The 1.2 Million Dollar Problem
I want to tell you a little story. I recently went in to consult with a friend's business. They were doing good revenue ($10MM / year). They were also selling an expensive product ($3k+ plus, with high margins) so this was an interesting business. They were basically a sales organization. They had an entire room full of employees and it basically works like this.- They bought an enormous list of leads for a couple hundred thousand dollars.
- They have a team that cold calls the leads they bought and tries to set up a demo.
- They have a "sales" team that sells them.
Why This Isn't Going To Work
The way sales works has changed. Drastically. 1) Consumers don't get sold anymore, they do their own research. They are smarter and better equipped to make decisions. Now they don't even go to a restaurant without checking reviews. They will look up reviews about you. Hell, they look up reviews about anything. This toilet paper on Amazon alone has 5000+ REVIEWS. Think about that for a second.
2) Consumers HATE being bombarded and are nearly oblivious to hard-sell ads.
They hate ads (Adblock alone has 144 MILLION USERS and the creator reportedly makes millions via donations and a rumored $25 million from Google to whitelist their ads - Anyways, a HUGE deal).
So yeah people HATE ads.
3) Consumers ignore everything.
They don't pick up their phones. Hell, they barely respond to messages from their friends!
(Some of my messages go hours or even days without a response. One girl I was trying to date literally replied A MONTH LATER like it was normal. Hahaha!!!!)
So how do you reach them in a world of overwhelming advertising, smarter consumers that generally ignore everything?
Here's The Answer:
You don't advertise to them. You help them. All these people still have problems and needs. They don't want to hear about your product. They want to hear how to solve their problems. This is called Inbound Marketing and the time to start using it is NOW. Inbound Marketing is all about ATTRACTING your audience to you instead of pushing your product on them. Inbound Marketing is all about creating content that will help your target customer - Answering their questions, solving their problems, and starting a relationship. Once the relationship starts, they will begin to trust you as an authority and be curious about what solutions you have that can solve their problems. Then you have 5000x the power. They like you, they know you, they trust you, and then they buy from you.Here's the Hocus-Pocus Unicorn Dust Part
So this is the part where I would say it's all about 'quality content' and you would throw your hands up in the air and laugh at my face. Well, let me show you how we use inbound / content marketing to actually put dollars in the bank. It's simple:- We identify problems that our target customer has.
- We write articles about them & publish them on our blog.
- We promote those posts though our email list, Facebook, twitter, etc.
- Our customers find them, read them, then see us as an authority.
- They get curious about our solutions.
- They book & hop on a call with one of our account managers.
- Account managers have the easiest sell in the world because the lead already knows, likes and trusts us.
How to Get Started - The Easy Way
This sounds insanely simple, but that's the beauty: You need to start a blog. On this blog, you will create content that helps your target audience. You need to keep posts rolling on a consistent basis. Think of the top problems that your target customer has and write your answer to them in the form of a blog post. Show them how to solve their problems. Think about top objections or questions that you get all the time. Write a blog post about each one. You will start to rank for all sorts of keywords and long tails. Your target customers are searching for the answers to their questions. When they land on your blog post, you'll want to get them to opt-in to your email list. You can do this with a Popup Like OptinMonster or a Hellobar. Once they are on your list, you just send them all the other content you created and then give them a chance to reach out to you.Want Some Help?
The biggest problem is that most people don't have time to write blog posts. You have other more important things to do. It takes a long time, and it takes someone who is actually skilled at writing. That's why we created HOTH Blogger. HOTH Blogger is the easiest way to get started with Inbound Marketing. We'll create high-quality blog posts for your blog every month and really build a substantial base of content that will attract your target customers to you. Even if you don't do any current cold calling, this will help attract customers. This is the model for the future of advertising. Click here to check out HOTH Blogger. Any questions? Leave them in the comments!The author
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Discussion
Comments
John Smith
August 13th, 2025
This post does a great job explaining the real differences between inbound and outbound marketing clearly and simply! I really like how it highlights inbound marketing’s focus on attracting and helping customers with valuable content rather than interrupting them with ads. The examples and pros and cons for each method make it easy to understand when each approach works best. It’s encouraging to see how inbound marketing builds trust and long-term relationships in a way that feels natural and respectful to customers. Thanks for sharing such an insightful and practical guide definitely something I’ll keep in mind for my own marketing efforts!
Space Waves
July 30th, 2025
very helpful for me, thanks
Samser
December 6th, 2020
I have used this inbound trick already on education sector, although for local audiences without blogging. It was something to build confidence among the potential customers. It takes a bit time, but end of the day, you would have some nice people who will stay for long this is because as the writer said, it’s all about trust. anyway, nice article, now getting more confident! Thank you Jhonson!
