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A Publication of
HubSpots Partner Program
ANALOGIES TO HELP EXPLAIN
INBOUND MARKETING
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7 AWESOME
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More like, who didnt write this eBook?!? The analogies on the next 14
pages are sourced from many different people. Some are marketers. Some
are consultants. Others are salespeople. All are master story tellers. Their
names and Twitter handles accompany their words.
WHO WROTE THIS EBOOK?
Introduction / 4
Inbound Marketing is like Hunting / 6
Inbound Marketing is like Dating / 7
Blogging is like Jogging / 8
Keywords are like Applying to College / 9
The Internet is like a Popularity Contest / 10
Inbound Marketing is like the Discovery Channel / 10
Marketing Automation is like Air Travel / 11


TABLE OF CONTENTS
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INTRODUCTION
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ANALOGIES TO EXPLAIN INBOUND
Inbound marketing is the sum of lots of
different parts. Whether youre talking to
a prospect or an existing client, youll
need to be able to relate the big picture
behind why its valuable and how it will
hel p t hem gener at e l eads and
customers.


Analogies can help you do this.


This eBook is a compilation of analogies
that will help you better explain inbound
marketing and key concepts like keyword
strategy, bl oggi ng and marketi ng
automation.

w
Enjoy!
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INBOUND ANALOGIES
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INBOUND MARKETING IS LIKE HUNTING
Some would say this is the analogy that
started it all. Originally published back in
2008, Brian Halligan, HubSpot co-
founder and CEO, used a blog post to
liken inbound marketing to how lions
hunt elephants in the jungle.
Traditional marketers looking to garner interest from new
potential customers are like lions hunting in the jungle for
elephants. The elephants used to be in the jungle in the '80s
and '90s when they learned their trade, but they don't seem
to be there anymore. They have all migrated to the watering
holes on the savannah (the internet). So, rather than
continuing to hunt in the jungle, I recommend setting up shop
at the watering hole or turning your website into its own
watering hole.
*Please note: No elephants were
harmed in the creation of this analogy.


G
Brian Halligan, Co-Founder & CEO, HubSpot
@bhalligan
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INBOUND MARKETING IS LIKE DATING
You don't ask someone to marry you on the first
date. People get kind of freaked out when you
do that. You get to know each other first, then
introduce the friends, then the family, and then,
once you know the whole package looks good,
you put a ring on it.
k
But if you're doing something like slapping
'Contact Us' as the only call-to-action on every
page of your site, that's essentially what you're
doing -- asking your leads to get too serious, too
soon. Why would they commit to someone they
just met? Play it cool, man. Let them get to
know you first. Maybe through ohhh, I don't
know ... an eBook? If they like the looks of you
from your eBook, then they have a reason to
actually want to get to know you better. That's
when you can step it up a notch and offer them
something a little more committed, like anything
in that little blue circle in the diagram below.
Matthew Wainwright, Inbound Marketing Manager, HubSpot
@mdwainwright
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BLOGGING IS LIKE JOGGING
You're going to see better results if
you do it 30 minutes every other day
than if you run like a total maniac just
once a month. We often hear people
say they've tried blogging, but "it
doesn't work." When we dig a little
deeper, however, we find that they
blogged three days in a row last
January and then gave up when their
site traffic didn't jump. Big shock.

Busi ness bl oggi ng requi res
consistent, long-term effort, not
short sprints of intense activity.
You'll see much better results
blogging every other day for a
year than blogging twice a day for
t wo weeks, st oppi ng, t hen
starting again four months later.
At that frequency, neither readers
nor crawlers know when on earth
to visit your site.

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Mike Ewing, Ecommerce Marketing Specialist, HubSpot,
@inboundcommerce
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KEYWORDS ARE LIKE APPLYING TO COLLEGE
You're going to apply to reach, target, and safety
schools. You might get into your reach school, your
safety schools are a sure thing, and everything in
between is what you're gunning forand with hard
work, you'll probably get in, too.
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Approach your keyword selection the same way.
There are really desirable keywords out there that
you'd like to rank for, but they're also typically quite
competitive -- think head terms like, say, "internet
marketing." You should put some effort into
ranking for these "ivy league" terms, sure, but
you're going to see much quicker returns if you
target some "community college" terms, or long-
tail keywords. They still provide you great business
results, but they're much easier to rank for.
Peter Caputa IV, Channel Sales & Marketing Director, HubSpot
@pc4media
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THE INTERNET IS LIKE A POPULARITY CONTEST
The more people that vote for you, the
more likely it is you'll make prom
queen. Or class president. Or chess
club secretary.


T hi s anal ogy hel ps peopl e
understand how inbound links work.
When content is really good, people
want to link to it. That's how the
"internet" knows your content is
good -- lots of people have linked to,
or "voted for" it. And since Google
only wants to return the best results
i n the SERPs to make thei r
searchers happy, the more times
people have voted that your content
is great via their inbound links, the
more likely it is you'll show up in the
top search results for a related term.
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J
J
Patrick Shea, Channel Marketing Manager, HubSpot
@mpatrickshea
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LEAD CONVERSION IS LIKE THE
DISCOVERY CHANNEL
The inbound conversion path is like a
Discovery Channel documentary. You
lure an animal in, capture it, tag it, then
release it back into the wild. The
conversion path refers to the process that
turns si te vi si tors i nto l eads and
customers -- the call-to-action, landing
page, form submission, and thank-you
page. Here's how this Discovery Channel
analogy breaks down:

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Call-to-Action (The Bait): Lure them in with a compelling offer,
promoted with some enticing messaging and an eye-catching design.

Landing Page (The Capture): You've got them in your grips! You just
need to make sure they don't escape -- remove your navigation, write
clear copy, make sure your landing page is well optimized -- before
you're able to get the information you need. Which leads us to ...

Form (The Tag): They fill out their information so you know who they
are. That way, when they leave your site to go back into that internet
wild, you'll still be able to identify them among all the other visitors
when they come back to your site.

Thank-You Page (The Release): Once you've captured your lead
intelligence, you can release them to explore other elements of your
site, or even off-site elements like your social media accounts.

Alec Biedrzycki, Inbound Marketing Specialist, HubSpot
@albiedrzycki
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A Cartoon by
Alec Biedrzycki
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MARKETING AUTOMATION IS LIKE AIR TRAVEL
You could get take three days to drive there in a
car. Or you could hop on a plane and get there
in 5 hours.

That's the value of automating your marketing --
where you can, at least. Let's consider email
automation, for example. You could spend time
crafting a personalized email message for
everyone on your email list -- like, every one of
the hundreds of thousands of people on your
email list -- and then take the time to individually
email every single one of those people with
your message. One. by. one. Oh, and then you
can do the follow-up for all of them, too!
Or, you might realize after writing your tenth
email that you're saying basically the same
thing in every email, with maybe just a few
exceptions -- because they've all been properly
segmented, so they all have one specific thing
in common. So instead of spending days or
weeks sending out those emails manually, you
could simply segment out that list of people in
your marketing automation tool, insert some
dynamic fields in the content to personalize it,
and then nurture them further down the road
based on their response to that email ... all of
whi ch i s document ed i n your CRM.
Do c u me n t e d a n d f o l l o we d - u p wi t h
automatically, not manually.
Corey Eridon, Inbound Marketing Manager, HubSpot
@Corey_bos
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MORE RESOURCES
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