Inbound Marketing is an increasingly important area for business marketers to focus on, and it’s having its way with budgets. According to Market Research Reports, Inbound spend from the U.S. is expected to reach $3.3 billion in the upcoming year, up from just $200 million in 2011. It’s being used to drive new business as well as more cost effective leads to the target market and, most importantly, it’s helping brands drive conversions.

A recent study from Komli Media, titled “The Ins and Outs of Inbound Marketing: A Survey of the Industry,” looked at the drivers of this trend. According to an additional report from Forrester, outbound channels had a net sales benefit of up to 20 percent last year. Because of this, it is important for b-to-b marketers to focus their spend here.

Using some of the best companies as an example, I focused my Inbound Content Marketing Tips “4 Pillars of Inbound” recommendations on 4 of these Inbound Marketing pillars that drive the most benefit for those companies. Three of them are also the most effective for b-to-b marketers.

If you’re thinking about how to grow your own digital media/lead-generation funnel, these are good place to start:

1. Effective, up-to-date content

1) Ensure a direct pipeline between your website content and your website’s user experience. If you don’t have a direct pipeline, you are not effectively driving to your users. If you have an integrated, multichannel approach you can ensure the content your users engage with is up-to-date and features best practices for maintaining quality and personalization

2) Eliminate poring over content, analytics and filters (Clare says learn from podcasting and other digital native content) so you can drive value and focus on what will matter most to your users.

3) Always attract the best-read people who are easily advanced on a topic or project. SEO features an infographic (a popular app developer wants to send you from his Android tablet) but it’s content marketers who might drive the most quality conversions.

4) Encourage the use of non-traditional channels so they convert, and promote and promote your content to drive the highest numbers of conversions