Inbound Marketing Statistics 2024: Leads, Business Growth, and More

Good inbound marketing allows businesses to attract visitors and convert them into customers without paying for ads to draw their attention.

However, it’s not enough to use only one marketing channel. It’s the combination of search engine optimization, content marketing, social media, and other channels that make the inbound marketing strategy successful. As opposed to outbound marketing that’s often aggressive, inbound marketing aims to meet customers’ needs and solve problems they already have.

Let’s take a look at the stats to gain a better understanding of this business methodology.

Top Inbound Marketing Statistics | Editor’s Choice

• Nine in ten marketers plan on investing more in online video and mobile in 2021.
• Since the COVID-19 pandemic started, manufacturing companies’ website usage has increased by 12%.
• 63% of marketing leads and sales happen because of referrals.
• Inbound marketing efforts can decrease the leads’ cost by 80% in five months.
• At 73%, social media and social media advertising were among the most implemented inbound marketing tactics in 2020.
• 68% of marketers think that inbound marketing is an effective way to achieve goals.
• Traditional marketing generates three times fewer leads per dollar than inbound marketing methods.
• Inbound marketing effectiveness in improving the lead conversion rate is 10 times higher than outbound marketing.
• Around 28% of millennials discover new products via ads they see.
• Inbound marketing is the reason behind more than 90% of all clicks online.
• 78% of B2B marketers use keyword research tools when creating content.

Inbound Marketing Stats—General Overview

Creating an excellent inbound marketing strategy means succeeding in catching the attention of the right kind of visitors, offering valuable content, and supporting customers on their path to purchase. However, customer retention is also a crucial task for every business because customers need to feel valued to stay loyal.

Let’s go through the latest stats about inbound marketing.

1. For some inbound marketing services, like project-based SEO, marketing agencies charge $3,500 and more.

In order to improve rankings for businesses and brands, it’s necessary to combine different strategies that inbound marketing offers. What makes this marketing tactic powerful is information—but not any kind. Visitors recognize if a blog post, video, infographic, or podcast contains valuable content.
By providing solutions and useful information for visitors, businesses prove their competence and experience, resulting in more conversions.

2. Digital marketing statistics for 2021 reveal that nine in ten marketers intend to invest more in online video and mobile.

Thanks to the digital revolution and search engines like Google, many people use the internet to do research or make purchases. Nowadays, it doesn’t matter if someone needs to buy food or get a restaurant recommendation, search for the best accounting companies, or purchase clothes—the online world has it all.

From this perspective, it becomes clear why an excellent inbound marketing strategy is valuable for any business.

3. An average inbound marketing specialist salary in the US is $50,156 a year.

Inbound marketing specialists can have different duties, but it all comes down to finding ways to increase web traffic and sales. Some specialize in content creation, while others are experts in SEO, PPC, or email marketing. They can also be solely focused on a particular industry.
Every inbound marketing specialist’s essential task is to attract new customers and increase the conversion rate and revenue by providing helpful content.

4. According to inbound marketing for manufacturing stats, manufacturing companies’ website usage has increased by 12% since the pandemic started.

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced many manufacturing businesses to stop relying on in-person contact and turn to digital marketing to generate leads. Inbound marketing is highly beneficial for manufacturers because of its undeniable effectiveness and reach.

The extensive reach is an essential factor for manufacturers because these types of businesses rarely target only one group of people. Instead, their most commonly targeted audiences are R&D teams, procurement managers, design engineers, and MRO managers.

5. Inbound marketing vs. outbound marketing statistics reveal that aggressive and intrusive advertising has caused 84% of millennials to leave a website.

Outbound marketing is based on displaying messages to all internet users in a disruptive and annoying way for most of them. This marketing strategy can be seen in telemarketing, pop-up internet ads, TV ads, billboards, and magazines.
On the other hand, inbound marketing is more subtle in attracting potential customers. It focuses on solving customers’ problems and entices them to consume valuable content, making it a more successful marketing strategy.

6. Inbound marketing facts show that referrals are the reason behind 63% of leads and sales.

In 2019, Sagefrog Marketing Group conducted a survey on B2B professionals in various industries, including supply chain, technology, manufacturing, and healthcare.

The survey also revealed that email marketing was responsible for 39%, while tradeshows and events accounted for 44% of the overall sales and leads.
That wasn’t the first time that referrals appeared as B2B’s top source of sales and marketing leads. The reason behind this is that the whole B2B concept rests on interpersonal connections and networking.

7. Uninterrupted inbound marketing efforts can decrease the leads’ cost by 80% in five months.

This goes to show that inbound marketing is a long-term game. Investing in a quality inbound advertising strategy has proven to save a lot of money when implemented over a longer period of time and with consistency.

8. Local inbound marketing data shows that 81% of small businesses rely on local email marketing as their primary method of getting new customers.

Local email marketing allows businesses to reach potential customers in their area through an efficient but straightforward strategy.

The local marketing strategy works for both small and large companies, regardless of whether it’s directed at everyone in the country or just a group of locals.
Moreover, it’s low cost but highly effective in engaging your audience.

