Times are changing and so are the techniques of marketing a business. The traditional marketing concepts no longer hold that cutting edge required to outperform your rival. In fact, you need to adopt a holistic blend of inbound and outbound marketing techniques in order to gain that competitive edge in a cut-throat competition. So, what’re exactly inbound and outbound marketing strategies?
Let’s have a look at Outbound Marketing first! It’s what traditional businesses usually adopt to advertise their products and services to general public. The target audience is one and all, i.e., it’s a shot in the darkness that may or may not hit bull’s-eye. The modes of Outbound Marketing include print advertisement (newspapers, magazines, journals, etc), TV commercials, Radio fillers, direct mail, telemarketing, etc.
The probability of a successful outbound marketing campaign directly depends on how effectively you can transmit your message across and hope that the message appeals to the senses of target audience. The major drawback of outbound marketing strategy is overburdening of the consumers with unsolicited commercial advertisements. You can easily put off the prospect by bombarding him with something that he has read, heard or seen earlier umpteen times.
Inbound Marketing, on the other hand, is a modern approach towards marketing that involves excessive use of Internet to get the message across. Instead of directly bombarding the masses with advertisement material, Inbound Marketing uses techniques, like SEO, blogs, social networking sites (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.), and video viral sites (YouTube).
The approach of inbound marketing is diametrically opposite to that adopted outbound marketing strategies. Instead of reaching out to prospects, the target audience is wooed to request you to buy your product or service. Simply put, the onus is shifted to the prospects through astute marketing strategies. Obviously, Inbound Marketing is a better and scientific approach to modern advertising. However, it requires professional planning and execution of marketing strategies.
Summary: Outbound Marketing is a traditional way of looking at advertising your business via pamphlets, newspaper ads, TV commercials, etc., whereas Inbound Marketing refers to modern online marketing tools, like blogs, social networks, videos, etc. The difference between the two lies in their approach. Where the former spreads out the message explicitly, the latter does so discreetly by first luring the prospects to what they exactly want.