Inbound marketing vs. outbound marketing

There are many ways to do marketing these days. Marketing strategy is highly important for a company who tries to find more customers and more profit. Inbound or outbound marketing are quite different. Perhaps you might need both marketing styles in your marketing strategy. 

I’m going to tell you two simple ways to do marketing. 

Inbound Marketing

Inbound marketing is all about earning the attention of customers, making the company easy to find online, and drawing customers to the website by producing interesting, helpful content. Inbound marketing is a modern way to do marketing. You are doing business more human and customer centered. How can we be helpful, personalized and relevant? Inbound marketing is more effective because people are seeking out your content. 

One of the most important things about inbound marketing is to be attached with customers all the time. Digital marketing has changed the world drastically. Twenty years ago you used to buy clothes in the store. Nowadays you can easily buy your clothes online. If you wanted to listen to your favorite band’s music, you used to buy their CD. Nowadays we have Spotify. If you need the taxi you call the taxi by phone or wait for the taxi on the taxi pole. Nowadays we have Uber. Uber or Spotify are great examples of inbound marketing. For example when you are using uber you can see the price, drivers information and drivers review. Uber is all about contacting the customer and taking care of customers needs. You can only use Uber by using their app. 

Outbound Marketing

In the past, outbound marketing was basically the only way to do marketing. Outbound marketing is more like traditional advertising methods such as Tv ads, radio, telemarketing or print media. You could say that trade shows, seminars or cold calling are the ways to do outbound marketing. Outbound marketing is like you push the message out far and wide hoping that resonates with that needle in the haystack. Big companies can use outbound marketing tools much more effectively than smaller companies. 

Outbound marketing might be an effective way to do marketing because people are still watching a lot of TV, listening to radio or reading the newspaper. We have also seen that old things are coming back. People are curious about the past. That is why customers like to buy 80’s style clothes or they want to buy old vinyl records. 

Outbound or inbound?

So inbound marketing is more like attracting the customer to you and outbound marketing is finding the customer wherever they are. Which way is better and do you need both styles to do marketing? 

Outbound and inbound are like Yin and Yang. Inbound marketing is more like permissive and two-way communication while outbound ls interruptive and one-way communication. If you think about Inbound marketing, customers come to you but in outbound marketing customers are sought after. 

It is true that inbound marketing can get long term customers and it is cost-effective if you compare it to outbound marketing. Perhaps the biggest problem with inbound marketing is the long run. It takes time. It is not the way you can make results immediately. On the bright side, the longer you do inbound marketing, the better your results are. The competition is big. It’s also not effective for every buyer’s journey.

Well strategy for outbound marketing can increase your sales and brand awareness. Big brands such as Coca-Cola, Starbucks or Adidas need outbound marketing. Good outbound campaigns usually produce fast results. Maybe the problem with outbound marketing is that it is costly and ROI is much lower than inbound marketing. It is also increasing blocking techniques. It is also difficult to get feedback from outbound marketing. 

It took both the traditional marketing and the inbound marketing to nurture the client to a point where he or she was ready to invest with you, buy your product or service. To be honest, both types of marketing work better when you use both together.

Sources:

Ortiz, D. (2021). Cyberclick. Inbound vs. Outbound marketing. Luettu 18.10.2022

https://www.cyberclick.net/numericalblogen/inbound-vs-outbound-marketing

HubSpot Marketing.(2.12.2019). Business Strategy: What is Inbound? Haettu 18.10.2022 osoitteesta

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H1UTA5ckoJ0

Inbound explained – Digital Marketing.(10.11.2021). Inbound Marketing vs. Outbound Marketing Strategies. Haettu 19.10.2022 osoitteesta

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_jUEPXz5eZw&t=2s

The Laire Team. (2022).  7 Inbound Marketing Problems Revealed. Luettu 18.10.2022

https://www.lairedigital.com/blog/7-inbound-marketing-problems-revealed