What allows the word of your business reach the other corner of the world? Marketing.
What drives your services or products to sell at a fast pace? Marketing.
What sows the seed for your business’ growth? Marketing.
Marketing is what instills life in business. It is the most crucial aspect of running a successful company. A business owner that lacks marketing skills is most likely to see their business set on a downward journey without ever gaining stable ground. If you want to grow your brand, you need to get familiar with all forms of marketing. It is common for business owners to surround themselves with thick marketing terms and lose their calm, however, it is in the understanding of these terms that can help you get ahead of your marketing game.
The two most frequently-used marketing terms today are outbound and inbound marketing. You will come across these terms in the initial stage of planning. Before you can get on with your brand strategy, you must know the difference between these two types of marketing.
OUTBOUND MARKETING – THE TRADITIONAL FORM OF MARKETING
Outbound marketing is not a new approach for marketers, in fact, it has been out there for centuries. It was the basic technique for businesses, even before the actual term ‘marketing’ came into existence. The billboards you see across the city, the TVCs that appear on your screens (even when you do not want to see them), promotional emails, and YouTube advertisements are some forms of outbound marketing.
This particular marketing technique revolves around the concept of attracting the customers towards the services or products. It is an interruptive form of marketing. The campaigns appear in front of the customers, regardless of whether one wants it or not.
However, over the last decade, outbound marketing has begun to lose its charm. A dominant reason behind it is over-saturation. In today’s world, people have learned the skills to ignore such ads and pay no attention to them. The clickthrough rates for such ads are continuously decreasing.
INBOUND MARKETING – A MODERN APPROACH IN MARKETING
In comparison to outbound marketing, a more modern approach is inbound marketing. Whereas outbound marketing has begun to lose its popularity, inbound marketing has been gaining firm ground over recent years. It is the type of marketing that includes email newsletters, blog posts, infographics, social media profiles, search engine optimization, and pay-per-click.
Inbound marketing is about the customers finding the business and not the other way around — which is what happens when utilizing outbound marketing tactics. It is an indirect form of marketing where a business does not target a consumer; instead, it pulls a consumer towards it.
A typical inbound marketing approach begins by attracting a potential customer through blog posts or social media. It is then followed by conversion through calls-to-action, landing pages, or forms. It is an approach where a stranger turns into a visitor, then converts into leads and customers, and finally, the promoters for a business. For the sake of transparency, this blog you are reading right now is an example of inbound marketing.
OUTBOUND MARKETING VS. INBOUND MARKETING – CHOOSING THE MOST EFFECTIVE STRATEGY
When comparing the two approaches, we see that inbound marketing helps in improving the return-on-investment as such campaigns are less expensive. With inbound marketing being a modern approach, it brings the “modern” consumer’s needs into consideration. Even though inbound marketing boasts way more benefits than outbound, it is difficult to measure its effectiveness. Inbound marketing is all about raising brand awareness by providing value. There are no fixed parameters that can help marketers measure how their inbound marketing strategy is performing. Moreover, the improvement in outbound marketing is attracting a lot of businesses towards it. Features such as lookalike audiences, retargeting pixels, and contextual ads show current untapped potential for outbound marketing.
Both inbound and outbound marketing are useful in unique scenarios. You need to make a choice based purely on your business’ needs. Combining both these techniques thoughtfully can benefit amazing results.
For all help in your outbound and inbound marketing needs, schedule a free 27-minute discovery call with remi360 today to discover how we can help you reach new heights with your business.
For more information about our services click here.
We also offer some outstanding FREE resources on our website, be sure to check them out as they are all game changers.