One of the big goals of a business is to attract customers to boost the business’s sales. In order to do that, they must know which marketing activities they should employ to maximize their money & resources.
Marketing activities fall under 2 main categories: outbound marketing or inbound marketing. This post may help you understand better and select the best one for your business.
Outbound Marketing
Outbound marketing refers to all traditional marketing activities that you’ve used or seen since you were little, such as radio, TV, newspapers, magazines, direct mail, billboards, event sponsorships, etc.
A simple way to explain outbound marketing is that activities under this category all try to push products or services on customers.
All your marketing messages will be pushed out through various channels when you utilize outbound marketing activities.
Many successful marketers are breaking away from outbound marketing for a number of reasons.
Firstly, outbound marketing activities only offer one-way communication, which equals low potential & a less effective lead generation process.
Moreover, since you have to push out your marketing messages through various channels, the costs can be enormous & overwhelming, especially for a small business.
Outbound marketing is only focused on putting the message out there – therefore it usually provides little added value, education or entertainment to the customers.
Inbound Marketing
In contrast to outbound marketing that focus on going out in the marketplace with big bold messages to attract attention, inbound marketing is all about getting found by the customer and earning the attention through interesting content.
Inbound marketing promotes a business differently at each stage of the buyers purchase process, using content marketing like blogs, podcasts, videos, eBooks, or by utilising SEO and social media marketing, (noting that these are only a part of the total strategy).
Marketers these days prefer inbound marketing activities more than outbound.
For one thing, inbound marketing makes it easier for the business to be found by prospects, which can lead to higher conversion rates. This is because when the potential customers are actively searching for your business, whatever marketing messages your business sends out will be more effective as you already have their attention through prior contacts.
When you’re using inbound marketing, customers can come to the business from many sources: search engines, social media, referrals, etc.
Unlike outbound marketing that offers little interactions with the consumers, inbound marketing provides interactive & 2-way communication between the business & the buyer.
And inbound marketing costs so much less than traditional outbound marketing, which means the business can receive a higher ROI & revenues.
What To Do Now?
Marketing is changing fast to keep up with the rapid expansion & revolution of the Internet.
The ways in which your customers find, buy, sell, and interact with brands have changed drastically, and if your business does not update the way you do marketing, poor results are inevitable.
Inbound marketing is the way of the future, and you had better get onto it right now!
If you need help with inbound marketing activities for your business, contact Hotpink Websites now for new ideas & dedicated support.
Leave a Reply