What is Outbound Marketing?

Outbound marketing is referred to as “Interruption” or “Push” marketing in which a large number of audiences are targeting by used tactics to make a sale. Outbound marketing is typically accomplished in more traditional ways whether the audience wants it or not. TV and Radio Ads, billboards and banner ads, cold calling, etc. are examples of outbound marketing.

It starts with a very basic knowledge of target customers and building programs to educate those of very specific prospects. The Marketer never knows whether the target audience he is reaching out to is interested in the product or service.

What is Inbound Marketing?

Inbound marketing also called “Pull” Type marketing is a concept in which the marketers pull the potential and relevant customer with the help of interesting content.

It is a Non-Promotional type of marketing and the Audiences are not forced, unlike outbound marketing. It is closely aligned with content marketing, search engine optimization (SEO), and social media marketing as each of these programs focuses on unknown prospects to our business.

Inbound marketing is beneficial because it doesn’t make the audience feel like they are being sold. The content provided to the audience by Inbound marketing is Educational, Entertaining, Engaging, and welcomed by the customers easily. If done correctly Inbound marketing can return greater results than outbound marketing. When the audience finds out the company in a more Educational, Entertaining, and Engaging way, it creates a stronger impact on the future marketing decisions, and their feeling towards our company is genuine.

Inbound Marketing vs Outbound Marketing

Inbound Marketing

Attracts interested readers, audiences, and customers.
Marketers provide value and Educate the Audience.
Written/Made for relevant customers.
It is interactive and TWO Way.
Draws IN the customer.
It is part of content consumption.
As helpful content is consumed, audiences became the leads.
Solves customer needs.
Permission-based and relevant.
Integrated cross-channel strategies.
Marketed through: – Blogs, Social Media, Opt-in Emails, SERP, Influencer Marketing, Websites, eBooks.

Outbound Marketing.

Pushes at everybody, regardless of interest.
Mastered for Product needs.
One-way.
Marketers provide little or no added value.
Marketers rarely seek, to entertain or educate.
Seek Audience out.
Disrupts content consumption.
Has linear Strategies with limited marketing avenues.
It Broad, Forced, Complicated.
Inconsistent and varied.
Immeasurable and difficult to track.
Marketed Through: – Display Ads, Billboards, TV ads, Scripts, Magazines, Popup.

What is more Effective?

Inbound Marketing is by far the most fashionable marketing choice right now in the market. 71% of the companies globally reported that they primarily focus on Inbound Marketing, According to HubSpot 2017. It certainly provides better ROI. Inbound Marketing Benefits, everyone, to the marketers as well as the Audience. Customers appreciate it because they get the information they want in the most relevant way.

Companies love it because Inbound marketing makes them heard, generates quality leads, and generate a long-lasting relationship with customers. On the other hand, Inbound marketing is hard to measure because as it is all about generating value, Educating and Entertaining the audience, and making the hard sale. It is difficult to quantify how well the strategy is working. Whereas in outbound marketing, as it is very expensive, non-responsive and not targeted. We spend thousands of dollars on TV ads, billboards, magazines and hope for the best. Due to this most companies aren’t going to increase their spending on such kind of outbound advertising.

Inbound Methodology.

A good inbound marketing strategy involves attracting the customer to delighting him, making the content that appeals to the reader, and then helping him find it through social media, search, and other online platforms.

It starts by making a Buyer’s Persona and asking questions like,

Who are the people you want to draw to the content?
What are they looking for?
What kind of things do they like?
What are they interested in?
How the Audience find me?

The Inbound Methodology involves

Attract:

By making the buyers persona we attract the right inbound traffic. As a business, you want to draw in the individuals who can particularly become your customers. The strategy involves attracting by delivering quality content. The content should not only attract the audiences but also convince them to transition to the next step of the conversion process.

Primary things to attract Buyer’s Persona,

Blogs.
Being active on social media.
Optimizing the website.
Utilizing the keywords

Convert:

After attracting the right Inbound traffic. The next step is converting them into Marketing Qualified Leads. This is done by nurturing the Audience, for that we need the contact information of every audience visiting the website. Nurturing the Audience is done by giving the value in the form of free webinars, eBooks, Blogs, Posts, Whitepapers, etc. So that we can get the contact information.

Close:

The next step in the Inbound Marketing Methodology is closing our Leads and turning them into happy customers. As the process is typically customer-focused, it is Always both sales and marketing effort.

Delight:

This the most Crucial stage of inbound marketing as we cannot abandon our customers by making a sale. Delighting our customers is essential for brand building and reputation. This is done by constantly engaging with our customers online. Interaction on social media, email, and marketing automation are some of the most effective strategies.

By delighting our customers, we just not only build our brand or reputation but our customers become our promoters as they share their positive experience about the company. An Inbound approach to online marketing, give us a long-lasting advantage to the company.

The Right Marketing Strategy for You.

The Best Marketing Strategy for any business ultimately is the strategy that works. Trying new things while continuing the old thing that is already executing and working.

The most effective way in today’s marketing landscape is by applying a combination of both Inbound and Outbound Marketing strategies. As many companies employ a combination of a brilliant Inbound strategy and retargeting the outbound ads.

Benefits of Inbound Marketing.

Inbound Marketing is a technique of reaching the customers in an organic way, not in a catastrophic way. While the returns in Inbound marketing might be less than any other advertising technique, they are much valuable in the long term.

Here are some key benefits of Inbound Marketing.

Cost-Effective: –

Inbound Marketing can generate leads to a business in a much cheaper manner than outbound marketing. With leaner, more focused advertising on inbound marketing, our business can save a lot of money and get a higher ROI over time.

It is Long Lasting: –

The goal of Inbound Marketing is to build a connection with your customers. This means that it is not a temporary thing, like outbound marketing but it is something that will last forever. For Example, Blogging & SEO are the most popular tools in Inbound marketing, when we write a blog and create content consistently and implement good SEO work, in the beginning, there will be a few customers since SEO is a process and not a result. But after few months our ranking and traffic start increasing and will grow for a long time.

Quality Traffic and Leads: –

Inbound Marketing isn’t just about creating brand awareness. it’s about drawing in the relevant and quality traffic. As we target our audiences more specifically and with the right approach, we can attract leads who are more likely to be interested in our solution.

Opportunity to learn and grow: –

Engaging with our customers on social media and listening to their queries, conversations, feedback helps us to understand our target audience. which eventually helps us to learn and grow and to improve our product or service.