When you’re trying to reach out to potential clients inbound marketing is a valuable tool. Instead of using advertising or bulk emails to bring customers to you inbound marketing serves as an education platform. This is a subtle difference as inbound marketing is reliant on information sharing and presenting yourself as an industry expert. This places control in the hands of potential clients who seek you to solve their problems via a product or service.
The Roman Empire was one of world history’s great states and since their time many civilizations (including the United States) have been compared to them. With a wide reaching and diverse population, the Romans would have likely appreciated more ways to market themselves. They could have used inbound marketing in the following scenarios.
Appointed Positions
While elections still decided many important positions several important jobs in the Roman government were filled by appointment. Finding a skilled candidate was a lot harder without being able to solicit resumes over the internet. Often jobs went to people that the person filling the job knew personally or was aware of. While nepotism and political maneuvering played a role so did a much smaller candidate pool. With inbound marketing, the ability to find more people to consider for an important appointment would come into play and certainly many appointments were filled by merit.
Military Enrolment
A key component of Rome’s strength was its military. While Rome had several strategic advantages and often good generals the sheer size of its army cannot be discounted as a reason for their success. The Romans given their long military tradition would have likely used inbound marketing as a recruiting tool to draft more soldiers. A lack of soldiers in the later years of the empire would lead to several key military defeats that would cost the Romans land and destabilize their government. While not the only reason for Rome’s fall this loss of territory would reduce food, trade, manpower, and the country’s citizen count weakening the overall state. With better marketing, they could have recruited more soldiers from the inside (and outside) of the empire thus strengthening their position.
New ‘Clients’
Not every area under Roman control was directly managed by them. The Romans had many client kingdoms that were allies of the empire. These client kingdoms retained their own rulers and while some were simply allies others were an extension of the empire itself. Despite their reputation for battlefield success, the Romans did employ many treaties and nonviolent alliances to strengthen their position. Through inbound marketing, the Romans could quite easily promote the many advantages being a part of their empire offered. Many client kingdoms were not in a powerful position on their own and needed Roman support. This created relationships between kingdoms and the empire that offered benefits to both sides.
Conclusion
Inbound marketing is quite a useful tool. The Roman Empire with its large number of government employees, clients, and managers was not unlike a modern country or even a business. The types of issues they faced were universal ones that remain to this day. Inbound marketing, as noted above, educates readers and as such strengthens your position. When people come to you seeking your assistance you save a great deal of time and money by not having to seek them out.