With anything new and complicated, the truth is spread just as much as the confusion is. Though inbound marketing isn’t that new to the marketing mix (it was invented in 2003!), inbound is still growing in business consciousness.

You may have heard some myths about inbound marketing, and we’d like to help fix that. Keep reading for common misconceptions and why they aren’t true.

It’s a Fad

Attracting quality customers by earning respect and notoriety is no new game for the marketing world. Inbound marketing is the way to do it for an internet age, and this time we have the tools to monitor, analyze and optimize campaigns for a responsive strategy customized to your business’ needs. This is what makes inbound marketing more effective than old school marketing methods at capturing your target audience. Instead of doing prior research, creating an expensive ad campaign and hoping it sticks, each movement your brand makes can be tailored based on what your audience responds to.

 Inbound Marketing Will Make Outbound Marketing Obsolete

Inbound and outbound marketing strategies should work cohesively to create one overall experience for everyone that comes into contact with your brand. There are advantages and disadvantages to each. But if your company doesn’t have the budget for both, many businesses choose an inbound marketing campaign over outbound because it has a lower cost per lead.

Inbound Marketing is a Waste of Time

According to the United Nations Telecommunications Agency, there are 3 billion unique users on the internet every day. Having grown up in an internet age, the 125-million-strong millennial generation of the U.S. has learned to search the internet first for their everyday needs. So, having good SEO is key to obtaining and retaining customers over the long-term. According to the Better Business Bureau, 89 percent of C-level officers will google a business to get a sense of their presence before a meeting and 68 percent will not do business with one without a modern website.

Inbound Marketing Will Replace My Sales Department

The truth is that Inbound Marketing will make your sales team more efficient and productive, which makes churning out revenue a quicker turn-around. Many businesses have a complicated algorithm to try and qualify cold leads, but inbound marketing strips away the need to qualify them because inbound marketing automation systems already rate and nurture leads for you. A good inbound marketing campaign nudges users down the sales funnel by choosing targeted messages according to their keyword search. Essentially, the process replaces cold calling by warming up each customer to your company before ever asking for contact information.

Inbound Marketing is Just Another Name for Social Media

Inbound marketing is so much more than your presence on Facebook, YouTube or Twitter. Not to say your social presence isn’t important, but social media is just a piece of the inbound marketing puzzle. Inbound marketing helps configure your mix of media. For some social media may be a big piece in the outreach; for others it may not. If you’re a B2B construction company, you probably don’t need a big presence on Twitter.

What other myths have you heard about inbound marketing? Ask us any questions you may have in the comments below.