From Impossible To Inevitable

Chapter 6Nets—Inbound Marketing

Nets are one-to-many campaigns to generate leads, with tactics like inbound marketing, in-person and online events, and online advertising. EchoSign, HubSpot, and Marketo have all driven $100 million–plus businesses mostly through Nets.

Figure 6.1 What content is loved by your market AND creates measurable results?

These leads create quantity over quality, because you're literally “casting a wide net.” For example, if 50% of word-of-mouth leads (Seeds) might turn into customers, perhaps just 1-3% or less of marketing-generated leads will convert into customers. So, you usually want a lot more of them.

Out of a trillion ways to market, inbound marketing (or content marketing) is the most popular kid in school. It works, and it works for every company—unlike, say, outbound prospecting. The idea is creating marketing that customers love or learn from, inspiring them to want more from you, eventually buying your stuff.

Every business can benefit from creating content. Beyond creating leads, making your ideas and customer stories public speeds “time to trust.” People get to know you faster, better, when they can learn about you, your business, and customers besides just face-to-face or over the phone.

A word on social media: which obviously keeps growing like gangbusters. It may or may not be related to marketing, depending on how you use it. We ...