In the world of consumer behavior there are two types of exposure to information, and they provide practical elucidation for inbound marketing.
First, there’s intentional exposure, which is goal directed search behavior; and next, accidental exposure, where there’s an unintended exposure, such as an ad in a magazine, a commercial or walking billboard.
Which one of these sounds more like inbound marketing? Accidental exposure is basically interruptive marketing, the traditional outbound techniques that devour marketing budgets and that business schools love to teach. Intentional exposure is all but a definition for inbound marketing; there is an active (deliberate) search to make sense of something. In that goal directed search online, relevant sites and information are presented. The sites with valuable content are utilized more often.
Amazon.com just isn’t the online equivalent of Wal-Mart, it’s a hub for user-generated content (UGC): product reviews and ratings. That’s valuable content when making a purchase. More importantly, in the decision making process this is considered intentional exposure, because people actively seek out Amazon product reviews before buying a product.
Further, web page ads are being ignored, ignored in the same fashion that you would flip past an advertisement in a magazine; they can even be outright blocked online. That’s like buying a magazine with all the ads and inserts torn out. Think like a publisher and generate some content, like Crutchfield.com does, or facilitate UGC like Amazon and overlook the accidental, interruptive, exposure, the same way you and everyone else disregards advertisements.
First, there’s intentional exposure, which is goal directed search behavior; and next, accidental exposure, where there’s an unintended exposure, such as an ad in a magazine, a commercial or walking billboard.
Which one of these sounds more like inbound marketing? Accidental exposure is basically interruptive marketing, the traditional outbound techniques that devour marketing budgets and that business schools love to teach. Intentional exposure is all but a definition for inbound marketing; there is an active (deliberate) search to make sense of something. In that goal directed search online, relevant sites and information are presented. The sites with valuable content are utilized more often.
Amazon.com just isn’t the online equivalent of Wal-Mart, it’s a hub for user-generated content (UGC): product reviews and ratings. That’s valuable content when making a purchase. More importantly, in the decision making process this is considered intentional exposure, because people actively seek out Amazon product reviews before buying a product.
Further, web page ads are being ignored, ignored in the same fashion that you would flip past an advertisement in a magazine; they can even be outright blocked online. That’s like buying a magazine with all the ads and inserts torn out. Think like a publisher and generate some content, like Crutchfield.com does, or facilitate UGC like Amazon and overlook the accidental, interruptive, exposure, the same way you and everyone else disregards advertisements.
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