“I’m sick of it, Clarence
!” said George Bailey to his guardian angel. “Creating blog posts around optimal keyword density? Developing white papers? Constant social media promotion? Why does the Bailey Building and Loan Association need a blog and a Facebook page, anyway? I wish inbound marketing had never been created!”
“Well, then,” replied Clarence, “You’ve got your wish.”
George booted up his computer and logged onto the Bailey Building and Loan website. “That’s strange,” he mused. “We’ve never had pop-up ads on this site before! Must be another one of Uncle Billy’s harebrained ideas.” As George continued to browse the site, one pop-up became two, then five, then ten! Soon, he was buried under dozens of different windows with flashing lights and discordant sounds.
“Potter’s Online Poker Site!” proclaimed the latest ad. “A better way to gamble your life away!”
“Now, what’s the big idea?” asked George aloud. “I’ve never seen this many pop-up ads on a single site in my life!”
“How else are companies going to promote themselves online?” replied Clarence. “They don’t create blogs, videos or podcasts. All they can do is blast their message in the faces of as many people as possible, and hope some will listen.”
Frustrated, George went to check his e-mail. Earlier that day, there had been several Twitter notifications: replies from a man who liked George’s latest blog post, and with whom George had subsequently exchanged a few messages. The man had expressed interest in a possible loan from Bailey Building and Loan, and George wondered if there might be another tweet to that effect.
“What in the world?” asked George upon seeing his inbox. “All my Twitter and Facebook notifications! They’re gone!”
“You never had those exchanges, George,” said Clarence, “Bailey Building and Loan isn’t on Twitter OR Facebook! You have no way of reaching out to your potential customers in a personal way. No way of interacting with them. Well… almost no way.”
George looked at his e-mail again and gasped in horror. Whereas there were usually a dozen or so messages in his spam folder at any given time, suddenly there were hundreds! Page after page of e-mails sat brazenly on the screen, selling every conceivable product.
“With no inbound marketing,” continued Clarence, “The only way of connecting directly with potential customers online is by spamming them. Of course, it doesn’t work very well. The e-mails are caught by the spam filters and deleted unread.”
George stood for a moment in shock, as the implications of his wish set in. There was still one question he had to ask, even though he dreaded the answer.
“Clarence, how does Bailey Building and Loan fair in this world without content marketing?”
“Not good, George,” replied Clarence. “Uncle Billy put all the company’s money into a massive TV ad campaign. But nobody paid attention to it. They changed the channel during commercial breaks, or just skipped past it with their DVRs. It never reached the people whose business could have saved the company, because they didn’t care to sit through a television ad.”
“Clarence, don’t leave me in this world!” George pleaded. “I want to blog again! I want to blog again!”
Ding! George’s new e-mail notification sound broke the silence.
“No! Not another spam message!” cried George in despair. But to his surprise…
“New Twitter Reply: ‘I’ve been thinking of getting a second mortgage, but I don’t know anything about it. Any advice?’”
George smiled as he began his reply to this potential customer. With inbound marketing tactics to help his company, it truly was a wonderful life.
