Inbound Marketing And The Enterprise

When looking to what inbound marketing holds on the horizon, Halligan is confident that more and more enterprise-level companies will eventually adopt inbound marketing strategies. He pointed out recent examples of blogging and inbound-oriented tactics from Fortune 500 companies such as Dell and Red Bull.

"I think you're going to see more big companies doing that sort of stuff," Halligan noted. "It seems to be working for them to pull people in."

Halligan also emphasized that CEOs at larger companies will need to become more open and transparent with their companies' stakeholders, especially customers.

"I think CEOs need to send an inbound message," said Halligan. "They need to be open. They have to be available for feedback."

In most cases, Halligan argues, this means the CEO needs to have an active presence on the company's website and social media platforms.

"I think that sends a really negative message to a buyer if you're not on Twitter, for example," said Halligan, who tweets seven to 10 times a day. One good example of a CEO with an active social media and marketing presence is Richard Branson, the founder and chairman of Virgin Group. Branson not only tweets and blogs regularly, but Halligan asserts that he's one of Virgin's best marketing assets.