Background: As digitalization has arisen and further developed the way companies execute marketing strategies, new ways of creating value by effectiveness and efficiency as a foundation has emerged during the recent years. Two crucial marketing tools within digitalization are Marketing Automation and Inbound Marketing.    Problem:Striving to become more effective and efficient with digitalization and the new technology requires that companies can deal with new changes. Although, there is a gap in the research and how effectiveness and efficiency is perceived and how it further creates value for companies.    Purpose: This thesis aims to achieve a greater understanding of in what essence companies can become more effective and efficient in order to create greater value. RQ1: How does effectiveness and efficiency create value for companies regarding marketing automation and inbound marketing, and what is value for them?    Method: A multiple case study based on a qualitative research method has been executed with interviews of six companies. The companies interviewed is divided under three different levels of implementation of digitalization, non-user, in process, and user.  Conclusion: The results showed that depending on how much digitalization a company has implemented; the level of effectiveness and efficiency varies. The higher level of digitalization the higher level of effectiveness and value. Further, more value is created when the level of effectiveness and efficiency is higher. Good CRM systems together with long-term relationships and good communication enhances the development of digitalization within companies to further create more value.

Big data analysis and inbound marketing are interlinked and can play a significant role in the identification of target audience and in the production of communication content as per the needs of target audience for strategic communication campaigns. By introducing and bringing the marketing concepts of big data analysis and inbound marketing into the field of strategic communication this quantitative study attempts to fill the gap in the limited body of knowledge of strategic communication research and practice. This study has used marketing campaigns as case studies to introduce a new strategic communication model by introducing the big data analysis and inbound marketing strategy into the three staged model of strategic communication presented by Gulbrandsen, I. T., & Just, S. N. in 2016. Big data driven campaigns are used to explain the procedure of target audience selection, key concepts of big data analysis, future opportunities, practical applications of big data for strategic communication practitioners and researchers by identifying the need for more academic research and practical use of big data analysis and inbound marketing in the strategic communication area. The study shows that big data analysis has potential to contribute in the field of strategic and target oriented communication. Inbound marketing and big data analysis has been used and considered as marketing strategy but this study is an attempt to shift the attention towards its role in strategic communication so there is a need to study big data analysis and inbound marketing with an open mind without confining it with some particular fields.

This thesis was written as part of a Master of Science Degree in Strategic Entrepreneurship for International Growth and International Marketing. Aligned with the nature of the degree, this study aims to share useful insights to managers and marketers whom are looking into innovating their business by adopting an inbound strategy. This thesis researches a modern topic within business: inbound marketing. It aims to comprehend how the implementation of an effective inbound strategy drives sales growth, by understanding the effects that inbound has over the B2B buying and selling process. The study considers the newly presented changes within the European general data protection regulation and emphasizes the relevance of an inbound strategy. An in-depth study of existing theories and exploratory primary data was conducted in order to attain these objectives. Due to restricted existence of scientific theories within the topic, this study developed an original cohesive relationship model integrating inbound marketing to the B2B buying and selling process. This model served as a theoretical framework for the conduction of this research. The exploratory research was characterized by interviewing a number of experts within the field. Those experts provided indispensable insights regarding the phenomenon in focus, which in combination with the theoretical framework allowed for the completion of this study’s analysis. The focus was to understand the impact that the implementation of an inbound strategy had over business and how such impact led to an increase in sales. The results indicate that when effectively implemented by suitable companies, an inbound marketing strategy is relevant in acquiring potential customers at the right stage of the buyer’s journey and therefore driving a noticeable increase in sales.

El mercado de bebidas alcohólicas en el Perú es peculiar debido a las preferencias de los consumidores, en este sentido la cerveza cobra gran protagonismo, debido a su arraigo con el consumidor peruano. Así mismo, las actividades de marketing digital se han incrementado exponencialmente en el rubro en mención, por lo que es determinante para la presente investigación analizar ambos factores de cara a la escena actual del mercado de cervecería tradicional y la digitalización de los consumidores. Por lo antes expuesto, el objetivo del presente estudio es investigar como las actividades de Inbound Marketing guardan relación con el valor de marca de las cervezas tradicionales del segmento masculino del NSE C que residen en la zona 8 de Lima metropolitana. Para ello se diseñó una investigación cualitativa con la aplicación de instrumentos como focus group y entrevistas a especialistas, así mismo una investigación cuantitativa a una muestra de 385 personas a las cuales se le aplicó una encuesta. En este sentido, se consulta y contrasta con principales autores de investigaciones respecto a la metodología del Inbound Marketing y valor de marca, para que permita corroborar los resultados de la presente investigación. Finalmente, se obtuvo que las variables descritas si guardan relación entre sí, pues las actividades de atracción e interacción, propias del Inbound Marketing, incrementan positivamente el valor de marca, dado a sus esfuerzos en la comunicación empática y bidireccional. / The market of alcoholic beverages in Peru is peculiar due to the preferences of the consumers, in this sense the beer takes great prominence, due to its roots with the Peruvian consumer. Likewise, digital marketing activities have increased exponentially in the area in question, so it is crucial for the present investigation to analyze both factors facing the current scene of the traditional brewing market and the digitalization of consumers. For the foregoing, the objective of this study is to investigate how the activities of Inbound Marketing are related to the brand value of the traditional beers of the male segment of the NSE C that reside in zone 8 of metropolitan Lima. To this end, qualitative research was designed with the application of instruments such as focus group and interviews with specialists, as well as a quantitative investigation of a sample of 385 people to whom a survey was applied. In this sense, it is consulted and contrasted with leading research authors regarding the methodology of Inbound Marketing and brand value, in order to corroborate the results of this research. Finally, it was obtained that the variables described are related to each other, since the activities of attraction and interaction, typical of Inbound Marketing, positively increase brand value, given their efforts in empathic and bidirectional communication. / Trabajo de investigación

