 73% of the 191.4 million are active on social media and adding to this, 73% of this online social population logs in once, every day. This is a good opportunity and social media plays a crucial role in this process as you can clearly see with the numbers. Americans take their purchases seriously and they want to be informed about it at all stages of the buying process. This philosophy is the reason for the success of the inbound marketing principle.
Inbound marketing and social media
Social media does not take very well to direct marketing. In fact, direct marketing does not apply to social media in many ways. The very inclusion of the word social makes it impossible to have a direct or outbound marketing strategy to reach your prospect/customer. Social media brought in the age of accountability. Customers had the powerful option of voicing their concerns directly on forums which were seen by others. This spawned the creation of the inbound marketing phenomenon. Strategies took a dramatic shift towards the consumer becoming the point of focus of communications. Creating the need, knowledge transfer, customer service and such other non-descript jobs became important.
Lead generation has taken a completely backward turn. You do not go all guns blazing out and hunt down your prospects, instead, you invite them home, for dinner.[tweetable]In America, demographic studies suggest that about 80% of the internet literate population conduct an informal research online before going in for a purchase[/tweetable]. 54% of B2B buyers do the same. Hence it is paramount to have product descriptions, easily accessible whitepapers and a well designed website to lead this population in.
Social media and inbound marketing are brothers. They are necessary today for the survival of any business, be it B2C or B2B. Customers are informed more than ever, they know exactly what they are looking for and if they do not get it from you, it is available elsewhere. To make your marketing click, invest in the power of inbound marketing. Take social media seriously, and do not let an intern do your social media marketing, it is not going to end up well! (Like this) The ROI from social media coupled with inbound marketing is big and the reason is pretty simple. Inbound marketing costs only a fraction of outbound marketing and social media is a self-driven revenue generator which tends to improve in time if you target the right audience and wait for the numbers to start ticking.
Indeed the amount of resources involved in inbound marketing are low and the ROI attached to it is high, it takes time and effort to reach there. Most of the times, businesses fail to see this and do not take an active interest in inbound marketing specifically for this reason. If you are in the business of catering to the great country of America, you might as well shift gears and go with this trend. It has delivered results and will only show improvement in the future.
LEARN MORE ABOUT HOW WE CAN HELP YOU UTILIZE INBOUND AND SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING SPECIFICALLY FOR THE AMERICAN MARKET BY CLICKING HERE
