Inbound marketing
A strategy that attracts customers by creating relevant content — articles, guides, tools — rather than actively approaching them. The prospect finds the company via search engines or recommendations and arrives with existing intent.
In practice
Inbound generates leads at a decreasing marginal cost: a well-ranked article attracts prospects for years without additional spend. The trade-off is lead time — 6-18 months before content produces meaningful volume. For B2B SaaS, the combination of an SEO blog, a lead magnet (free trial, calculator, report) and email nurturing is the standard model. Companies with strong brand awareness generate 60-80% of their leads through inbound channels.