Outbound Marketing Vs. Inbound Marketing

Have you ever thought about why the same ads repeatedly appear as you’re flipping through the channels on TV?

Or why do blog posts have action buttons and links, asking you to take advantage of limited deals today? Even though these are marketing campaigns, you might doubt their effectiveness as you might mute the TV or skip the links when exposed to similar advertisements.

More often than not, these strategies subconsciously influence people to purchase the latest products or book exclusive services. Don’t believe us? Read the rest of the article, and you’ll see how the world of digital marketing revolves around inbound and outbound strategies.

What Is Inbound Marketing Strategy?

If you are familiar with the nuances of digital marketing, you’ll know that marketing professionals often refer to inbound marketing as “magnetic.” But do you know why?

Compared to traditional marketing, inbound marketing focuses on specific customers, trying to reel them in hook line and sinker through webinars, blog posts, and social media channels. Instead of wasting time with general messages that may not attract consumers, inbound marketing efforts influence people who will invest in the product.

In other words, the inbound strategy will bring in the most suitable prospects, helping people resolve their queries efficiently. Through software tools, you can track if the marketing strategies have the desired effect across several platforms.

A. How Does Inbound Marketing Work?

The content marketing team should use advanced downloadable content to attract potential customers, like blog posts or videos. You should mould the content on the following points to answer a buyer’s queries.

1. Beginning

Initially, every consumer aims to learn about the product, its problems, and potential solutions. Hence, marketers should ensure that it’s easy to understand to write quality and engaging content.

2. Middle

After buyers have provided feedback about the product, your marketing strategy should narrow down the possible solutions. As you get more ideas about the issues people raise, it becomes easier to formulate an answer for the most common queries.

3. End

When consumers are almost convinced but not yet hitting the “buy” option, you need compelling content to give them a final push.

4. Customer Experience

Sometimes, happy customers take up the mantle of promoters, enhancing the consumer experience and inviting more buyers to use the product or service.

By writing blogs that satisfy the above criteria, customers will have the necessary information at every stage of their buying journey. People conduct searches predominantly online, so it becomes easier for interested readers to consume content from digital sources.

B. Example Of Inbound Marketing

Since we discuss marketing strategies, let’s consider someone looking for new marketing software. Typically, a potential customer will use search engines to find the “top 10 marketing software”, following which the best pages will appear first.

Provided that your SEO strategy is spot on, your website can achieve a higher ROI and appear right at the top of the results. Also, if you have valuable content, people will read the entire blog post, encouraging them to think more about the inbound marketing strategy.

At this point, you could add a link to the end of the page so that they sign up for a seminar on digital marketing software. Make sure to gather relevant information about the consumers, including their name or email ID, allowing you to check whether they attended the seminar.

If the seminar is successful, rest assured that they will want to know about real-life applications of the software. Hence, you can send a direct mail containing a case study about how your company successfully implemented the software.

Indeed, they might even request a demo, following which you can let the sales team know, making it easy to complete the sale.

C. Advantages Of Inbound Marketing

Are you feeling a little overwhelmed? Don’t worry, as we have highlighted the advantages of inbound marketing for attracting potential customers to help you.

Long story short, this is a crisp, no-nonsense section to discuss the benefits of this marketing strategy:

• Non-invasive
• People have the freedom to choose
• They can attend webinars at their convenience
• Features educational content
• It helps people navigate the various stages of the sales funnel
• Quantifiable technique
• Possible to monitor minute aspects of inbound marketing
• Constantly updating and tweaking digital content
• Tracking consumer behaviour
• It helps attract potential leads

D. Limitations Of Inbound Marketing

Despite the points in favour of inbound marketing, it has limitations that we should mention. Not to brag, but this article is an unbiased take on inbound and outbound marketing, and without knowing about the shortfalls, you’ll fail to devise a suitable marketing strategy.

• Continuous maintenance
• Consumer behaviour never remains the same
• The content has to change with customers’ needs
• It involves a lot of time and effort
• Should have unique content that encourages buyers to act
• Requires special tools for cross-channel and holistic campaigns

Outbound Marketing Efforts

One of the main differences between inbound and outbound marketing is that the latter uses non-digital content for attracting customers. As a result, marketers call it Push or Interruption marketing, which involves sending the message to a large group of people.

Although the result is the same — selling the product — the means to achieve the goal are different. It involves using TV ads, commercials, advertising on the yellow pages, cold calling, and email blasts to reach large audiences.

In a nutshell, it’s a one-way communication whereby the strategy highlights the services or products and why people should buy them.