9.  According to inbound marketing statistics for 2021, 65% of inbound marketers use a simple presentation video.

Consumers don’t like to waste their time browsing through a bunch of pages. That’s why video has become the most convenient and effective marketing method among inbound marketers. In 2020, 19% of content marketers stated that they primarily used video in their marketing strategies.
Simple presentation video allows displaying essential information about products in a straightforward and efficient way. It’s also the best way to show testimonials that address customer’s pain points and how your products can help them.

10. When it comes to inbound marketing channels, social media and social media advertising accounted for 73% of most implemented marketing tactics in 2020.

Social media has reached its full potential in the past few years, becoming one of the primary methods of driving visitors to a website and converting them into leads.

As for other marketing channels, email marketing was the most used marketing tactic in 2020 (84%), followed by content marketing and blogging (63%) and SEO (61%).

11. According to sales conversion rate statistics, 2.17% of global visits to ecommerce websites were converted into purchases in Q3 2020.

Sales conversion rate represents the number of converted leads into paying customers. It also shows if the marketing strategy is successfully implemented.

Since the pandemic started, the time people spend online has increased drastically. Many businesses have taken this opportunity to prove that good content marketing drives sales. In the US alone, the online shopper conversion rate was 2.57% in 2020.

12. The latest SMG’s inbound marketing report shows that 31% of B2B professionals use Instagram for marketing purposes.

The percentage of companies that use Instagram as part of their marketing strategy isn’t substantial.
However, all these companies ranked Instagram as number one for engagement when compared to other social media platforms. Furthermore, Facebook ranked second, LinkedIn ranked third, while Twitter ended up last.

13. According to digital marketing vs. traditional marketing statistics, a 0.61% decrease in traditional advertising spending is projected by the end of 2021.

Traditional marketing is based on the disruptive delivery of content, which often repels customers instead of attracting them. However, according to digital marketing statistics, B2B marketers will increase their spending on digital marketing by 14.32% in 2021.

All things considered, this increase isn’t surprising. Companies are simply taking advantage of the fact that people spend more time online to reach as many potential customers as they can.

How Does Inbound Marketing Grow Your Business?

Since we’ve established what inbound marketing is and what tactics a marketer can use, let’s go through some statistics on how an inbound marketing strategy affects business growth when properly implemented.
The inbound marketing methodology is constantly changing to improve ways of attracting potential customers, generating leads, and closing sales. Therefore, the more effort is put into an inbound marketing strategy, the more effective it is.

14. According to lead generation statistics, 68% of marketers think their inbound approach is an effective way to achieve the desired results.

The purpose of inbound lead generation is to bring in leads. This process represents a vital part of an inbound marketing strategy because it fuels its success and enables marketers to boost business growth.
Inbound lead generation is based on providing visitors with relevant brand information using particular platforms, with the sole purpose of attracting prospects and making them recognize the business’s services as something they need.

15. Recent data on inbound marketing ROI shows that traditional marketing generates three times fewer leads per dollar than inbound marketing methods.

ROI is the best measure of a marketing strategy’s success. Businesses need to earn more than one dollar for every dollar invested in marketing to be on the right track.
Inbound marketing doesn’t work overnight, and it takes time for the quality content and website optimization to kick in. But once it starts working, the desired ROI follows.

16. Inbound marketing effectiveness in improving the lead conversion rate is 10 times higher than outbound marketing.

Many businesses turned their back on outbound marketing and started investing in modern marketing methods. Inbound marketing helps build a brand, improve conversion rates, and, most importantly, increase profit.
Lead conversion is an essential metric for revenue. If a business doesn’t convert leads into customers, all other efforts are useless.

17. The latest social media marketing statistics indicate that social media ads help around 28% of millennials discover new products.

Social media is a potent marketing tool when used right. Social media platforms have enormous reach, allowing marketers to gain insight into the targeted audience’s needs and present the right product and brand information at the right time.
According to the latest content marketing statistics, there is another important reason why social media is a great marketing channel—the possibility of interaction with customers. For example, the ability to communicate with brands is very important to millennials. It helps brands earn the trust and loyalty of customers.

18. According to recent inbound marketing rates, 82% of marketers have acquired new customers thanks to daily blogging.

The inbound marketing strategy has a few phases. During the first one, blogging plays an essential role in the process of attracting leads. This method is one of the most efficient ways to target potential customers and raise awareness about a brand. A blog increases the number of leads, improves rankings, and helps in overall brand promotion.

In contrast to marketers who blog daily, inbound marketing statistics show that only 57% of marketers who post monthly have acquired customers. Given that a blog is a vital step in a customer journey, posting monthly doesn’t seem like a good idea because it’s important to showcase that the blog is active and up to date.

Gaining the target audience’s trust is essential because readers often share blog posts they find valuable with their connections and, consequently, help generate more leads.

How to Increase Your Inbound Marketing Leads?

