Inbound vs. Outbound: What’s The Difference?

A company’s marketing strategy can arguably be one of the most important things that contribute to sales success for a business. When discussing your company’s marketing strategy, you may hear terms like inbound or outbound marketing. Many marketers have preferences when it comes to these two strategies, depending on their goals.

Because these two concepts are a bit broad, it can become easy to get overwhelmed by what they are, why you should use them, and what the benefits and challenges are between the two. In this article, we’ll compare both strategies and discuss certain instances where it makes sense to use one over the other.

Key Takeways:

What Is Inbound Marketing?

Inbound marketing can be defined as a marketing strategy that aims to attract potential customers by creating engaging and relevant content that directly addresses their key audience’s interests or needs. This type of marketing is meant to pique curiosity and engagement to draw new customers into your funnel.

Also known as “pull marketing” or “content marketing,” this type of strategy can leverage a wide variety of content to engage and interest audiences. This means the company will gently nurture any potential customers through its marketing funnel by providing them with relevant content and exciting brand experiences.

This process will gradually continue to build brand awareness for potential customers and increase their overall engagement with the business. This helps to improve conversion and retention once they do become customers. Content is the most commonly used tactic when it comes to inbound marketing and may include things like;

• Blog posts. A blog post is an article written on a blog that includes information on a certain topic through text, photos, infographics, or videos. Usually intended to leave the reader with helpful information, it’s a great way to distribute information to potential customers about the benefit of your product or service.

• Social media. Marketers often use social media platforms and websites to promote their company’s product or service. This is a great way to reach new potential customers and let your brand’s personality shine through with short, easy-to-consume posts, videos, or other creative digital assets.

• Infographics. An infographic is a graphic visual representation of a set of information, data, or knowledge. They are typically visual assets that present information in a way that is clear and easy to comprehend. These visuals are typically eye-catching while being informative for your potential customers.

• Whitepapers. Whitepapers are a more formal asset, typically defined as a report or guide that provides information about a complex issue in a concise manner. Its purpose is to help an audience understand an issue, solve a problem, or provide them with tools to make a decision.

• Webinars. A webinar is a digital event typically held through a web conferencing platform. These types of events typically have an expert or panel of experts who spend a set amount of time discussing a specific topic that an audience can listen to live. Sometimes it includes a question and answers session as well.

• Paid search. This type of marketing is a digital marketing tactic that allows businesses to pay search engines, such as Google or Bing, to place their ads higher on relevant search keywords in order to drive traffic to a certain page. This can be a company’s product page or a specific landing page, depending on the strategy.

• Native advertising. Also known as sponsored content, this type of advertising typically resembles a publisher’s editorial content but is directly paid for by the company. The intention is to promote a product or service but in a way that blends in with a publisher’s existing content.

Inbound marketing can be beneficial in several ways. First, it is a relatively non-invasive form of marketing, meaning that prospects can choose whether or not to participate in these marketing strategies. It also provides educational content to your audience, providing them with value. For marketers, it has the benefit of being quantifiable as well.

However, all strategies have challenges, and inbound marketing has some drawbacks as well. For example, it requires continuous maintenance and may take a great deal of time and effort, especially when it comes to content. It also demands a holistic strategy, meaning you’ll need to be juggling quite a few things at the same time.

Depending on your audience and where they are in the funnel, inbound marketing can be an ideal strategy to use. Many B2B businesses may prefer inbound marketing as it’s more personal and can use much more targeted approaches to their tactics when it comes to marketing to an audience.

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What is Outbound Marketing?

Outbound marketing can be defined as a marketing strategy that presumes direct and immediate contact with potential customers through outward messaging. This is an active strategy where a broader message is sent to a large number of people in the hopes of making a future sale. The way to think about this is the larger the audience, the larger the return.

Outbound marketing is considered much more costly than inbound marketing, and the ROI is difficult to track. However, it is more conventional, and what most people think of when it comes to marketing are things like big billboards or advertisements in a magazine or on television.

We can think of outbound marketing as the type of advertising that pushes information to a potential audience whether they ask for it or not. It can sometimes be referred to as “push marketing” for this reason. Unfortunately, with the rise of the digital world, outbound marketing has gotten a bit of a bad rap. Some examples of outbound marketing are

• Billboards. Billboard advertising is a traditional method of advertising where companies pay money to use a large scale print or digital advertising board to promote their brand, service, or product. These billboards are usually situated in high-traffic areas such as highways or in cities.

• Radio advertisements. Radio advertising is when a company buys commercials on a certain radio station to promote their products or services. Advertisers typically pay the station for airtime and the radio station broadcasts their commercial. In more recent years, both local and satellite radio provides this service.

• Telemarketing. Telemarketing is one of the most direct forms of marketing where a salesperson meets with a prospective customer either over the phone or face to face to try and sell a product or service. Typically, the potential customer did not sign up for this kind of marketing so it can be difficult to execute effectively.

• Direct mail. Another traditional marketing strategy is direct mail where marketers attempt to engage prospects or customers offline by sending printed mailers or packages directly to their homes or mailboxes. This can be effective for campaigns that are targeting a specific geographical area.

• TV commercials. Television advertising has been around since the inception of TV and is paid for by the business, similar to radio advertising. The business pays for airtime, and the television station will broadcast the company’s advertisement to promote their product or service.

• Banner and display ads. Banner or display advertising is when companies pay for space on a certain website. These advertisements can be static or animated images or media that are placed in high-traffic areas of a certain website, somewhat similar to billboards but in digital format.

• Pop-up advertisements. Pop-up advertisements are much more scarcely used than they were even a few years ago, but they can still exist in certain forms. This online advertising is when a small window suddenly appears in the foreground of a visual interface, like a website, to promote a service, product, or brand.

There are a variety of benefits to outbound marketing. It promotes brand awareness to a wider audience than inbound marketing, meaning more people will hear about your products and services. It can also yield immediate results, and it is something most consumers are already used to, so they may be more likely to trust it.

Outbound marketing can also have certain challenges, such as being too generalized for a wide audience and being easy to tune out for most consumers. It’s also very difficult to measure the ROI of an outbound campaign, and it can be extremely costly to execute. However, for many B2C brands, this type of marketing can be extremely effective.

Inbound vs. Outbound FAQ

1. What are inbound and outbound marketing?

   Outbound marketing includes strategies like radio and television advertising, billboards, cold calling and emailing, and display ads, whereas inbound marketing includes content marketing like blogs, whitepapers, and native advertising.

2. Is outbound or inbound marketing better?

   Outbound marketing is a better short-term marketing strategy with higher long-term costs, whereas inbound marketing is a better long-term marketing strategy with lower overall costs. Outbound marketing is typically better for B2C organizations, whereas inbound is better for B2B organizations.

3. How can you track the ROI of outbound marketing?

   Unfortunately, it’s difficult to track the ROI of outbound marketing because of how broad of a strategy it is. However, in today’s digital age, you can often track the success of things like pop-up advertisements or digital banners so as to try and calculate the overall ROI.

Author

Caitlin Mazur

Caitlin Mazur is a freelance writer at Zippia. Caitlin is passionate about helping Zippia’s readers land the jobs of their dreams by offering content that discusses job-seeking advice based on experience and extensive research. Caitlin holds a degree in English from Saint Joseph’s University in Philadelphia, PA.