Inbound methodology vs. Outbound

What is inbound marketing vs. outbound marketing? WebCie tackles this question in this blog post.

For many local business owners, advertising and promoting their businesses in the digital age has forced them to undergo some radical changes in their thinking and approach to what makes up good local advertising. Many local businesses that used traditional advertising techniques by aggressively “pushing” their name out via local media have mostly had the same options their competitors had. The question of whether local advertising was working or not often, but not always, boiled down to whether or not an advertiser was seeing a return from their efforts. As traditional mediums lost ground to newer more relevant mediums, not adopting to the newer approaches to advertising and promoting ones business caught many off guard.

Firstly, what is inbound marketing?

We will answer this two ways by deferring to Google first with a search for the term “What is inbound marketing” and then, to Hubspot, who has the first link on Google when performing the search “What is inbound marketing” on Google that answers our question.

According to Hubspot, inbound marketing is:“Inbound marketing is a business methodology that attracts customers by creating valuable content and experiences tailored to them. While outbound marketing interrupts your audience with content they don’t always want, inbound marketing forms connections they are looking for and solves problems they already have.”

Secondly, what is outbound marketing?”

Again, via a simple Google search, we find an excellent definition of what outbound marketing is from the excellent site, Wordstream. According to Wordstream, outbound marketing is: “Outbound marketing refers to any kind of marketing where a company initiates the conversation and sends its message out to an audience. Outbound marketing examples include more traditional forms of marketing and advertising such as TV commercials, radio ads, print advertisements (newspaper ads, magazine ads, flyers, brochures, catalogs, etc.), tradeshows, outbound sales calls (AKA “cold calls”), and email spam.”

 

So, then “what’s the difference between inbound and outbound marketing?”

The business of promoting and advertising a businesses services, has split into two wildly documented defined paths. At this point a two popular terms or phrases have been coined and are often tossed around when describing the old versus new mediums. Inbound methodology (The new) and outbound methodology (The old).

The newer coined phrases of describing advertising and marketing methods have become “inbound marketing versus outbound marketing“, their differences are can be pretty remarkable. Outbound marketing (as in on its way out?) has become the way to describe traditional ways to advertise your business. Television ads, radio spots, billboards, sales flyers and brochures or other direct mail pieces, cold calling, tele-marketing, (who can forget!) door-to-door sales calls, newsletters (if done incorrectly) sent via snail mail or email, and print advertising with ads in newspapers and magazines. The word “outbound” is descriptive in that you are pushing your company’s information out with somewhat of a blanket approach to the public at large (or a semi-defined public in the case of newsletter) with the hope that the potential clients (who you would target directly if you could) will “bite” on your businesses message and react favourably.

 

Social media’s & technologies impact on marketing

The advent of social media and growth of the internet and how we access it have taken over when it comes to how people receive their information. This includes the information we get about the businesses we have liked and that we “might like” (it is all so very subtle!). We can all agree that going to the phone book is a thing of the past. Today, searching directly from your device, pulling up your internet browser’s search engine, asking your question Siri or doing an “Ok Google” search are all but a few of the many ways to easily get plenty of answers quickly.

The discerning eye quickly scours across websites, blogs, Facebook feeds, Instagram, and more to find what’s “in”. Businesses are paying attention and putting out their best efforts with these platforms. Companies know people at large are making buying decisions based on what they see in these information outlets. Using the targeting features of social media and keyword targeting for search engines to create and craft attractive and compelling content for all the platforms is “inbound marketing”. Many would argue that this form of marketing strategy is the main way to go for all businesses that want their brand to thrive locally or nationally in 2018.

Companies that dominate the local digital properties of social and search in their respective markets inevitably become the companies that win the local brick and mortar market. As a company uses these platforms effectively, they pull in and attract the target customers who are looking for their products or services right now – the most effective sales tool in your arsenal.

Companies that stick it out with traditional marketing outbound efforts either have; pockets deep enough to buy the most premier advertising spots offered in their local markets (which could be argued is nonetheless a dying option due to associated fixed costs) or not have taken the time to properly evaluate the potential of “going digital”.

 

Con’s of outbound methodology

Some might say that outbound marketing intrudes on the very people you want to attract at the time you want to attract them. Todays consumer more times than not will not want to watch or hear the ads when they are being delivered. They would however record their favorite show skipping over the ads or watch shows on-demand without ads entirely. Direct mail in this consumers hand goes directly in the trash. Caller ID lets you know when someone you don’t know is calling and you don’t pick up the phone for that telemarketer. The fact is, outbound marketing pushes your potential customers away rather than attracting them as you intended.

 

Pro’s of inbound methodology

Inbound marketing, in contrast, provides a way for customers to come to you by way of them finding you via the content you create and craft in a way your intended audience will appreciate while on the platforms/devices they use.

Understanding the difference between inbound and outbound marketing and how your company can benefit from them immediately is what will make or break businesses from now on into the near future barring any changes in the devices and platforms popular today.

To get a glimpse of some of the simple (or complex) strategies that your business can apply, feel free to reach out to WebCie for proven inbound marketing methodologies anytime.

After all helping businesses grow what this article is all about!

The being said, we leave you with a link to a super resource where you can find not one, but 30 Essential Inbound Marketing Tools to help you inbound your way to success!

Related page: Inbound marketing services