Outbound Marketing vs. Inbound Marketing - What Works Best for ...

Effective marketing is the key to business success. In order to maximize sales, you need to identify potential customers and maximize the buzz for your products and services. There are numerous methods to market a business, but not all of them are cost-effective enough to generate leads. Let?s analyze some of the differences between outbound and inbound marketing.

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Outbound Marketing

Outbound marketing, the traditional mode of marketing a business, was the primary way to advertise a business over a decade ago. Companies relied on interruption based methods of promotion using print ads (newspaper and magazine), electronic ads (television and radio commercials), and direct reach (postcards, mailers leaflets, telemarketing).These forms of marketing were accepted and effective prior to the widespread adoption of the internet.

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Today?s generation of advanced consumers, however, have learned to ignore and tune out these methods of marketing. Ask yourself, ?Do you enjoy watching commercials during your favorite television programs?? The common answer is ?NO?. ?Do you enjoy having your day interrupted by pushy sales representatives who cold call you in the middle of a busy day of work?? Again, the answer is a resounding ?NO?. Most people hold similar feelings with regard to most forms of outbound advertising.

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Due to the negative feelings held by many, outbound marketing methods have become very expensive.? It is often necessary to distribute tens or hundreds of thousands of messages to generate even a handful of warm leads. Consumers are masters of avoiding outbound marketing interruptions. They have caller id on their phones to prevent unsolicited telephone calls, integrated spam/junk email filters to weed out unwanted emails, and DVR boxes to skip past TV commercials.

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Newspapers and magazines have also seen drastic decreases in readership. The internet at home, in the office, and now in the pocket of almost every American has made it possible for consumers to find the information they need online ? anytime, anywhere.

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For small business owners, the excessive costs required to design, print, and distribute 10,000 fliers or a small group of television ads is impossible to justify. The expense, coupled with the minimal conversion rate of outbound marketing just doesn?t make good economic sense.

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Inbound Marketing

Inbound marketing focuses on preparing your marketing message in a way that makes your business easily found when consumer search. The goal is to engage with people rather than interrupt them. Some examples of inbound marketing techniques that attract new customers:

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1. Online Content Distribution ? A small business owner can get the message out using online blogs and social media tools. Users who search for information about virtually any topic find information posted to these resources, learn more, and subscribe for real time updates related to the products and services being offered.
2. Organic Online Placement ? Millions of people every day search for product and services to purchase on Google and other search engines. To remain competitive, businesses reach these potential customers using organic SEO to obtain good placements for their website and social media properties.
3. Paid Search Ads ? In addition to organic placement and content creation, businesses purchase advertisements that display their products and services in search. When these search engine marketing ads are linked to a well-designed marketing website the results can be spectacular.
4. Video Production and Optimization ? In addition to blogs and websites, small businesses are producing internet videos combined with video SEO to get in front of prospective customers who are looking for information online.

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The key components of inbound marketing are Websites, Graphic Design, Content Creation, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Paid Search (SEM), Social Media, and Video. Together these methods can create an extremely potent lead generation system for any small business, and a marketing machine that is cost-effective for a business of any size.

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This method is highly effective because of the mindset of the consumer at the time they interact with your business message. In almost every instance the consumer has come to information about your company only after searching or clicking on a link. As a result, you are marketing only to people who are already interested in and ready to read about the service you have to offer. The consumer is back in control and they are not tuning out your marketing dollar, just the opposite. They have sought it out.

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However, doing this right requires significant expertise in inbound marketing and search engine optimization. Many companies make the mistake of hiring the wrong person to help and wind up paying too much for a marketing platform that doesn?t work. If you?ve made the wise decision to market your business online using effective inbound marketing techniques, it?s best to consult with an expert. Someone with proven experience in all the right areas who can help you increase inbound sales leads while minimizing your overall marketing expense.

Tags: advertise a business, Benefits of inbound marketing, differences between outbound and inbound marketing, inbound marketing techniques, Inbound Marketing vs Outbound Marketing, Outbound Marketing vs Inbound Marketing, search engine marketing, search engine optimization, why inbound marketing is effective

This entry was posted on Friday, June 8th, 2012 at 12:46 pm and is filed under Internet Marketing, marketing, Search Engine Marketing, SEO, Social Media Marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.

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