We are experiencing a sea of change in the way businesses advertise and market themselves to potential customers. The old models of outbound marketing are in decline, while inbound marketing tools like blogging, search engine optimization and social media draw a steadily rising share of company budgets. This new approach is quickly becoming a favorite of small businesses because of its relatively low costs and high return on investment, while more and more large companies are taking advantage of these tools as well.

These developments are the focus of a new “State of Inbound Marketing” survey, which takes a close look at the changing face of company marketing and the appeal of these new techniques. In addition to tracking the relatively low cost of these inbound advertising tools, the survey takes a look at the quality of the leads they produce. By checking the rates of closure on leads at more than 150 businesses, the survey paints a clear picture of the difference these inbound channels can make.

Outbound marketing is a very imprecise tool. Companies can spend large sums on direct mail, telemarketing or trade shows, but most of the people exposed to these campaigns may not even be interested in their products or services, while even those who show an interest may need more convincing. The survey’s findings confirm this idea, showing that companies managed to close the deal with leads generated from outbound sources only 1.7 percent of the time.

Because inbound marketing is based on making your company visible to customers who are already interested in the sort of products or services it has to offer, it promises much stronger returns. SEO is the clearest expression of this idea, as it tailors your website to attract people who are looking for the keywords associated with your business. As a result, the survey showed that leads generated by SEO have a close rate of 14.6 percent, more than eight times the rate for outbound leads.

These numbers make SEO the most successful inbound advertising tool, with its conversion rate tied with that for direct traffic from people who already know your company. Other forms of inbound advertising show lower close rates than SEO, but even the lowest, social media, can boast a close rate of 4 percent, more than twice that of outbound advertising. Referrals, leads generated from inbound links, produce a 9 percent closure rate.

Blogging, the third pillar of an inbound advertising strategy, provides the foundation for much of its success. Because blogs produce a constant supply of fresh and relevant content, they can help to boost your website’s search engine rankings, attract direct traffic from regular readers and spark discussions in social media. The survey found that 57 percent of businesses reported acquiring a customer through their company blog, and companies that blog more frequently showed consistently better results. Fully 92 percent of companies that blog multiple times per day reported gaining new customers through the blog.

Whether a company is focused on business-to-business or business-to-consumer marketing can make a difference in how effective these tools can be, with blogging, Facebook and Twitter producing better returns for B2C companies while LinkedIn is more effective for B2B companies. But both types of company found value in both blogging and social media, with at least 40 percent reporting that they had acquired customers through each channel.

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