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Content is king. You have heard it countless times before; with the marked shift to content marketing,  the mantra has taken on something of a rally cry.  At the same time, it’s given rise to the (false) belief that, if you create it, they will come.  In other words, create great content, publish, and sit back to wait for the masses that will undoubtedly arrive ready and eager to buy. You may be waiting awhile.

The truth is that inbound marketing takes work. It take resources and effort. It takes time and patience. It takes stellar execution. Without any one of these pieces of the puzzle, your content strategy will not yield the results you want.

Outbound Is Not Dead

Another myth to bust: outbound marketing is no more dead than SEO, email marketing, or other effective, and proven, methods. While inbound is certainly the key to success, it cannot rule on its own. Brands need to integrate both inbound and outbound techniques to achieve sustainable results. The optimal strategy balances content with other channels, such as paid search and PPC, email marketing, mailings, content syndication, and more.

In fact, by combining forces, as it were, inbound marketing becomes more effective. For example, you can see increased conversion rates for your landing pages because PPC and other paid advertising solutions enable you to target your audience so much more accurately. Features such as geo targeting and retargeting make it easier to capture the attention of your key demographics and deliver the right message based on their position in the buying cycle.

Ideally, you allow inbound and outbound strategies to work in tandem. This is more important than ever because potential leaders and customers are seeking information via social and peer to peer platforms. They’re relying less on search engines, so it is important to find other ways to attract people to your content. This is where outbound marketing comes to the rescue. Today, multiple touch points is the key.

No one single channel is sufficient to put your brand on top. You’ve got to harness the power of multiple techniques. Inbound. Outbound. Paid. Organic. Owned content. Social posts and customer reviews. It all matters, and when your marketing strategy encompasses a broad spectrum of these methods, then, they will come.