What is the difference between Endless Customers, inbound marketing and content marketing?

Inbound marketing, content marketing, demand generation... and then there's Endless Customers (formerly They Ask, You Answer).

Not surprisingly, you wonder if Endless Customers isn't just a new name for something that already exists.

At Buzzlytics, we notice in conversations with (potential) customers that they often think that inbound marketing, content marketing and Endless Customers are more or less the same thing.

"We already do that", they say, with the result that they don't properly delve into Endless Customers.

However, there are crucial differences between these frameworks and a good understanding of them is necessary if you want to become successful with Endless Customers.

Therefore, in this article we will elaborate on the differences between inbound marketing, content marketing and Endless Customers.

By the end of the article you will know what makes Endless Customers different from the other methods and that will help you achieve better results with this sales and marketing strategy.

To properly explain the differences between Endless Customers, content marketing and inbound marketing, it's best to start with inbound marketing.

This term comes from HubSpot's stable, so first, let's see what definition HubSpot comes up with:

HubSpot's approach consists of three phases:

• Attract: attract the right people with valuable content and conversations that position you as a trusted advisor
• Engage: offer insights and solutions that connect to the pain points of your ideal customers and thereby increase the likelihood that they will buy from you
• Delight: help your customers be successful with your product

So inbound marketing is all about building long-term, meaningful relationships with prospects and customers by helping them achieve their goals.

Then content marketing. This is a tactic within the broader inbound marketing strategy where you organically (i.e., not paid) grab the attention of your ideal buyers with valuable and relevant content.

This content can take different forms (from a social media post to a podcast or a comprehensive white paper) and be placed on different channels (your website, LinkedIn, YouTube, Spotify, and so on).

Endless Customers is a specific approach within inbound marketing.

It is a business philosophy that revolves around building trust with customers and prospects by answering their questions openly, transparently and completely on your website.

Endless Customers is a business philosophy all about building trust.

Importantly, even the questions that often feel a bit uncomfortable are not shunned.

These are:

• Price/Cost
• Problems with/disadvantages of the product
• The differences with competitors
• Reviews
• 'Best in class'

These topics are also called the Big 5 blog topics and they are the first topics you need to start working on if you want to see results with Endless Customers as soon as possible.

So at first glance, there seem to be quite a few similarities between the three frameworks.

Within all three methods:

• is centered on the customer and his needs
• Content is used to attract and retain customers
• The focus is on educating and informing the client

But if we zoom in, we also see clear differences.

Inbound marketing is a broad strategy that focuses on the entire customer journey, from attracting new to satisfying existing customers (think Attract, Engage and Delight phases). It encompasses several tactics, including social media, blogging, email marketing and SEO. Inbound marketing is primarily about being helpful.

Content marketing is a specific tactic within inbound marketing that focuses on creating and distributing valuable content. It is the engine that drives inbound marketing.

Content marketing is the engine that drives inbound marketing.

Finally, Endless Customers is an approach that takes customer questions as the starting point for content. The focus is on creating in-depth, detailed content that fully answers specific customer questions and can therefore replace a sales call. Within Endless Customers, "being helpful" is also important, but being seen as the "most trusted advisor" is even more important.

You can see inbound marketing as the overarching strategy and content marketing and Endless Customers as a further elaboration.

Aren't we overcomplicating things and can't we just call Endless Customers inbound?

No, because the differences are greater than they first appear.

As mentioned, content marketing is all about organically attracting customers with valuable and relevant content. However, this content does not necessarily have to be product-related.

In fact, for many content marketers, writing about products your company sells is out of the question. Instead, they write about your customers' problems that are not related to your products and services and general trends and developments in your industry.

Very valuable, and this type of content certainly fits within an inbound strategy, but it is not content that positions you as the trusted advisor in your industry. So you won't bring in more leads, let alone sales, with it.

Within Endless Customers the focus is on creating content that contributes to more sales. That's why you need to talk about your products and services.

But instead of telling people how great your products are (as many companies do), set yourself up in your content as a teacher and advisor, rather than a salesperson.

If you want your content to generate sales, you need to talk about your products and services in your content.

This focus on sales-driven content also means that sales provides the topics for marketing to write about. These topics are based on questions sales gets from customers.

Moreover, the content is not only posted on the website and shared via social media, but actively used in the sales process, according to a process we call 'assignment selling'. This means that anyone who has scheduled a meeting with sales is first sent some 'homework' in the form of a video or a few blogs.

Prospects who have viewed or read this content are better informed and therefore proceed to purchase more often and more quickly than prospects who have not.

Furthermore, it is important to be aware that Endless Customers is not a content marketing strategy.

Inbound marketing, content marketing and Endless Customers together do not form a Russian doll, where inbound marketing is the biggest doll, content marketing is the next biggest doll and Endless Customers is the next biggest doll.

No, Endless Customers is a business strategy. A cultural shift is needed to achieve the radical transparency required to become the most trusted advisor in your market. For that, management, sales and marketing need to be on the same page.

Inbound marketing and content marketing can also be done only by the marketing department (or an agency or freelancer). Endless Customers is not. Within Endless Customers, sales and marketing must work together in a revenue team.

It takes a culture change within your company to become the most trusted advisor in your market.

Finally, Endless Customers measures success in a different way.

Within inbound, much value is placed on page views, sessions, engagement on social media, keyword rankings and form submissions.

These certainly have their place within Endless Customers, but a pitfall is that they can become 'vanity metrics' that do not actually contribute to the business results.

Within Endless Customers, the focus is on minimizing the time sales invest in bad matches and optimizing their time with good matches.

Close rates within Endless Customers are more important metrics than page views and keyword rankings, as is monitoring the specific content a prospect has viewed during his customer journey.

In this article we have explained the similarities and differences between inbound marketing, content marketing and Endless Customers.

The important thing to remember is this: all three methods focus on creating valuable content to attract customers and keep them engaged. But only Endless Customers will help you position yourself as the trusted advisor in your market.

At Buzzlytics, we have helped many companies in various industries in recent years with both inbound marketing and the successful implementation of Endless Customers.

Wondering if this approach is suitable for your company? Read our article "Does Endless Customers work for my company? We are curious about your challenges!