Did you know that the internet is now the most consumed media in Australia?

According to the ‘2009 Nielsen Annual Internet and Technology’ report the average Australian spends 16.1 hours per week online. This is compared to TV at 12 hours per week, radio at 8.8 hours, Video at 5.4 hours, online radio at 4.6 hours, PC video at 4.6 hours, mobile at 3.7 hours, newspaper at 2.8 hours and magazines at two hours.

That’s right, Australians spend more time online than consuming TV and newspapers combined – more time online than radio, newspaper and magazines combined.

So here is the big question for business in 2010: are your marketing resources being allocated to the right media or are you still marketing like its 1999?

There are two forms of marketing:

Outbound marketing – where you spend money trying to interrupt your potential customers with your message. This is what we have been doing as advertisers for the last half a century.

Inbound marketing – where your potential customers find you and decide to find out more. Inbound has taken off with the advent of online search and burgeoning social media networks.

Outbound marketing is like a shotgun; inbound marketing is like a magnet. 

You are probably already doing outbound marketing, so here are some reasons you should be considering inbound marketing in 2010:

• Outbound is becoming less effective. Consumer’s are flooded with choice and have the ability to block your message. Timeshifting of media is becoming easier thanks to new digital technology and consumers increasingly resent interruption marketing.
• Meanwhile over 90% of people begin their online search for a product or service using a search engine. Once upon a time we let our fingers do the walking, now we let Google, Bing and Yahoo! do the work for us. Therefore it has become essential for businesses to be easily found online.
• Professional search engine optimisation, great web content and a social media strategy all help you get found online and can lead to increased traffic to your business, more inquiries and more sales.
• The nature of inbound marketing leads and inquiries is that they are highly qualified and motivated. They have made a conscious decision to search for your product or service, rather than reacting to an intrusive message, and therefore improve your sales-conversion potential.
• Inbound marketing is investment in your organisation’s future. Effective search engine optimisation and great content has a lasting effect on your online presence, unlike outbound advertising that stops as soon as your budget runs out.
• The great news is that inbound marketing is extremely cost effective and totally measurable. Its no longer necessary to spend obscene amounts of money on marketing with little measurable effect. A good online strategy allows you to easily measure traffic, unique visitors, keyword search results, time on site and conversion through to inquiry. Your CEO will love your ROI reports.
• Most of your competitors haven’t mastered effective internet marketing… yet. Now’s your chance to get a head start on them and own a new space. It’s simple, your company should be fishing where the fish are. If your customers are now spending more time online than they are consuming other media, shouldn’t you be allocating more of your marketing resources to a superior web presence?