How to use inbound versus outbound marketing [Complete Guide]

Should I use inbound or outbound marketing? Where do you find that balance between outbound and inbound marketing to maximize and grow your lead stream? What do you need to consider when crafting a synergistic marketing mix to include both? To answer all these questions, let’s start by understanding each of the marketing techniques, their strengths and weaknesses.

What is Outbound Marketing?
Outbound marketing can be simply described as a direct business proposition. “Hi, do you want to buy my thing?” it is your basic message and approach to outbound marketing. It’s the oldest and most fundamental part of any marketing strategy, and it’s also what non-marketers assume marketing is all about.

Examples of outbound marketing include telemarketing (“cold calling”), paid mailings (both electronic and “postal mail”), advertising (banners, radio ads, billboards, etc.), and even door-to-door sales. It is about reaching and attracting the potential customer.

Strengths of outbound marketing
Not only is it the oldest and most polished set of techniques, but outbound marketing generates sales leads almost immediately. It goes beyond saying that it’s not a magic wand, but when it comes to “closing the deal,” your go-to tools are those in your outgoing tool belt.

1. Easier to measure ROI

2. Faster to show impact

3. Potentially personalized

Weaknesses of Outbound Marketing
Many companies and brands love outbound marketing for its quick and easy-to-measure results. However, they equally hate the cost and, all too often, the reaction from the target audience, which can easily lead to negative brand sentiment.

1. intrusive

2. Expensive

3. Ineffective on its own

What is inbound marketing?
In short, the idea of ​​inbound marketing is to create a pull effect to attract pre-qualified leads instead of sending intrusive messages.

Inbound marketing activities include optional email marketing, content production and promotion, social media, and search engine optimization (SEO) efforts, among other things.

With this method, you create a type of funnel with leads entering at the top of the funnel (TOFU) and being “fed” down the funnel with marketing messages tailored to the stage the lead is in. until they are “ready” to be approached with a message aimed at starting the purchase process.

Strengths of Inbound Marketing
Although it existed long before social media and even online sales, the inbound methodology has taken over digital advertising in the last decade. With the increasing blindness of banners, do-not-call lists, and the rising cost of user attention, it’s no wonder so many brands and businesses include inbound marketing in their strategies.

1. Profitable

2. Non-intrusive

3. Wide

Weaknesses of Inbound Marketing
For B2B marketers, it’s often difficult to explain the value of inbound marketing to executives who just want to see those leads flow in and convert. It’s no longer a new approach or methodology, and yet there are reasons why brands are sometimes hesitant to prioritize inbound marketing activities.

1. Slow to show results

2. More difficult to measure

3. impersonal

Preparing your marketing mix
Let’s go back to the question we started with: which should you use, inbound or outbound? By understanding the strengths and weaknesses of each, you can see why they are both necessary ingredients in your marketing mix. But how much of each, and when?

Several variables affect the input-to-output ratio of each brand, product, campaign, and even specific transaction. The impact of some may be less than others, depending on your unique business and product.

offer size

kind of product

funnel internships

Marketing mix and match
Combining inbound marketing methodologies and outbound marketing techniques in your marketing mix is ​​not always easy, but it is often worth it. By defining the right balance between pull-in and push-out techniques, you can combine the two to create a streamlined lead nurturing and conversion process. It all depends on how well you know your target audience and how willing you are to put in the effort to meet their needs throughout the journey down the funnel.