Inbound Marketing: 6 Case Studies Prove You Should Forget Outbound

Outbound marketing is dying, and it’s not really a slow death. As we’ve pointed out it won’t be long until updated privacy laws are enforced across Europe, with the vote set to take place any day now. We think it will likely be the death-knell for the call centre; it’s a trying and worrying time for companies that rely on outbound marketing over inbound marketing for sales and data collection, and have it as a key part of their strategy.

Only, the future isn’t as bleak as they think. Creative inbound marketing not only cures a lot of those ills, but it also enhances campaigns, opens instant dialogue channels with potential customers, and organically brings customers looking exactly for what you’re offering straight to your doorstep. Inbound can also be more cost-effective and ethical than an outbound strategy.

And it’s not as hard as you think to wean yourself off outbound and enjoy the benefits inbound marketing brings. Below are five examples of companies that have used wildly different inbound marketing strategies not only to goutbounrow their business, but to become a creative powerhouse in the eyes of their target market, setting them apart from the competition.

1: Creative Vines, better than television

Six-second video sharing service Vine is still a hidden gem in the marketing community; it’s certainly not at the level of an Instagram or YouTube…. yet. But as our tea lady likes to point out it’s not the size that matters, it’s what you do with it that counts. And Vine is a fantastic way to share content with a base of younger, targeted followers.

So when family business Brian Gavin Diamonds set out to take on big brand-name jewellers to sell more engagement rings, settings, and loose stones they decided to put their efforts into a creative stop-motion Vine campaign that stood out and set themselves apart from their competitors.

"No big diamond brands actually took this medium, jumped on it and did something cool with it. I would say 10 viewings of one Vine is more impactful than one 60-second commercial,"

Said director of marketing Danny Gavin. He also pointed out. It worked; only 6 per cent of Gavin’s budget went to Vine, but the campaign amassed 6.5 million Vine loops and connected them with an estimated 1.63 million potential customers. The creative nature of the campaign also got it featured in trade magazines and attracted other press attention.

2: Effective mobile inbound marketing tracking techniques

Though marketing through outbound calling looks to be in trouble inbound calls are still an essential part of driving business, especially for a company like Evolve Vacation Rental Network (EVRN) which needs to talk to people on a personal level for their high-value rental second homes and the management services they could provide.

This example is more of a behind-the-scenes campaign technology one, and shows how effective inbound techniques are at measuring marketing success. Different companies measure their success through different metrics; cost-per-acquisition in bringing on new customers was an essential one for EVRN, especially as people were beginning to access their site through smartphones.

Tracking each mobile campaign was important to see which strategies were effective and refine them. Conversion optimisation was key as was A/B testing direct mail and biddable campaigns to attribute where traffic was coming from and which visitors became customers. Thanks to inbound tracking EVRN was able to convert 30% of its direct call traffic with 50 per cent of online traffic coming from mobile devices.

3: Powerful time-saving content for lead gen

A perfect example of time being wasted on outbound comes from Matthew Lacroix, Director of Brand Marketing at LENOX, who was fed up with his sales team spending a lot of their time trying to find and chase up leads. The B2B business sold a range of power tools and accessories to companies that needed metal-cutting supplies, and was founded in 1915.

Lacroix, though, wanted to take a lot of the lead generation side of the business away from the sales team so they could concentrate on closing deals. Instead an inbound content marketing campaign was devised that focused on case studies and whitepapers, targeted toward the profiles of those that make purchasing decisions in LENOX’s researched companies.

“Depending on that persona, they'll get certain content. So we track the leads, track the hot leads and ultimately we track to the point where we can flip something to our sales team,”

explained Lacroix. It worked; the marketing department’s contribution to sales grew to nearly 10 per cent of LENOX’s revenue, with 50 per cent of its qualified leads coming from inbound marketing.

4: Sizzling social buzz to drive footfall

Topgolf isn’t just a wedge jockey’s paradise. It’s an all-round entertainment centre featuring games, leagues, things for kids to enjoy, food and cocktails, and more. During its large-scale expansion across North America, though, the team realised that it had to engage more with its young, fun-loving target audience through social media and outreach to attract consistent interest.

As well as creating social content Topgolf went as far as installing social walls at their locations so people could see a constant stream of people enjoying themselves. Hashtags such as #ILOVETOPGOLF were introduced, but the most effective method of growing their social base was simply chatting to potential visitors and striking up conversations (approximately 85 per cent of its audience is socially active).

Creating a buzz was also crucial at new locations, with content such as buildings being completed essential to attracting local attention. They also paired with social partners and reached out to reporters to generate extra interest. The results were huge, with Topgolf seeing a 93 per cent increase in Facebook fans, a 182 per cent increase in Twitter followers, and a 1,476 per cent increase in Instagram followers.

5: Organic outreach drives search interest

It can be tricky selling cars online; they’re a big investment, and people like to see what their money is getting them as well as test driving the vehicle. Cartelligent helps people buy and lease cars outside of dealerships without selling them private information, and takes people through the buying process before going on to negotiate a price for the car.

The problem they were facing as a B2C was making people aware Cartelligent existed, and was reliant on referrals and repeat business. They needed to grow organic leads through inbound without interrupting people’s daily lives or those already in the car-buying cycle. A search and content strategy was put in place, with content focused on popular search terms such as ‘I'm at the end of my lease. What do I do?’

Cartelligent quickly became a destination and a help engine for people looking for help when entering the car buying cycle. Combined with social and email outreach, as well as pushing through biddable, Cartelligent saw its organic traffic increase by 400 per cent with organic web search leads up 80 per cent a month.

6. Investing in inbound perfection

Our last case study is one of our own, and centres around a London-based investment client of ours. Opened in Summer 2015, the client was struggling to generate and manage leads. All leads were previously managed from an outbound model, and their highly-experienced sales team were chasing poor-quality leads through a paper-based process.

An offshoot from a parent company, the client approached us to improve lead quality, volume, streamline their marketing, and make it more efficient. As an inbound marketing agency, our solution was entirely new to the team, and introduced biddable media and other inbound multi-channel acquisition strategies. We also introduced marketing automation via HubSpot, profiled their audience, and produced creative content to introduce prospects to the sales funnel.

The times are changing, outbound is outdated and in some cases, can be potentially dangerous for your brand financially and in a reputational sense. Big fines are being handed out to serial data offenders. With inbound you can avoid this and get the best from your leads so read our blog “How to create Inbound Strategy Masterclass” for more information.”