Outbound marketing vs Inbound marketing

There are many online jargons that online marketers often use in conversations or sales pitches. It’s their territory and they are entitled to brag their rights. However, many marketers could not differentiate between inbound marketing and outbound marketing apart from the “in” and “out” prefixed at the start of the word. There are deeper differences between the two forms of marketing which we will further explain in this article.

First of all, it’s good to mention that outbound marketing was prevalent in traditional methods of marketing while inbound marketing is more attached to the current forms of marketing.

For any business person or marketer out there who needs clarification on their differences, do read on.

Outbound marketing

Outbound marketing is a form of marketing whereby advertisers target consumers through paid advertising like pay per click concept. Other than executing them online, outbound marketing in most cases are also executed through TVs, Radios, print and direct mails. Most advertisers are gradually dropping this form of advertising due to the high cost of expenses incurred and the interruptive nature of these ads.

Small businesses might not be able to sustain this form of ad campaigns due to the inhibiting costs. However, outbound marketing has not been entirely phased out since traditional media still have a sizable number of followers and some business do exceptionally well with this form of marketing.

Inbound marketing

Inbound marketing is a newer form of marketing that targets consumer via content, also known as content marketing. You are luring clients through quality, unique, entertaining and, if possible, viral content. Inbound marketing also includes natural concept like search engine optimization (SEO). This is an efficient and effective way especially to get prospective customer in the backdrop of a tech-savvy generation. The great thing about inbound marketing is that it actually target consumers who are looking for the product; instead of marketing to an entire country with only a small percentage showing real interest on the product.

Inbound marketing requires an online presence to execute accordingly. There are a number of ways that this can be done such as:

Content creation – This is the most common method where businesses use social networks to create good content, informative and helpful for the users, related to your products and services.

Offering incentives – Give your audiences or visitors incentives for following you. The incentives might include eBooks, prizes, vouchers, and many more. Another practical way is to also open up small quizzes and the top few lucky ones will win gifts. This helps in active engagement between you and the consumer.

Communication – Because of the heavy reliance on online presence and social media, inbound marketing has the advantage of deriving direct responses from the consumers about the product or on the social media engagements you have.

In a nutshell, inbound marketing is more prevalent than outbound marketing in the current context. As technology advances and with many more social media network come up, more advertisers will embrace this form of marketing.