Are you a hunter or a gatherer?

Inbound marketing lets you see your targets

Imagine you were alive a few thousand years ago. You’re family and tribe rely on you to put food on the table every week. You have a limited supply of weapons, namely arrows, that take a while to make and you can’t afford to waste them.

Would you stand at the edge of the forest, knowing that animals are in there, and fire your arrows randomly hoping to hit something?

Or would you position yourself near the watering hole, knowing that every day large numbers of the animals you need gather there? This would allow you to identify the best targets, and use something to lure them closer to you, thereby minimising your energy expenditure and preventing you from wasting your valuable arrows.

Obviously the second option is the smarter one. The only reason you’d aim fire randomly into the forest is if you weren’t aware of the watering hole. Isn’t it?

Now, lets jump forward to today…..

You run a business.

Your arrows are marketing dollars.

The forest is broadcast media.

Your target is customers.

The watering hole is the internet.

The lures are keyword search terms, websites and social media.

The only difference is that, unlike the poor animal, everyone’s a winner.

So the question is….when you market your business, are you a hunter or a gatherer?