Inbound Marketing ROI

I've been asked this question a lot by prospects I'm discussing inbound marketing with. Since I talk to them about how much more effective inbound marketing is compared to traditional print or outdoor (for example) they naturally start to talk about return on investment (ROI).

What is the ROI of inbound marketing?

Early on I made the mistake of "promising" a specific ROI before I really knew what I was talking about. Luckily I only did this with one client and I still was able to get close to my guestimate. I haven't made that mistake again.

Promising a specific ROI is akin to guaranteeing a #1 Google ranking...and we all know that's not a smart thing to guarantee. In fact, it's an impossible thing to guarantee.

The true answer to what your ROI will be for a particular marketing spend or marketing effort depends on many factors. But from my experience and from all the data I see, inbound marketing produces a positive ROI and is much more effective than outbound marketing.

To further illustrate this point I want to review the annual HubSpot ROI Report. The findings of this report align fairly closely with my own experience with a few dozen inbound clients. A few highlights of the ROI Report:

• Attracting Site Visitors
  Customers reached 3.3 times more visitors per month within 1 year.
• Converting Visitors to Leads
  Customers reached 3.5 times more leads per month within 1 year.
• Turning Leads into Customers
  79% of customers who responded to the survey saw an increase in sales revenue, 67% within 7 months of using HubSpot. 83% of the customers saw an increase in lead to customer conversion rate.

These numbers are pretty impressive in my book! To view the entire report, click here. To use HubSpot's ROI Calculator, click here.

If you want to talk about Inbound marketing and how it can help you grow your business, let's talk