Inbound vs Outbound

What is the difference?

When you attract customers naturally by providing valuable content, it is called Inbound Marketing. Outbound is often seen as the "shouty" and outdated variant. Wondering why? These are the differences between Inbound and Outbound marketing.

What is outbound Marketing?

Outbound Marketing is the traditional way of marketing. It involves actively approaching the target audience with your message. This can be done through mail, television, radio, email or telemarketing.

You can build a database with address information of potential customers yourself or request it from a database supplier. It takes a lot of time to create and maintain an address list. Then, with Outbound Marketing, you can approach these prospects.

Examples of Outbound Marketing can be:

• A company distributing flyers promoting their product or service in the mailboxes of a specific neighborhood.

• A television commercial aired during a popular television show to attract the attention of potential customers.

• An email campaign where a company sends a large number of emails to a purchased or compiled list of potential customers.

• A telemarketing campaign where a company actively calls a list of potential customers to sell their products or services.

What is inbound marketing?

Inbound marketing is a way to acquire leads by creating and distributing valuable content. Your customer becomes enthusiastic and informed by your content, so they seek out more information and eventually make a purchase of your product or service. The use of SEO and social media can be part of your strategy. It allows customers to come to you instead of the other way around.

Examples of inbound marketing can include:

• A company that writes valuable blog posts and shares them on social media to showcase their expertise in a particular area and attract potential customers.

• A company that creates whitepapers or e-books that are free to download on their website and provide valuable information to interested readers.

• A company that uses search engine optimization (SEO) to appear higher in Google's search results and attract more visitors to their website.

• A company that has a social media strategy to reach and engage their audience on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn or Twitter.

Inbound vs outbound: which one to use?

In the past, it was much easier to get a consumer's attention. Nowadays, you have to put in more effort. Outbound marketing is becoming less successful. Consumers are inundated with advertising through various channels every day, making it difficult to stand out! For your customers, it is difficult to process all that information, so they try to avoid it as much as possible. People don't install ad blockers for nothing.

Here are some examples of actions that many consumers take these days:

• skipping TV commercials

• unsubscribing from mailing lists

• not opening emails

• using the "do not call" registry

The chances are that you won't reach your customers with outbound marketing. Inbound marketing deserves attention. Because it is still a relatively new marketing technique, you stay ahead of competitors and offer more value to your customers.

In other words...

Consumers are gaining more power over what they do and do not want to see. Marketers must therefore shift their focus to marketing that revolves around the wants and needs of the customer. The biggest difference between inbound and outbound is that Inbound Marketing helps with the problems, questions, wishes, and needs of the customer. You have to earn their attention instead of buying it. Therefore, make sure that you offer something valuable to your potential customers.

Starting with an Inbound Marketing strategy

The effect of an advertising campaign via Outbound Marketing immediately stops when the campaign ends. Content on a website, blog or landing page continues to rank in search engines and will be found permanently when a customer searches for it. An Inbound Marketing strategy can consist of smart lead generation through SEO, social media, and referrals.