OUTBOUND VS INBOUND MARKETING: WHICH IS BETTER?

Share it:

Since the inception of inbound marketing, businesses bestride between the outbound and inbound marketing strategies. Marketers are faced with sone pertinent confoundment: which is better?

While inbound marketing patrons claim the unmatched leverages of their, outbound marketing still retains relevance. Even today, some businesses prefer outbound marketing strategies. On the contrary, outbound marketing is a thing of the past for some businesses. Still, a few businesses combine both the marketing strategies to benefit their business.

What we are delving into, however, is what best fits your business.

Inbound vs Outbound

WHAT IS INBOUND MARKETING?

Businesses adopt inbound marketing to cater to modern buyers efficiently. Almost 70% of these modern buyers do online research before approaching a company for purchase.

Inbound marketing is focused on bringing potential customers to your business. It is more about your business to find active customers rather than forcing your message on uninterested customers. Inbound marketing targets the customers who are active in the market and net them in your consumer base.

Another way to interpret inbound marketing is that it aligns your business with the buyer’s journey. A process that customers go through while looking for a product online. The buyer’s journey entails:

  • Awareness phase– Prospect want a solution for their problem or want to seize an opportunity.
  • Consideration phase– Prospects research their problem, develops an understanding, and know the potential solutions.
  • Decision Phase– Prospect narrows down the potential solution and moves on to decide on the ideal one.

Typically, the following are the inbound marketing strategies that businesses in aligning with the Buyer’s journey:

  • SEO
  • Email Marketing
  • Content creation
  • Blogging
  • Lead magnet
  • Social Media

These inbound marketing tactics allow the prospects to discover your solutions early in the buyer’s journey. Prospects learn about the benefits of your solutions and are more likely to pick your solution as their ideal solution.

WHAT IS OUTBOUND MARKETING?

Outbound marketing strategy is the stark opposite of inbound marketing. Unlike inbound marketing, outbound marketing targets every potential prospect, aiming to reach as many customers as possible. Outbound marketing disregards if the prospects are active in the market not.

Generally, the outbound marketing market to a larger and less-targeted audience. The tactics used include:

  • Direct mail
  • Billboards
  • Cold-calling
  • Pay Per Click ads
  • Commercials
  • Print ads

Contrary to inbound marketing, outbound marketing doesn’t consider buyer’s journey.

OUTBOUND VS INBOUND MARKETING: WHICH IS BETTER?

Figure 2:https://www.klood.com/hubfs/images/inbound_v_outbound_marketing.png

OUTBOUND VS INBOUND: WHICH ONE TO CHOOSE?

Inbound or outbound? The simplest answer to this is that it all depends on your business. What are business goals, who do you address to, what are your objectives; all these factors and more will determine which fits your business.

What makes inbound marketing ideal?

The key aspect of inbound marketing is that it offers value to your prospects. It approaches the prospects in a non-promotional and educational way.

Inbound marketing aims to build trust by aligning the buyer’s journey with your brand. This benefits your business, as customers don’t apprentice to be approached when they aren’t active in the market. For this particular reason, most customers encourage inbound marketing.

Long-term ROI is another aspect that makes inbound the ideal option

Initially, inbound marketing demands upfront investments with gradual returns for the first several months. This initial phase is essential for increasing your online presence, improving search engine ranking, and building digital marketing assets.

Digital assets like the premium offer and blog posts continue to bring you leads for the long term. You don’t need to invest in them again once they are formulated.

What makes outbound marketing ideal?

The strength of outbound marketing is to make your brand appear in front of a larger audience and build awareness quickly.

If carried out properly, outbound marketing camping can generate leads within the first few weeks of its launch. You can quickly educate a huge audience about your brand and retain them as customers.

But this immediate success comes with a downside of continual investment. Outbound marketing campaign generates results when you continue spending on it. Once you stop spending, the leverages stall. Unlike inbound marketing, outbound marketing doesn’t lend assets that will continue to give your benefits in the long run.

FINDING YOUR BEST FIT

Several businesses became successful by working solely on inbound or outbound marketing. However, there are some businesses that utilized bot to reach success. Ultimately, you need to find out the right strategy for business. While doing so, consider the following aspects:

Your Market

Foremost, you need to determine who your ideal audience is and how they will shop for your offerings. Most importantly, which platforms they utilize to learn more about your type of offerings?

If you find it difficult to figure out, then look at your competitors and the industry as a whole. What marketing strategies work best to glean most customers?

Your Goals

The second most crucial question, what purpose are you serving in the industry? What do you want to achieve? How many customers should you aim for?

Inbound marketing is a long-term strategy, the one that gleans you benefits over time. On the other hand, outbound marketing allows you to get customers quickly, but with dwindling returns. For some business owners, the best strategy is to combine both strategies.

Your Brand

Lastly, consider how your chosen marketing strategy will help your brand image you want to use the strategies that customers approve of and builds your credibility. Any poorly deployed or ill-planned strategy will result in marring your reputation.

SO, WHICH STRATEGY IS BETTER?

To put it bluntly, neither strategy is superior to others. Outbound and inbound are two entirely different strategies with their separate pros and cons. However, the strategy that most businesses find beneficial is incorporating both while preserving an inbound approach.

In case you struggle with identifying the right strategy for your business, you may consult a digital marketing agency to help with planning the right strategy. These agencies offer professional advice and help in deciding the right type of marketing for your business.

en English
en Englishfr French