Inbound marketing: how social media can be your startup’s strongest and cheapest lead generation machine

Marcus Ho is a social media strategist to best-in-class businesses in Asia. Marcus has helped over 200 corporations ranging from MNCs to fast-emerging startups to increase sales through social and digital campaigns. He is also the author of Social Payoff.

In recent years, inbound marketing has proven to the more popular choice over the traditional outbound marketing strategy, which usually consists of buying ad space on media and waiting for queries to come in. A 2013 study by inbound marketing experts Hubspot shows that 58 percent of marketers have embraced inbound marketing, and more importantly, 34 percent of leads are generated through inbound marketing; only 22 percent of leads are produced through outbound marketing.

This does not even consider the extra cost required for outbound marketing. The study shows that inbound marketing saves marketers about 12 percent the cost per lead and about five percent the cost per customer:

And ultimately, does inbound marketing actually generate considerable enough return-on-investment (ROI) to warrant a change in marketing strategy (if your startup hasn’t already embraced inbound marketing?)

Here’s your answer:

Nearly half the marketers testified that inbound marketing generated actual results, notwithstanding the 34 percent of marketers who could not or did not calculate their ROI.

So where does social media come in?

Now that we’ve established the importance of the inbound marketing strategy, let’s discuss why social media is such a powerful inbound marketing tool. Here are three reasons why your startup should use social media to pull in leads:

1. The ability to create specific content

Every audience has its own needs and wants, and your startup will need to be properly positioned so you can answer their queries or address their issues. And the best way for you to do that flexibly and with immediacy is social media.