Background: There is a knowledge gap in the B2B-businesses adoption of inbound marketing strategies. The B2B sector has a substantial economic impact on the society and their marketing activities need to adapt towards the digital era. In the Swedish market, this has not yet been sufficiently researched up until this point. Purpose: This study serves to provide insight in key issues and problems when B2B businesses incorporate inbound marketing strategies. The maturity in the Swedish B2B market aims to be investigated and implementation problems to be highlighted. This information could aid Swedish B2B businesses in the future by becoming aware of issues beforehand. Also, this can give B2B businesses beneficial insights when the sector is increasingly adopting inbound marketing in the future. Method: In order to achieve in-depth understanding on the subject, a qualitative study with an exploratory design was conducted. By judgemental sampling methods, the research incorporates insights by knowledgeable industry professionals. Empirical findings were conducted through semi-structured interviews in which participants were encouraged to discuss inbound marketing in a B2B context in both detailed and broader terms. Conclusion: This study show that digital marketing is widely adopted in a B2B context, but inbound marketing strategy maturity is difficult to measure on a scale from this type of research. Key issues to implementation are organisational issues within a business, difficulty to determine goals, lack of knowledge in management about digital channels and possibilities, in addition to changing behaviour by B2B sales representatives. The future is looking bright for inbound marketing strategies even after the GDPR takes effect in May 2018, this study has shown.

With the statistical numbers that shows how companies year after year moves more and more money from traditional marketing budgets to inbound marketing budgets as a result of a past success within the field of inbound marketing, the purpose of this study is to examine what can be derive from their use of the Web 2.0 technology as a marketing tool. The target-group for this study is mainly organizations that are interested in the use of Web 2.0 technologies and an academic audience as students and researchers.This study have used it selves of a Hermeneutics scientific approach and an abductive approach towards the relationship between theory and research. Semi-structured interviews have been conducted as the method for collection of data for the empirical study. The selections of the respondents to the empirical study have been selected through different criterias were the organizations use and frequency of use of Web 2.0 technology were a primary criteria.The conclusion of this study shows that there are some major advantages that can be derived from the use of Web 2.0 technology in organizations marketing communication, the interactions with consumer and the use of the interaction to improve organizations processes. The drawbacks that were discovered are mainly the organizational changes that an organization has to go through when implementing Web 2.0 technologies in their marketing communication and the risk of negative viral spread. The future opportunity for using Web 2.0 in marketing communication is that it can lead to new creative ways to interact with the customers.

This diploma thesis aims primarily to present inbound marketing as a new method of free propagation on the Internet and on the basis of my own research to further evaluate its suitability for selected business sectors. Research is conducted on a sample of 69 websites divided into seven sectors. After successive investigation of traffic sources and their effectiveness based on the relative expression of conversion rate the suitability of this method for particular sectors is judged. The second objective is a design of inbound marketing strategy for selected web based on knowledge from the practical part of thesis.

The diploma thesis is about new trends in online marketing. It focuses on online marketing tools and how to realize successful online marketing activity. The thesis is the analysis of the current company state. Based on informations gathered propose new strategy of content optimalization and social media strategy. How can the company enter the social network targeted on Facebook. Main areas are on-page and off-page factors in SEO and how to build Inbound marketing.

