Last week Hub Spot published a report detailing the state of inbound marketing in 2012. Some take-aways from the report include:

• Inbound marketing channels are proving to have a low-cost advantage compared to outbound marketing channels. Organizations using inbound marketing can achieve a cost-per-lead that is 61% less than organizations whose main focus is outbound marketing.
• Marketing budgets are continuing to shift to inbound channels, with the difference between inbound vs. outbound marketing expenditures growing by 50% from 2011-2012.
• Social media is becoming a major source of leads, with 62% of companies surveyed by Hub Spot saying, “social media has become a major source of leads in the past six months.”

Overall, major brands are moving toward search, social and content campaigns to drive inbound marketing initiatives in the future. Today, consumers and B2B buyers look to the Internet to provide information aiding in purchasing decisions, making it the job of brands to provide that content to help aid consumers in the purchase cycle.

You can find the full report here.