Traditional marketing methods don’t work anymore. With over three billion people accessing the Internet, over half of them via mobile devices, you are living in the connected “global village” predicted by Marshall McLuhan in 1968. Power is shifting from company brands to individual consumers armed with influence and currency. Consumers research, shop, and purchase when and where they want, on their own schedules. Does this mean you should give up marketing for good?

Meet inbound marketing, a holistic system that creates meaningful connections between organizations and people. The ultimate inbound-marketing goal is marketing to a customer as an individual, creating a connection that culminates in a desired end — an action in the form of a sale, donation, or subscription.

This book teaches the principles of connecting with consumers on their terms, not on the marketer’s terms. My aim is to clarify inbound marketing best practices so marketers succeed in connecting products with people. This book is a guide for you as an inbound marketing strategist and practitioner.

Inbound marketing is attractive because it creates timely, relevant, and contextual connections. When executed properly, inbound marketing results in an end purchase, donation, or engagement that appears natural to the user because the consumer proceeds at his or her own pace and stays in control throughout the process. All you have to do is communicate an authentic message that resonates and attracts consumers. Better connections result in better conversions. This customer attraction and conversion process is the essence of inbound marketing.

About This Book

Inbound marketing is a hot topic. It’s more than a trendy fad or a buzzword. Inbound marketing’s foundation is attraction over interruption messaging. Inbound marketing integrates messaging that is contextual, relevant, and timely for the intended recipient, and integrates into your target consumer’s purchasing behavior. Interruptive messaging (such as a TV ad), on the other hand, unnaturally disrupts your consumer’s behavior. Integrating your marketing based on your target customers’ needs is a fundamental paradigm shift from “push” marketing to “pull” marketing.

In this new paradigm, traditional marketers are quickly becoming dinosaurs. Their old methods of marketing don’t apply in the new digital age. They need a primer to adapt and evolve. By connecting with consumers early in the purchase process and by serving up content that is relevant and timely, marketers can achieve a higher level of success. Anyone new to this paradigm needs a guidebook to correctly implement inbound marketing in his or her organization. That’s where this book comes in. Inbound Marketing For Dummies teaches marketers and business owners how to succeed in this new, dynamic environment.

Foolish Assumptions

The book clarifies the principles and processes of inbound marketing to aspiring and seasoned marketing professionals alike. It teaches how to attract, convert, and keep customers for life. As such, it’s a good resource for any of the following:

• Marketing directors
• Marketing coordinators
• Marketing consultants
• Ad agency owners
• PR firms
• Small-business owners
• In-house marketing personnel
• Bloggers/content producers
• Users of marketing automation software or sales customer-relationship management software

This book assumes you have a basic working knowledge of marketing from which you are looking to expand and grow. It also assumes your company has Google Analytics connected to your website.

Icons Used in This Book

In this book, material of interest is sometimes indicated by icons in the margins. This section briefly describes each icon in this book.

Sometimes the volume of inbound marketing information can be overwhelming. You’ll see this icon to help you easily scan important inbound marketing information.

Whenever there’s a simpler or better way to make complex information simple, you’ll see this icon.

There’s a lot that can go wrong with inbound marketing. Believe me, I’ve made my share of mistakes. Paying attention to this icon helps you avoid common inbound marketing pitfalls.

Used sparingly, this icon designates information beyond the basics of inbound marketing. When you see this icon, don’t freak out! Just knowing the basics of inbound marketing elevates your knowledge base above the typical marketer.

Beyond This Book

A lot of extra content that you won’t find in this book is available at www.dummies.com. Go online to find the following:

• Online articles covering additional topics at

  www.dummies.com/extras/inboundmarketing

  Here you’ll find out how to create three-dimensional content that connects with consumers, learn ten steps to creating an inbound marketing campaign, and ten criteria for choosing marketing automation software, among other details to aid you in your inbound-marketing journey.

• The Cheat Sheet for this book is at

  www.dummies.com/cheatsheet/inboundmarketing

  Here you’ll find additional helpful inbound marketing resources online and on my inbound marketing tech e-cheat sheet.

• Updates to this book, if we have any, are also available at

  www.dummies.com/extras/inboundmarketing

Where to Go from Here

This book makes the new marketing paradigm clear to you. Although it’s important to remember inbound marketing is a process, and even small pieces contribute to the whole, feel free to scan the table of contents or the index to find topics helpful to your particular marketing situation. Additionally, I’ve provided a glossary of useful inbound-marketing terminology at the back of the book.