Sedan utvecklingen av world wide web på 1990-talet har den digitala utveckling vuxit mer och mer. I takt med digitaliseringen har SEO blivit ett viktigt marknadsföringsverktyg som företag kan använda för att öka sin synlighet online. I slutet av 2019 spreds ett virus vid namn covid-19. Viruset utlöste en pandemi som skakade om världen. En tydlig förändring som skett under coronapandemin är att den digitala utvecklingen har påskyndats. Samtidigt som digitaliseringen påskyndats har även konsumentbeteendet förändrats i form av ökad kundnärvaro online under pandemin. Dessa faktorer har tillsammans lett till ökad konkurrens online inom den svenska sällanköpsvaruhandeln. En ny verklighet har utvecklats där digitala strategier får en allt mer betydande roll för att bemöta konkurrens, vilket företag som bedriver onlinehandel måste förhålla sig till. Syftet med studien är att kartlägga på vilket sätt företag inom den svenska sällanköpsvaruhandeln har förändrat sin uppfattning av SEO på grund av ökad konkurrens online till följd av coronapandemin. Studiens teoretiska bakgrund tar avstamp i två teorier, Inbound marketing samt The 4S web-marketing mix model. Studien tillämpar en kvalitativ ansats där semistrukturerade intervjuer använts för att samla in data. Sex (6) företag inom sällanköpsvaruhandeln intervjuades. Empirin visar att företagen utvecklat ett ökat intresse, en ökad värdesättning samt en ökad användning alternativt planerar implementering av SEO till följd av ökad konkurrens online under coronapandemin. Sammanfattningsvis visar empirin att företagen har utvecklat en mer positiv uppfattning av SEO vilket tyder på att SEO kan vara ett användbart verktyg för att bemöta den ökade konkurrensen online för företag inom sällanköpsvaruhandeln. / Since the development of the world wide web in the 1990s digital development has grown more and more. As the digitization has become an integrated part of organizations, SEO has become an important marketing tool that companies can use to increase their visibility online. At the end of 2019, a virus was spread by the name Covid-19. The virus triggered a pandemic that shook the world. During the pandemic the digital development has rapidly increased. The consumer behavior has also changed during the pandemic as the online presence among consumers has increased heavily. Both of these factors have led to increased competitiveness online among the Swedish rare goods trade. In this new reality digital strategies play an important role, which companies who conduct online trading have to take into consideration. The purpose of this study is to examine in which way companies in the Swedish rare goods trade have changed their perception of SEO due to increased competition online as a result of the covid-19 pandemic.  The theoretical background covers two theories, Inbound Marketing and The 4S Web-Marketing Mix Model. The study applies a qualitative approach where semi-structured interviews have been used to collect data. Six companies in the rare goods trade have been interviewed. Results show that the companies has developed an increased interest, an increased value and an increased use of SEO or a plan to implement SEO due to the increased competitiveness online during the pandemic. To summarize, the study proves that companies have developed a more positive perception of SEO which suggests that SEO can be a useful tool for addressing increased competitiveness online among companies in the Swedish rare goods trade.

Syftet med detta examensarbete är att undersöka huruvida företagsbloggar kan fungera som en kommunikations- och marknadsföringskanal och undersöka effekterna av en företagsblogg, de positiva, men även om det finns några negativa. Denna undersökning kan vara till användning för företag som planerar att starta en företagsblogg genom att ge riktlinjer baserat på trovärdiga källor på hur en företagsblogg kan fungera som ett företags skyltfönster ut mot kunderna.En kvalitativ metod har legat till grund för detta arbete i form av semistrukturerade intervjuer med tre mediaföretag som driver framgångsrika företagsbloggar. Med framgångsrik menar författarna att bloggarna driver mycket trafik och är validerade av någon form av utomstående aktör som ger priser och nomineringar. I detta fall Resumés lista till Årets Byrå 2018 (resumé.se, 2018) eller Expertvalets lista på Sveriges 30 bästa företagsbloggar 2017 (expertvalet.se, 2018).För att komplettera studien har observation av de involverade företagens tre mest trafikeradeblogginlägg även utförts för att kunna ge en inblick av vad som gör bloggarna lönsamma. För att hitta likheter och skillnader mellan företagens intervjusvar och observationerna av bloggartiklarna genomfördes en komparativ analys. Eftersom observationerna har präglats av författarnas tolkningar har hermeneutiken som metod även använts. Studiens teoretiska ramverk innefattar Inbound marketing, Content marketing, SEO - Search Engine Optimization och företagsbloggen som ett CRMverktyg.Studiens slutsatser visar på att företagsbloggen är ett effektivt SEO-verktyg och att det även är ett slagkraftigt verktyg som kan generera kunder och föra dessa närmare ett köp. För att en företagsblogg ska bli lönsam krävs en tydlig och genomarbetad strategi. / The purpose of this study is to investigate whether corporate blogs can act as a communication and marketing channel and investigate the impact of a corporate blog, both the positive and the negative. This study can be used for companies planning to start a business blog by providing guidelines based on credible sources of how a company blog can serve as a corporate storefront to customers.A qualitative method has been the basis for this work in form of semi-structured interviews with three media companies that run successful corporate blogs. With success, the authors mean that the blogs attract a lot of traffic and are validated by any kind of third-party player who gives awards and nominations. In this case Resumés list of Årets Byrå 2018 (resumé.se, 2018) and Expertvalets list on Sveriges 30 bästa företagsbloggar 2017 (expertvalet.se, 2018).To complete the study, an observation of the three companies' most visited blog posts has also been conducted to provide an insight into what makes the blogs profitable. In order to find similarities and differences between the corporates answers from the interview and the observations of blog articles, a comparative analysis was conducted. Since the observations have been characterized by the authors' interpretations, hermeneutics methodology was used as well. The theoretical framework of the study includes Inbound Marketing, Content Marketing, SEO - Search Engine Optimization and theCompany Blog as a CRM tool.The study's conclusions indicate that the corporate blog is an effective SEO tool and that it is also a powerful tool that can generate customers and bring them closer to a purchase. In order for a company blog to be profitable, a clear and thorough strategy is required.