Inbound marketing is an approach that uses automation to drive leads into a sales pipeline, in order to nurture as many qualified prospects as possible into profitable customers — and ultimately, cultivate them into loyal brand ambassadors.
Unlike traditional (a.k.a. “interrupt”) marketing such as broadcast and media advertising, inbound marketing has the capacity to engage and attract leads before they are ready to buy. This is absolutely crucial for B2B organizations, where sales cycles typically last anywhere from a few weeks to several months, and for some big ticket purchases (industrial equipment, commercial real estate, etc.) which may take years to materialize. In most cases, waiting until prospects are ready to buy before building this relationship is simply not an option.
Naturally, much of the discussion about inbound marketing focuses on technology and tools — and with good reason. Content management systems like the one developed by HubSpot (the company that coined the term “inbound marketing”) are incredibly powerful, and provide businesses of all sizes — including smaller firms — with unprecedented access to enterprise-grade data.
However, a critical part of the inbound marketing puzzle is not supplied by technology and tools: it is delivered by market research. Here are the three key reasons why market research drives inbound marketing success:
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Market research identifies all buyer personas — not just known ones.
Many businesses think they obviously know who their customers are: the people and businesses that buy from them. Surprisingly however, this is not always the case! Often, there are many other potential customer types that are not being targeted, including influencers who do not directly purchase a product/service, but influence those who do. Market research helps businesses get a clear picture of their entire target market landscape, so they can engage different buyer personas and increase sales.
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Market research helps filter and qualify leads.
The bane of professional existence for many sales professionals is spending — or better stated, wasting — time on unqualified leads. In fact, according to Gleanster Research, only 25% of leads are legitimate and should advance to sales. Inbound marketing is an invaluable asset that uses automation and lead scoring to filter and organize leads, so that sales reps focus on those that have the best chance of converting into customers — and ignore those who are merely “window shopping” with little or no intention to buy.
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Market research identifies hyper-relevant content options.
As noted above, market research helps businesses identify the buyer personas in their target market (e.g. risk managers, IT specialists, product developers, health and safety experts, and so on). It also goes further by revealing what kind of messages resonate with each buyer persona and how the same buyer persona differs based on where they are on the customer journey.
For example, while all “risk managers” would be interested in risk mitigation-related messaging, those who are just starting the customer journey would typically be more interested in broader research content (e.g. “how to” and “best practice” information), while those further along the customer journey would typically be more interested in product or service specific content (e.g. why choose one type of product/service vs. another, why choose one type of company vs. another, etc.).
The Bottom Line
Ultimately, inbound marketing and market research work together to do what matters most to businesses: increase customers, revenues and profits, while expanding brand visibility and deepening competitive advantage so that the future is bright.
To learn more, contact the Communications For Research team today. You’ll chat with our co-CEO Colson Steber about your business goals and he can help you determine whether market research is the key to reaching them!
For more information on how to communicate the value of market research to your clients, download our FREE eBook today: 
