The Data You Need to Make a Compelling Case for Inbound Marketing

Whether you’re trying to convince your company that adopting inbound marketing is beneficial for business, or you’re hoping to get budget so you can start using a new inbound marketing platform, getting executive buy-in can be a challenge. In a world where people fear change and constantly try to minimize risk, bold, innovative solutions are often met with skepticism, if not disdain. 

Fortunately, there is a magic bullet in this case: Data. While it’s easy to argue with mission statements and philosophies, it’s considerably harder to refute cold hard data.

That’s why we've put together this new presentation: 100 Stats, Charts, and Graphs to Get Inbound Marketing Buy-In. We encourage you to flip through the presentation and copy/paste stats, charts, graphs, and entire slides into your own presentations for convincing your company that inbound is worth the investment. Virtually all of the slides are customizable, so you can update colors and fonts to match your personal (or brand’s) style.

Below are some examples of how you can use these stats, charts, and graphs to answer the tough questions.

Is Inbound Really Worth the Effort?

Like anything worth doing, inbound marketing takes effort. But is all that effort actually worth it?

In a word, yes. The graph below shows that while inbound marketing channels (specifically social, email, blogging, and SEO) do require higher time commitments than outbound channels, inbound channels are more likely to generate leads at a below-average cost.

To put a firm number on just how inexpensive inbound leads are, we can turn to our friends at Search Engine Journal, who report that inbound leads cost 61% less than outbound leads.

Are Other Companies Even Doing Inbound Marketing?

Absolutely! In fact, nearly 60% of marketers report that they have adopted inbound strategies.

What's more, nearly half of CEOs report that their companies have completely integrated inbound strategies with their marketing strategies at large.

What About This 'Blogging' Business? Does It Really Work?

Again, let's let the numbers do the talking. For starters, companies that blog generate 126% more leads than those that don't.

Furthermore, 43% of marketers report that they have generated customers from their blog.

But here's where things get really interesting: of marketers who blog on a daily basis, 82% report that they've generated customers from their blog. 82%!

Isn't SEO Dead? Why Should We Dedicate Resources to It?

SEO is certainly changing, but it's by no means "dead." In fact, when it comes to comparing conversion rates of specific channels to the amount of effort they require, SEO is leading the pack.

And according to Search Engine Journal, SEO leads have a considerably higher close rate than outbound leads.

Tell Me More About This "Marketing Automation" I Hear So Much About

When used correctly, marketing automation software can give your business a serious boost. According to Gartner research, companies that use automation experience a 10%+ increase in revenue within six to nine months. (Not too shabby.)

If you're wondering where you can find the absolute best marketing automation software available, we've got you covered. In a recent report from VentureBeat, HubSpot was named the "best all-around marketing automation system." Here's a breakdown of how all the companies in the report fared when it came to content optimization and content targeting.

That was just a taste of some of the data you'll encounter in 100 Stats, Charts, and Graphs to Get Inbound Marketing Buy-In. Download the full presentation to get access to all of the slides!