Success in the current marketing environment demand shifting from traditional tactics to modern methods that not only guarantee transformation but also build communities around your brand. Traditional methods are more expensive, difficult to implement and do not guarantee results for your brand. To get a clearer picture of this, it is important to look at the two main methods of marketing; inbound and outbound models. Here is a comparative review of the two that will make you understand why you need to redefine the marketing efforts if still applying outbound strategies.
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What is Outbound Marketing?
Outbound marketing/interruptive marketing is the traditional marketing model that entails taking your brand message to the largest number of people using methods like cold calling, advertising, and direct mails. This method demands that a lot of messages are passed to the people using different channels and then hoping the right client gets it.
Outbound marketing is getting less effective today because of two major reasons. First, because of the large number of advertisements and their interruptive nature, many people end up blocking them using spam filters and caller IDs. Second, the cost of running outbound marketing is very high. Running ads on television, radios, billboards, and other interruptive techniques are very costly.
What is inbound marketing?
Inbound marketing can be referred as the opposite of outbound marketing. It entails using all the marketing efforts and platforms to have the customer come to you as opposed to struggling to win his/her attention. Here, you get content about your products and share it so that clients can read, and come to seek more and buy. With inbound marketing, it is not simply about selling an item and making optimal profits, but networking and creating communities so that brand loyalty, sales, and ROI are elevated and sustained.
Price comparison between inbound and outbound marketing strategies
The cost that firms and businesses incur on outbound/traditional marketing is very high. This is because the message has to be spread using all available interruptive methods to try and reach the right client. Therefore, businesses have to spend a lot of money on television ads, newspapers, radio, and other platforms to send their messages. Because of the high cost of advertising, outbound marketing is mostly dominated by top companies. Smaller and medium enterprises are easily locked out because they cannot afford the charges. Even when they are able to do their ads, they are showcased in the hidden pages of newspapers or aired late at night when very few people are on television.
Unlike outbound marketing, inbound marketing costs are very limited. All that marketers require is the right skills to reach as many target clients as possible. For instance, businesses and individuals can get their blogs and websites to showcase their products and reach the targeted clients more effectively. Besides, you can also showcase your products on social media and redirect all the traffic to the company page at no extra cost. Because of the low capital requirements, every business whether small or big can optimize sales and profitability using inbound marketing.
Communication in outbound versus inbound marketing
When marketers work tirelessly to make clients buy their services or products, success and profit sustainability can only be possible if there is good communication. In outbound marketing, the communication is one way; from the marketer to the audience. This makes the model very ineffective because there it is not possible to tell whether the target audience got the message and the reaction.
Inbound marketing is a two-way method of communication that allows the market to remain in touch with the audience and clients. Here, the relationship shifts from being a simple seller-buyer model to a mutual relationship. Marketers use social media, blogs, websites, and emails so that clients can always prompt the seller to discuss an item, give feedback, or even make orders.
Products and company information in inbound versus outbound marketing
Outbound marketing is greatly limited on information that a marketer can release to the target audience. Adverts on television or newspapers only have a few phrases or sentences that cannot incorporate important aspects of a brand or even respective companies. Therefore, it is very difficult for the audience to know more about the item, compare with others, or even make the right decision.
Inbound marketing is driven by a focus on giving users enough information and demonstrating why one item is superior to another. Every item is posted with full descriptions, professional reviews, and clients feedbacks so that clients are sure beyond reasonable doubt that they are getting the right thing. In many instances, outbound marketing campaigns come with full-time support for clients to turn to for extra information and assistance.
Response from clients in Inbound versus Outbound Marketing
The reaction by a target client when he/she first sees your message will determine the success or failure of a marketing effort. In outbound marketing, the audience considers the messages that suddenly pop up intrusive. The first thing is activating blockers so that they do not disturb you when reading through an important report or breaking news. Even if a lot of money was used to put up a billboard, many are the people who will note something new but not take a moment to stop and read through.
For marketers who use inbound marketing, the focus is specific client base such as social media groups. This makes the item or service being marketed relevant and, therefore, of great interest. Besides, because the audience comes to you, they go straight to the service of interest or related content for more info. You can, therefore, anticipate getting all the content read and shared on diverse platforms.
Conclusion
To succeed in making higher sales and sustaining profitability, a marketer must feature into inbound marketing. The opportunities to market services and products are very many and do not cost a lot of money. Think of utilizing articles, infographics, blogposts, whitepapers, and social media to reach clients and convert followers to buyers.
