Inbound vs. Outbound Marketing- which one should you choose?

In the world of marketing, some frequently used words such as inbound marketing, outbound marketing, and digital marketing may appear like jargons, but they are not. They have distinctive characteristics that define the way you do marketing and they are designed with independent objectives in mind to derive the expected results. Let us see what differentiates them and which method should you use in today’s technology and B2B landscape.

Outbound Marketing-

These are the age-old marketing techniques that are raw and use interruptive and push-methodologies such as tele-ads, advertisements, billboards, newspapers, magazine ads and so on. Typically, these techniques lack personalization and a lack of customization of services and not catering. Tagged as expensive and overrated; these techniques are now not as effective and are giving way to inbound marketing.

Inbound Marketing-

Based on the methods that pull-in customers; inbound marketing is one of the most popular forms of marketing techniques that involve usage of blog posts, emailers, landing pages, case studies, and many more tools that are built using rich, relevant and shareable content pieces. With content at its center, inbound marketing is a very effective method of marketing that attracts, engages and converts the prospects with compelling content and strategically designed campaigns.

Here are some major differences between Inbound and Outbound marketing-

B2B Outbound marketing techniques any outbound marketing techniques usually use pull-methodologies to attract customers that are more inert and one-way; the ones that try to sell in a hard-sales-y way, regardless of what customers want or are looking for. It is based more on what the marketers want to sell, as against what the customer wants. On the other hand, inbound marketing strategies use customization and offer tailor-made solutions, wherein the aim is to pull-in the customers by giving them what they want.

Inbound marketing is less expensive than outbound; however the effectiveness of inbound is difficult to measure as it is more intangible. Since one cannot directly quantify brand awareness, adding value to business etc. it is difficult to measure the effectiveness of inbound marketing. Also, the effectiveness of B2B inbound, as opposed to B2B outbound marketing, is slow, but steady, and if built around intelligent strategies; one can obtain long-term results.

More and more marketers are using inbound marketing over outbound marketing techniques and the numbers tell why-

- Inbound marketing costs 62% less per lead than outbound marketing

- Content marketing generates 3x as many leads per dollar than traditional marketing

-57% of online users view content at least once per month and the average user spends 20% of their online time viewing content

- High quality, relevant and valuable information makes prospects more likely to take action

(Source- www.demandmetric.com)

Whether it is outbound marketing or inbound marketing, in the B2B landscape each business has different needs. Doing what’s best for ‘your business’ is the wise thing to do. You could also use an effective mix of outbound and inbound for better results. Regularly analyzing data, reassessing the business needs and keeping a tab on the changing demands of the customers will help you use the right marketing mix at the right time.