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 flow? What should you 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 simply be described as a direct business exchange proposition. “Hello, 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 “snail mail”), advertising (banners, radio spots, billboards, etc.), and even door-to-door sales. It is about reaching and attracting the potential customer.

Outbound Marketing Strengths
Not only is it the oldest and most polished set of techniques, but outbound marketing generates sales leads almost immediately. It goes beyond saying 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. Quicker to show impact

3. Potentially personalized

Outbound Marketing Weaknesses
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 opt-in 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 that enter at the top of the funnel (TOFU) and are “fed” down the funnel with marketing messages tailored to the stage the lead is in. until they are “ready” to be approached with a targeted message to start the purchase process.

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

1. Profitable

2. Non-intrusive

3. Wide

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

1. Slow to show results

2. Harder to measure

3. Impersonal

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

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

Bid size

kind of product

funnel internships

Marketing mix and match
Combining inbound marketing methodologies and outbound marketing techniques into your marketing mix isn’t always easy, but it’s often worth it. By defining the right balance between inbound pull techniques and outbound push 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 funnel journey.