You’re frustrated.

You left work late because a meeting ran long; a meeting in which you were given the responsibility of reducing office supply costs.

Now you’re driving home listening to talk radio. Traffic is a mess, and you need to pick up something for dinner. You pass, not one, but two billboards promoting the grand opening of a new store that sells deeply discounted office supplies. But, you’re so busy fighting traffic and looking for a drive-thru that you never see them.

Traditional outbound marketing and advertising rely on a “shotgun” approach for their delivery. Just present the messages over and over to as large an audience as possible and someone is bound to see or hear them.

And hopefully, your potential buyers will be in the right frame of mind to process the information.

That’s a very expensive way to market, largely because you're paying for access to a city's or region's or nation's worth of impressions, when only a small percentage of that audience will have an interest in what you sell at the time they see or hear your message.

Inbound, or Point-of-Entry Marketing, uses more of a “rifle” approach. It focuses on a one-to-one experience that always takes place when your prospects and customers are ready to do business with you.

They’ve taken the time to seek you out. They’ve called you on the phone, looked you up online, or walked through your front door. Usually their hands are on their wallets and they’re prepared to spend money.

I’m not suggesting that you eliminate traditional marketing and advertising from your strategy. Most often it’s the best, if not only, way to attract the number of prospects you need to be successful.

What I am suggesting is that you also implement robust marketing programs at the three points-of-entry into your business: your telephone, website, and front door / physical spaces. That way you’re sure to engage your prospects and customers when they’re in the right frame of mind to do business with you.