So what is the difference between inbound and outbound marketing?
Many people still confuse the terms inbound and outbound. Outbound is also known as traditional advertising. Examples of outbound marketing include television commercials, newspaper ads, direct marketing and cold calling (tactics and media that essentially “interrupt” the consumer as they go about their day). The consumer does not request these ads, but the company does so in the hope of gaining some attention. Another example of outbound marketing would be pop-up windows on the computer desktop or cell phone screen.
Inbound marketing is all about the customer coming to you because of their own interest in the content you have created. It’s about attracting visitors through search engines, social networks and blogs, attracting the customer to you, no gimmicks, no pop-ups, no cold calling. There are some statistics with surprising results about inbound marketing. Hubspot offers the following conclusions: “companies with a blog receive 97% more inbound links”, “B2B companies with a blog generate 67% more leads”, “8 out of 10 people identify themselves as blog readers”, and these are just some of the examples.
Outbound Marketing is still relevant
Although we are aware of the main advantages of inbound marketing, outbound is still a force to be reckoned with. Even Hubspot, the originators of the term ‘inbound marketing’, use a mix of both inbound and outbound marketing tactics.
Recently, DiscoverOrg surveyed 1,000 IT executives from a variety of companies, from Fortune 500 to SMBs, and the results were striking. 60% stated that outbound calls and emails led them to an IT provider, of which 75% stated that they decided to attend an event or appointment after receiving a cold call or email. As we have seen, there has been a driving force behind the inbound revolution that would find it almost nonsensical to consider using outbound methods, but these statistics prove otherwise.
Inbound and Outbound Marketing can work in harmony
While content creation is key to a successful inbound strategy, there is an opportunity to use outbound marketing to send the best blog posts in an email campaign. We are all aware of the importance of blogging, but you need to have an audience to make it a success; so why not send out an email asking people to subscribe to the blog? Another example of using inbound and outbound marketing hand-in-hand is the use of Twitter or Facebook ads that promote a large amount of content. We have the inbound part completed by creating content, but we need the help of the outbound to spread it and ensure that the audience sees it. Inbound cannot develop without the support of outbound.
Content extracted from Paragon.