Do you enjoy interruptions?  The simple fact is most interruptions are not something special and so most of us don’t like receiving them.  Is it any wonder that the old, traditional model of interrupt marketing isn’t really producing the kinds of results it did in years past?

When marketing and advertising with traditional methods are used an interruption is required.  Someone has to stop what he or she is doing to receive the marketing message.  People have the option of ignoring these interruptions and that is how most of us handle them a good percentage of the time.  When you attach that fact to a dollar figure it certainly can create a lot of anxiety.

If we start thinking about our marketing efforts this way it makes evaluation of the money we spend to market our products a little more sticky.  It is hard to accept that the dollars spent on advertising are invested in places where the message is largely ignored.  It is better to take the entire sum spent on one particular outlet, then evaluate how much business came from that effort to get a clear idea of the return on investment.

I’ll bet this is something everyone looks forward to isn’t it?  Trying to figure out just exactly how much business is being generated by each vehicle used to carry the message.  The reality is most of us don’t do a very detailed job of this in the small business arena, who has time for it? Not to mention that traditional forms of marketing don’t make this easy.

Inbound marketing is gaining momentum as more and more realize it is a lot more cost efficient to talk to an audience who wants to hear the message and it comes with a bonus of being a lot more fun.  It is also much easier to track progress. Pick up a copy of Seth Godin’s book Tribes (your library should have it).  It is a very quick read and goes a very long way in getting your mind wrapped around the idea of a key element of inbound marketing.  You will have to start thinking in terms of being a leader.  The traditional business world has reserved this title for management positions only but the truth is any of us can lead.  Most of us do lead in some form or other.  Now we must learn to apply the concept to marketing our products and services whether we are in management or not.

Having people interested in what we are saying and seeking out our messages is much more enjoyable than randomly tapping on the shoulder of countless people hunting down one who might be interested in what we have to say.  How do we attract people who are interested and genuinely want to know about our products and services?

Next we’ll start talking about attracting and building an audience.  Since Web 2.0 arrived on the scene we have a lot to work with and many of us are being stressed by the overwhelming options and the inability to see how to efficiently put them to work.

One last thought, an audience is an audience whether it is one person or a million people.  No need to be too focused on volume at this stage.  Time will remedy a lot of this as long as you start building.  The most important first step is to move forward so let’s go!