Today's consumer is much more informed and knowledgeable about the products and the brands that he/she would like to opt for. Therefore, as a brand, one has to be seen in the right places at the right time in order to be registered in an optimistic way in the minds of the consumers. This makes the brand, embrace different modes in order to have a holistic approach towards marketing. New avenues of marketing have cropped up in the recent past and the popularity of social media has revolutionized the way marketing gurus used to look at the concept of marketing in yester years. The field is much more dynamic and the end user or consumer is the driving force now. It is this demand of customer centricity that has given birth to different methods of marketing which are prevalent today. Inbound and outbound are two ways of marketing which ensures that a brand propagates its products and services to the customers.
What Is An Inbound Marketing?
Inbound marketing is a recent phenomenon and is popularly known as the method where brands help themselves to be spotted by customers through paid and search engine marketing efforts. This type encompasses the promotion of a company through blogs, podcasts, e-newsletters, whitepapers, SEO, social media marketing, videos, e-books and other forms of content marketing, which proves worthwhile in bringing the customers nearer to the brand.
What Is An Outbound Marketing?
Contrary to the methods of inbound marketing, the activity of cold calling, attending seminars and trade shows, radio and television commercials, print advertisements, sales flyers, spamming, telemarketing and other means of traditional marketing are in the gamut of outbound marketing. In a nutshell, it can be defined as a traditional form of marketing in which company broadcasts its message to a target audience.
Benefits Of Inbound And Outbound Marketing
The key benefits of inbound marketing are:
- The increased probability of converting website visitors to leads
- It provides opportunity to convert customers into repeat high margin customers
- It is cost effective compared to outbound
- Customers come to the brand via inbound marketing rather than the brand having to reach out to the customers
- The marketers can educate their customers through inbound
- Easier to track and the ROI can be established effectively
The key benefits of outbound marketing are:
- It provides an opportunity for mass appeal
- Outbound marketing has a greater probability of lead generation as in this case one can humanize the approach for the prospects
- Helps in building a brand story
Conclusion
Marketing can be used as an effective tool for lead generation. Both inbound and outbound marketing can serve the purpose of lead generation. The organizations allocate 90% of their marketing spend on outbound marketing and only 10% is allotted to inbound marketing. This ratio has to change in the near future as the consumers today have migrated to the world of internet rather than being present on traditional channels.