When the pandemic pushed businesses online that had never been there before, it created more than just a technological challenge for those businesses. It also created a very real marketing challenge for them.
The entire process of generating leads and even finding potential customers looks different when you transition into the digital sphere. It also forces business owners to explore the inbound marketing vs outbound marketing divide.
If you’re a business owner struggling with these ideas, keep reading. We’ll cover the basic differences between these two marketing strategies.
What is Inbound Marketing?
Inbound marketing focuses on building relationships with potential customers through an organic process. It puts a lot of emphasis on relevant and valuable content.
So, an inbound campaign might include everything from several related blog posts to video content or a series of emails. While all of this content theoretically promotes the business, it does so obliquely. The company and the product mostly sit in the background.
The content should help the business generate trust with potential clients. It does that by establishing expertise, solving problems, or explaining trends that matter to the audience.
This approach also focuses on audience segmentation. The content addresses a specific audience that should represent the business’s ideal customer. For example, business broker marketing tactics using an inbound approach will focus on people looking to buy or sell a business.
What is Outbound Marketing?
Outbound marketing conforms with most people’s traditional idea of marketing. It uses methods like mass media buys, such as television or radio spots, print ads, and cold calling. It focuses on finding the right audience either through mass exposure or tightly controlled research.
Take cold calling as a case in point. Cold calling involves trying to talk a stranger into entering your sales funnel. The calls almost always go out to businesss that tick a lot of boxes, such as revenue, industry, and even region.
Key Differences
Inbound marketing and outbound marketing take almost exactly opposite approaches. Outbound marketing quite literally interrupts people with information about the product or service. The hope is that exposure will prompt a sale in the short term.
Inbound marketing uses content as a way to attract people to the product or service. It entices people and builds trust. Businesses rely on the ongoing relationships with potential customers to generate sales.
The downside is that the inbound approach can take a while to generate revenue.
Inbound Marketing vs Outbound and You
The inbound marketing vs outbound marketing debate sets up something of a false choice. Both sides enjoy strong support, but the reality is that both inbound and outbound marketing have a place in your marketing strategy.
Digital marketing is the process of promoting a business by using different digital technologies. Professional digital marketers leverage different online channels for addressing the marketing needs of their clients. Due to this reason, it is also known as online or internet marketing.
Paid advertising, cold calls, and cold emailing can help you draw in customers in the short term, which helps keep you afloat. Inbound marketing works best as a long-term strategy for building trust with and then securing customers.
Looking for more marketing tips? Check out some of the posts in our Business section.