Inbound marketing is customer-centric, which means that potential customers are the ones who search for businesses and not the other way around. Analyzing feedback, optimizing inbound marketing strategy, and creating content centered around customers’ needs is the fastest way to get good results. Increasing inbound marketing leads requires finding a way to rank higher in SERPs, employing off-site SEO strategies, using social media, and optimizing landing pages.

19. Recent statistics on the success of inbound marketing show that inbound marketing is the reason behind more than 90% of all online clicks.

Marketing strategies have changed from interruptive and aggressive to more subtle and natural advertising methods. Younger generations have a strong aversion to marketing companies that interrupt their online activities to get their attention.
That’s why many companies are turning to inbound marketing, which follows a more natural way of advertising, making targeted audiences come to businesses and not the other way around. In addition, this type of marketing brings lower CAC when compared to outbound marketing.

20. According to the latest email marketing statistics, 80% of marketers noted increased email engagement in 2020.

As marketing strategies evolve, it becomes clear that only brands and businesses that manage to connect with their targeted audience will reach their sales goals. Enter email marketing.
Emails are an integral part of everyday life and marketing strategies. Email marketing allows for content personalization, which improves the efficiency of the marketing strategy by focusing on the specific needs of potential customers.

21. According to content marketing statistics from 2021, 78% of B2B marketers use keyword research tools when creating content.

Sometimes businesses do everything right. They have a capable marketing team, create original content that’s published regularly, but the sales remain low. Enter keyword research tools. These tools help marketers make content more appealing by revealing which keywords are currently trending.

However, another necessary process that helps analyze the overall quality of a website is a content audit. This process keeps track of the website’s content and gives insight into what’s working well on the website and what needs improvement.

Inbound Marketing Statistics| The Takeaway

Digital marketing has set the stage for innovative marketing methods. For example, using the combination of inbound and outbound marketing can effectively attract a targeted audience, although it also requires a bigger budget.

Nowadays, inbound marketing seems like the best way to reach a targeted audience because it’s in tune with the audience and avoids all the horrors of interruptive marketing strategies. The latest available statistics on advertising effectiveness have revealed that ads account for less than 10% of all online clicks.

With that said, it becomes clear that a good marketing strategy should involve a continuous improvement of content, making it appealing for the audience. However, optimizing websites and detecting potential underlying problems are also vital steps in the marketing process. This is where SEO tools like SerpWatch can be of great help.

This tool allows marketers to track keyword performance to improve SEO and gain insight into advanced keyword metrics. In addition, SerpWatch’s cannibalization feature is incredibly convenient when two or more pages are optimized for a keyword with the same or very similar search intent.

Frequently Asked Questions | FAQ

How can email marketing fuel your overall inbound strategy?

Marketing teams often underestimate email marketing while creating an inbound marketing strategy. Email marketing makes it possible to contact potential customers who have already shown some level of interest in the product and eventually convert those leads.

Emails also allow for personalized communication with customers so that both sides can get relevant information. In other words, dividing customers into groups makes it easier to deliver valuable content.

The success of an email campaign and the overall success of inbound marketing depends on following the best practices for maximum performance.

Why is social media an important part of inbound marketing?

Social media is an important segment for every marketing strategy, not only inbound marketing. These platforms became the primary way to connect with targeted audiences, increase leads and sales, and promote a brand. However, to take full advantage of social media, it’s necessary to create engaging and quality content.

The more engaging the content, the more people will share it with their friends and families. This way, it’s possible to stand out in the sea of content creators, attract new visitors, and retain them.

How much do small business marketing agencies charge for inbound marketing?

Creating a successful inbound marketing strategy requires a lot of energy, time, and skill. That’s why many companies hire a marketing agency for this particular job. According to B2B marketing statistics, the overall cost of inbound marketing depends on what goals a company wants to achieve and can range between $4,200 and $60,000 per month. The more ambitious the plans, the higher the price.

For example, some top-notch small business marketing agencies charge around $15,000 per month just for SEO, depending on the number of backlinks, blogs, and keywords.

How does inbound marketing lead to more web traffic?

Higher web traffic means more site visitors but also more potential customers. Inbound marketing increases website traffic if its components, such as content marketing and SEO, are used together and in a way that is optimized for a targeted audience.

Creating quality content filled with keywords that visitors often search for will help turn them into leads or customers. In addition, creating more content increases the possibility of ranking for particular keywords. Many search engines rank pages individually, so having a website with different articles and blog posts will help rank higher and increase website traffic.

How much does an inbound marketing specialist make?

There are many types of inbound marketing specialists. Some specialize in social media, while others specialize in PPC, copywriting, content, or SEO.

The primary responsibility of an inbound marketing specialist is to find ways to increase the number of website visitors who will become leads and customers by using proper content marketing tactics and different inbound channels.

The latest available inbound marketing statistics reveal that a US inbound marketing specialist earns around $50,156 a year.

Sources

Business 2 Community, Cloudnames, Content Marketing Institute, Evenbound, HigherVisibility, Hubspot, IMPACT, Invesp, Marketing Charts, Sagefrog Marketing Group, Semrush, Statista, Statista, The Smarketers, Thomas, ZipRecruiter