If you’re caught up with today’s ever-changing business landscape, surely you have heard the terms inbound and outbound marketing. If you’re not quite sure what the two terms actually refer to, here’s a look at the difference between inbound and outbound marketing and how they work.
Outbound marketing and how it works
Like its name suggests, outbound marketing works by sending messages out to the world, hoping to hook the right audience and get a reasonable ROI in a timely manner. This is also referred to as traditional marketing. Advertising (TV, radio, print), seminars, cold calls, direct mail and emails are all considered to be traditional forms of marketing because the company is starting the initial conversation.
More often than not, younger companies focus primarily on outbound marketing. Their budgets are typically limited, allocating fewer resources to send only enough messages to bring back the client base they need to survive. In the case of a saturated market, businesses compete in the race for who can create a more compelling outbound message to capture the small group of customers looking to buy.
Outbound marketing is the more attractive option when individuals are searching for a straightforward approach. It takes a lot of effort to keep up with an outbound strategy, but it allows the company to be in complete control of the message they are getting across and the customer they are trying to reach.
Now that you know about traditional marketing, what’s the alternative?
Inbound marketing
It’s actually very simple. Inbound marketing lets the customer come to you. Through your business posting exceptional content, publicizing great events, honing in on effective SEO and social media strategies and more, inbound allows for customers to find you easily, and engage once they do.
As potential customers browse the internet when making their buying decisions, inbound marketing is an effective way to convert google searches into customers.
Inbound marketing works by optimizing your online presence to be easily found by the right people. Instead of the business taking the time to search for their clients in a large pool of people, wouldn’t it be more efficient to have them search for you? The larger your online presence is, the more brand awareness your company has. The more brand awareness your company has, the easier it is for you to be found by potential customers, allowing your message to resonate with them as they search for their answers.
By creating valuable content that stands out in your industry and personalizing the user experience to address your customers’ needs, you are putting your company on a shortlist of preferred providers. Inbound strategies achieve cost-efficient results that work in the long-run and eventually sustain themselves. Patience is a virtue with inbound marketing, as it can take a long time to gain the recognition that these strategies hope for. When happy customers leave good reviews for you, this not only adds to your inbound marketing material, but it creates a free word of mouth marketing campaign for you.
Inbound vs outbound marketing
Brands starting out typically rely on outbound marketing to allow for a steady customer base. Inbound marketing strategies take a lot of time and effort to gather impressive results, but can also be effective in reaching the right audience. Both strategies are proven to bring forth results, working as organic and stable ways of pulling customers toward you and making them loyal to your brand. Many clients we are lucky enough to work with at MAYO Designs have utilized both outbound and inbound tactics to deliver quantifiable results.
Contact us to learn which type of marketing would be most efficient for your brand.