A. Outbound Marketing Techniques

Now that you know a bit about outbound marketing, let’s explore this digital content strategy in greater detail. Since the aim is to grab people’s attention with the message, one of the best ways is to ensure it’s unmissable.

And if popular Hollywood films like Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri are any indication, billboards and banner ads are great ways to generate interest and grab attention. But the bottom line is that the content should be unique and relevant to stand out amongst a gazillion other messages.

Indeed, outbound tactics hinge on messaging a more extensive group that will increase the chances of seeing more significant sales. Hence, there are quite a few similarities with traditional marketing tactics, such as radio ads.

The best part is that it features a healthy serving of modern technology, like bulk emails and pay-per-click ads for user engagement. However, the uniqueness of outbound campaigns lies in sparking an interest in consumers about a product they didn’t know they needed.

Imagine this — you’re watching the Ashes when TV commercials flash on the screen in between overs, highlighting the benefits of new summer-proof house paint. It’s most likely that you hadn’t even thought of painting the house, but as the Aussie summer starts setting in, the advert has got you thinking.

If you decide to follow up with the company about the product, the buying journey begins.

But how exactly, because you’re just inquiring and may opt against purchasing the paint? We will reveal this secret in the next section.

B. Outbound Marketing Examples

Do you want to know how outbound marketing works? Drum rolls, please!

But hang on, we don’t want to give this information up for free. How about you share this article with friends, and we will tell you why outbound marketing is successful?

If that sounds fair, keep reading, and if it doesn’t, keep reading all the same because this is precisely how it works.

Once you see the first ad, it’s unreasonable to expect that you will be interested in purchasing the paint immediately. Right now, you’re too focused on the cricket match, so you save the memory for later.

Then, a couple of weeks on from that day, you spot a billboard while driving to the supermarket, promoting the same house paint. You think about checking it out, but it’s nearing the end of the month, so you’re running short on cash. Maybe later, and that’s that, or so you would think.

Because once the salary is credited, you receive an email containing a discount coupon for the paint you were thinking of buying. There’s no reason not to purchase it and give the house a makeover.

As a result, something that wasn’t even a priority keeps popping up time and again through online and offline means, gradually shifting your thoughts toward it. This technique may take time but certainly gets the job done.

C. Advantages Of Outbound Marketing

Outbound marketing has several advantages to help the business flourish. You can check the following points to see what we think are the most crucial attributes for outbound marketing campaigns.

• Promotes brand awareness and increases business value
• Wide reach
• Attracts potential customers who haven’t heard about the product
• May deliver fast results at times
• Interested people are more likely to take action
• It’s easy and convenient for consumers
• Suitable for customers who prefer traditional marketing campaigns

D. Limitations Of Outbound Marketing

There are equivalent limitations when using outbound marketing tactics, and it’s essential to know about the pros and cons to make an informed decision.

• It May not be relevant or appealing to all.
• Causes disruptions while you’re consuming content in other forms
• More generalised marketing campaign
• Easy to tune out, such as muting the TV or using spam filters
• Inconvenient to measure the effectiveness of specific elements
• High cost due to trade shows, billboards, banner ads, etc.

Inbound Vs Outbound Marketing — What Should You Opt For?

Even with an untrained eye, it’s possible to see that both inbound and outbound marketing strategies have their benefits and shortcomings. Ultimately, it all comes down to what suits your business model the most.

When you have a substantial marketing budget, it’s convenient to search for consumers. And from magazine ads to billboards, you can promote the product on a large scale.

However, inbound marketing makes more sense if you want to avoid steep costs and know your target market.

Which Marketing Strategy Suits You?

Phew! That’s a lot of information, but hopefully, you liked our detailed analysis of these popular marketing techniques.

The first step is to research each strategy and sit down with the digital marketing team to design the product website accordingly. We’ve already made research easy, so you need to choose a method that fits your business needs.

There’s no substitute for patience, and giving the strategy time to attract consumers will benefit you greatly.

At sitecentre®, we understand digital marketing can be complicated, and our team will always be happy to help. Please feel free to contact us if you would like assistance with your inbound or outbound marketing strategy. We are highly experienced digital marketing experts helping small business grow their brand and online presence.

Brodey Sheppard

Brodey is the CEO of sitecentre® and a data-analyst in the SEO, Paid advertising space that uses machine learning and AI to advance sitecentre® as an industry-leading digital marketing agency across Australia.

Find them on their website: sitecentre®, Facebook and LinkedIn.