When marketing, it’s better to be a magnet than a scattershot shotgun.

Yes, shotgun analogies enjoy the benefit of getting to use language like “target” and “aim.” It sounds good — doesn’t it? — to say that your marketing targets certain segments or shoots for specific outcomes.

But stay with me here. Once upon a time it may have been good to be a shotgun marketer, stalking your unsuspecting customers while they went about their business of reading magazines or watching TV. You targeted them with cold calls and email blasts. You knew when the herds congregated at trade shows, and laid your traps. Your shotgun may have been loaded with scattershot, but you were bound to hit somebody.

Today? You’ll get better results being a magnet.

When you’re a magnet marketer, you’re attracting people who are already interested in what you’re selling by providing them with the information they need to make a decision.

Magnet marketing — what’s actually called inbound marketing — offers potential customers webinars, SEO, video, blogs, whitepapers and ebooks. Being a magnet means your website is a hub of information that customers can browse as a resource. And you bring all those customers in through your blog, SEO, social media marketing and other online marketing techniques.

As a consumer, isn’t it better to find expertise and then purchase it, rather than be interrupted by someone giving you a hard sell? As a company, isn’t it better to receive self-selected leads rather than hunt down the proverbial needle in a haystack?

Isn’t it better to be a magnet?

Lynn Christiansen Esquer is a principal at SocialProse Media. Email her at lesquer@socialprosemedia.com