Caught in the Marketing Melee: Inbound vs. Outbound

• By: Staff Editor
• Date: October 29, 2015

Caught in the Marketing Melee: Inbound vs. Outbound

Out with the old, in with the new. This mantra never really rang true with marketing. Older marketing techniques continue to hold their place, while making room for newer platforms and strategies. The playground is fairly level now. But which side are you on?

The Usual Suspects

Email marketing – If you just shook your head at the idea of your mailbox flooded with promotional messages, raise your hand. Now that all hands are up, think about why. Inexpensive and extensive reach? Yes. But there’s more. Most businesses communicate with you and send you updates once you approach them, digitally or otherwise; so if you needed them once, you may need them again. Essentially, they are keeping you in the loop.

And so it goes for almost every form of marketing you are familiar with. Ranging from the biggest, like television and newspaper advertising, to the smallest pamphlets distributed by local businesses, marketing endeavors are everywhere, depending on your budget. When you are on the receiving end, you may not relate to some instantly, but they exist because they work – customers like to know their options.

Outbound Marketing

Outbound marketing primarily involves older and traditional marketing techniques. The words older and traditional usually resonate with some degree of negativity. It shouldn’t. Here’s a visual: you are walking through a store and you recognize an old Adidas logo instantly.

The logo didn’t just stay in your mind because it’s from, ahem, your era, but primarily because of the branding and marketing strategies behind the product. Before the internet came along, outbound marketing was pretty much all there was. And it worked, thanks to its wide reach and bold format. 

This form of marketing is notorious for eating into your overall marketing budget though. And after all that, you are still not sure your customer is listening to you. This is probably why inbound marketing has been well-received, despite the depth of work and strategizing it involves.

Digital and Inbound Marketing

Most modern businesses are online today, and consequently, social media has almost become a sacred space for them. Unfortunately, as in the case of outbound marketing, the campaigning here never ends. It is constant.

Inbound marketing is all about staying atop of Google’s search list, keeping social media platforms constantly alive and buzzing, reaching out to customers with information that can help aka content marketing, SEO optimization, PPC strategies, and more. All this activity is much-needed to guide prospective customers to your virtual or physical doorstep.

True, you will be spending considerably less. But it’s not an easy road and you certainly can’t hope to get there before nightfall. Inbound marketing strategies are built to play out over a period of time and when you do it right and continue to do it right every day, the rewards are plenty.

Can the Old and the New Co-Exist Peacefully?

It’s often not a question, rather they must. Bearing in mind that not everyone heads to Google for information, businesses must strike an effective balance between both inbound and outbound strategies; how you do it depends largely on your needs and resources.

Do you need a few outbound strategies in place while you wait for your inbound marketing strategies to take effect? Do you have budgetary constraints? Have you identified all the marketing avenues that can work for your business?

The answer to all these questions are about the same: ring in the old and the new!

Additional Resources

Marketing and Advertising Compliance - The First UDAAP Hotspot –By Kara Lamphere

Marketing for Most of Us Today – By Barney Kramer