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 As a small business owner, you've probably already been introduced to the concept of inbound marketing and the idea of getting a potential customer to make an initial contact with your company through email, phone call or a contact form on your website.

Hubspot, the inbound methodology pioneer, describes inbound marketing as a way of attracting new customers through different forms of content designed to address their needs, educate them and add value - unlike it's older brother, outbound marketing, which is often interpreted as intrusive because it's based on reaching out to potential customers without their initial contact.

Benefits of inbound marketing are numerous, but the truth is, you need a combination of both inbound and outbound marketing to get the best results from your marketing efforts.  Ideally, a customer would come to you, already knowing something about your business and services that could help them. Considering the fact that around 2 million blog posts get published every day, the chances customers will see yours are small. Unless you use some of the inbound marketing best practices when creating content.

To learn more about the benefits of inbound marketing and the ways it can be combined with outbound for best results, check out this BusinessZone article here.

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