Marketers can expand their customer base and save money by implementing the right strategies. Inbound and outbound marketing, the two main types of marketing, achieve these goals differently. You must be familiar with both concepts to choose the best approach for your company.
There’s a lot of discussion and analysis going on right now about the benefits of inbound and outbound marketing, with most experts favouring inbound marketing. This can be a perplexing subject, especially since not everyone uses the same definitions for these terms.
What Is Inbound Marketing?
The main characteristic of inbound marketing is that instead of you having to broadcast your message, your audience is motivated to seek it out.
This category includes a variety of digital marketing strategies, such as:
- Email Marketing
Email marketing is a type of marketing that involves sending emails. For example, if you offer a free offer to entice people to join your mailing list, they will gladly give you their email addresses. Mass email campaigns (also known as spam) are an example of outbound marketing.
- Social Media
Social media is a relatively new phenomenon. You can find targeted followers on sites like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn. You can also interact with groups and run ad campaigns specific to them.
- Content Marketing
Content marketing is a term that refers to creating valuable content for your audiences, such as articles, blog posts, reports, and e-books, it is one of the most effective forms of inbound marketing.
Your content strategy can also include videos, podcasts, webinars, and infographics. Search engine optimisation (SEO) and content marketing are intertwined because you use keywords and other tactics to get your content to rank higher, search engine optimization (SEO) and content marketing are intertwined.
What Is Outbound Marketing?
Outbound marketing is essentially traditional marketing as we knew it before the digital era. Of course, no one talked about outbound marketing before the internet. There was only marketing and advertising, and that was it. Outbound marketing is distinguished by its reaching out to potential customers.
Some well-known examples include:
- Commercials on television and radio
- Newspaper and magazine advertisements
- Telemarketing is another term for cold calling.
- Postage stamps
- Signage and billboards
While the outbound strategies are old, modern businesses are still using them as they evolve with time. Outbound marketing has both advantages and disadvantages. Many digital marketing agencies prefer to focus on the disadvantages, but you should be aware of both.
Pros
- The ability to reach a large audience
- It’s good for building a brand.
- Because so many businesses are focusing on inbound marketing these days, you might be able to gain a competitive advantage by using outbound strategies.
Cons
- Frequently expensive
- Inbound marketing is more targeted than outbound marketing.
- Because of over saturation, audiences may be less receptive to outbound messages.
Integrate Inbound Vs Outbound Marketing Strategies To Drive Success
Both inbound and outbound marketing are effective methods, but when used together, they produce even better results for your company!
While both are effective on their own, you will see some truly incredible results when you combine them in your overall marketing strategy.
The following steps help businesses to integrate both inbound and outbound strategies successfully:
- Create a consistent marketing strategy
Ensure that your message maintains your brand voice throughout your prospects’ buying journeys and that the topics and pain points you’re addressing are relevant to specific personas at each stage.
- Plan Your Content Strategy
In outbound strategies, content assets are used to attract prospects to your brand and make a compelling offer to elicit a response.
Ensure that your sales team has access to your content throughout the execution of your strategies so that messaging is consistent and they can provide relevant content for some of their conversations with prospects.
- Keep track of important metrics throughout the buyer’s journey
Cost-per-lead(s) (CPL) and lead-to-sales or lead-to-opportunity conversion rates are examples of metrics to consider. Connect the dots between your marketing and sales results!
With today’s tools and data, there are a plethora of ways to track key metrics and develop advanced and improved strategies based on the data you collect.
- Make Sure you’re taking into account the source and activity of inbound leads
Do this before moving on to outbound strategies. Meet with your sales team to determine which inbound accounts are most likely ready for a call, then nurture and serve re-targeting ads to the rest of your prospects to warm them up. This will significantly aid in the alignment of your sales and marketing teams.
- Develop an integrated mindset
Your inbound and outbound strategies should not be separated. They both contribute to a new way to attract, convert, and expand your customer base. Your ads, mailers, and emails emphasize e-book downloads, blog posts, videos, and other available content to increase lead generation.
Conclusion
You can’t rely on just one strategy to meet your pipeline and revenue targets. Understanding prospect preferences is necessary for determining the best mix of inbound and outbound marketing strategies.
When it comes to your target audience, think about where they will be most receptive to your message and how you want potential customers to interact with your company. Engagement is often improved by reaching out across channels. The number and type of channels you use will be determined by your available budget and expected return on investment.
