Variations and Advantages For eLearning
Inbound vs. Outbound Marketing: Finding the Right Balance
Inbound and outbound marketing describe two fundamentally different approaches. If you take a closer look at the key differences between inbound and outbound marketing, you can understand how the marketing world is shifting from one strategy to the next. But first things first, let’s see what each marketing approach is.
What is inbound marketing?
In short, the main goal of inbound marketing is to attract readers based on their interests and search intentions. Such a technique usually focuses on content marketing. By writing and sharing valuable content, inbound marketing professionals meet consumer needs. The good thing about inbound marketing is that you have the opportunity to interact with your readers, either through comments or even through email communications when they get back to you.
A masterful content marketing campaign will manage to turn viewers into leads while continuing to consume helpful content. You can use an inbound marketing strategy on websites, blogs, eBooks, webinars, opt-in emails, SERPs, and social media.
What is outbound marketing?
On the other hand, outbound marketing is written to sell products. It is a one-way communication that in most cases disrupts the content being consumed. Outbound marketing is effective when you have some basic knowledge of your target audience. Then you create programs that educate specific prospects in a meaningful way about your products and services.
You can usually do outbound marketing using the more traditional methods like email marketing, direct mail, telemarketing, and events. If you’re looking for other examples of outbound marketing, think of online pop-up banner ads, TV ads, billboards, and magazines.
Inbound vs. Outbound Marketing – Which Is More Effective?
Answer a few simple questions and find the best marketing solution to promote your business, even on a tight budget.
Key differences between inbound and outbound marketing
Everything ready? Now we can analyze the key differences and determine when one strategy is better than the other. Continue reading.
1. Subtle vs. Forced
A key difference between inbound and outbound marketing is that inbound is a subtle, not-as-selling method of attracting prospects. This is how users interact with relevant content until they become customers and brand ambassadors. Remember, it’s about trust and showing your giving nature. Such content focuses on attracting people who go in search of what they need: the seekers of knowledge.
In fact, they’re not just looking for information; These guys need solutions to their problems. So what do intelligent inbound marketers do? You provide them with the right information to attract and drag them into their sales funnels. We do this, for example, in the form of content marketing, SEO and social media. In this way, users come to us via trustworthy channels (such as LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter), our newsletter or by finding our content via search engines.
However, outbound marketing is more aggressive as it interrupts potential customers to get their attention. For example, when you watch your favorite TV show or listen to a radio show, you will see several ads. We have learned to expect regular interruptions. However, when people have the option to skip, they switch stations.
Of course, there are times when conversions happen if the interrupting ad is shown at the right time. Repetition is the trick here. And with a compelling CTA, you can get great results. For example, if you scroll through your social media feeds, you will receive commercial breaks on a regular basis without asking for them. Sometimes you can skip them. But sometimes you click your way through because the ad caught your attention. The same goes for pop-up banner advertisements.
2. Press Vs. Pull
Another important difference is that inbound marketing helps you get discovered by your ideal customers. That is, they take the action in finding solutions and land on the helpful content you created. So, by letting them consume this content, you have managed to successfully get them to discover your business.
To reach the right buyers, this strategy requires creating content that answers questions from your buyer personalities. So you need to address topics or inquiries that potential customers are already looking for. In our experience, the best way to achieve this is to do a thorough keyword research or even search community forums and find out what’s trending.
Outbound marketing works very differently. In this case, you are developing content with the assumption that it will attract the attention of your potential customers. However, since they didn’t search for it or ask for it, you need to distribute your assets through advertising to reach your audience. Unfortunately, sometimes such a strategy can be effective but others may not – at least not without focusing on what interests your ideal buyer. Giving them what they crave is paramount.
3. Generic vs. Specific
An outbound marketing campaign via media such as billboards, print ads, TV or radio is more general in essence. This happens because anyone can walk past a street with a billboard or watch a TV show. So, in order to reach a significant fraction of those interested in an ad, marketers create more general outbound campaigns, or at least try to target a larger audience.
Conversely, when implementing an inbound marketing approach, you can be more specific about who to turn to. Also, the core principle of an inbound strategy is to create educational (or even entertaining) content that addresses the problem of a particular audience.
As a result, inbound marketers deal with more diverse audiences. When planning your inbound marketing campaigns, you can include blogs, newsletters, and social media posts to get your message across to your ideal buyers. Additionally, by using SEO techniques, you can optimize your targeted query efforts. That is, you create strategies that target a defined audience.
For example, you can write a specific content article aimed at educational designers who want to develop micro-learning courses. Or, you may need to recruit training managers who have a remote working policy and need an easy way to train their remote workers. In both examples, your content explicitly solves the specific problems of your ideal buyers. So the key to success in inbound marketing is knowing your buyer personas, understanding their weak points and providing them with solutions!
Now that you know the key differences between inbound and outbound marketing, how do you choose the best for your business? Again, the most important thing is how well you execute each marketing strategy. With that in mind, let’s see when it is preferable to use one approach over another.
When should e-learning marketers use inbound and outbound marketing?
Do e-learning marketers have to choose between the two, or can you use both options and take advantage of each?
First things first, if you’ve recently launched a new product, or your business is brand new, or it makes perfect sense to use outbound marketing, you may want to use TV, billboards, and other solutions to help build brand awareness. By taking every opportunity you have depending on your budget, one of the top priorities is to get your brand out there. Finally, you can also reach the right buyers with targeted ads. Most of the time there are users scrolling Facebook or LinkedIn or watching a YouTube video who are intrigued to click your ad. Or maybe after seeing your ad, they’ll search for you on Google.
When it comes to inbound marketing, it will take time for your content efforts to bear fruit. The same thing happens when you build a sizeable social media following and add to your email list. And if you’re trying to get good Google rankings with your content, don’t expect it to take effect in just 2-3 months. But with the help of a good SEO strategy, you can make it easier and reach your ideal buyers.
In fact, SEO, keyword research, and Google Analytics can help you identify the interests of your potential customers. You can then develop a proactive outbound marketing strategy based on your online behavior and data touchpoints. Most importantly, it should match the search intent of your target audience.
Why you need both
So if you have the budget and want to get the buzz right away, outbound marketing can produce quick results in the short term. However, once you stop paying, the results will fade.
Inbound marketing may not get you immediate results, but it’s great value for money in the long run. Why? Well, inbound marketing is 62% cheaper compared to outbound methods. And once it’s up and running, you can get evergreen organic traffic. That means you have the ability to keep attracting visitors, leads, and customers.
Conclusion
The differences between inbound and outbound marketing are obvious. However, the lines between the two are often blurred. For example, you can implement an inbound marketing program as the first step in a long-term marketing campaign, mainly to collect lead data.
Then you may want to use an outbound strategy to nurture and train these prospects. That said, your ultimate goal is to use all of your efforts to influence their purchase decision.
By combining inbound and outbound, savvy marketers succeed in creating a sustainable program that can generate a continuous stream of sales opportunities over the long term. So if you are looking for success in your B2B lead generation, you should use both inbound and outbound marketing techniques and create the right mix.
On the one hand, inbound marketing is necessary to generate new leads and replenish your sales pipeline. On the flip side, outbound marketing helps you track your existing prospects and guide them through the buying cycle.
Only by combining both practices can you build an effective lead generation engine that can fill your sales pipeline.
