With today’s news confirming the decline of Groupon and the continuing doubts over whether it is a sustainable business or not.Its a key pointer for small and medium sized businesses and how they need to market themselves. Groupon is all about what I call broadcast marketing a daily blast out to a large opted in email list (no spam please) which over time becomes less and less effective.

This is for two reasons:

1. Your average human today is inundated with over 2000 outbound marketing interruptions per day! However there are more and more creative ways to block them out, including caller ID, spam filtering, Sky+ etc.In short our immunity is growing.

2. Cost :Outbound Marketing is expensive and profit margins are always being squeezed and business is constantly looking to drive down Customer Acquisition costs .

Businesses can see this and are rethinking how they market themselves and are looking for more cost effective ways of reaching prospects .And thats where Inbound’ Marketing  comes in.This is where your business :

-Spends time talking to its customers -visits and calls !

-”helps itself “get found“- by people already learning about and shopping in your industry.

– Has a website that is a “hub” for your industry

– Has a website that attracts visitors naturally through search engines

– Uses the blogosphere to influence market opinion and attract prospects.

– Uses Social Media (LinkedIn, Facebook,Twitter and Google+) to engage with clients and prospects

– Builds fully Opted In Email Lists where clients and prospects have asked to be kept in touch with your latest news and information.

– Uses Business Networking to generate ‘Referrals’ from prospects .

These are the ways of the future !

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Richard