Marketing is the heart and soul of a business. It gets you customers which keeps a business going. There are two basic types of marketing. These are,

1. Outbound marketing
2. Inbound marketing

Let’s understand a bit about them to move forward with our main points.

What is outbound marketing?

Outbound marketing means targeting an ample number of people at once. There are many ways to do that. Outbound marketing examples are social media ads, tv ads, PPC, and mass emails. It is not necessary that everyone will engage and buy your products but it is a way to let them know about you. You can label it as a quantity marketing tactic.

What is inbound marketing?

In contrast, inbound marketing tactics involve only those people which have shown interest in your business. The primary focus of inbound marketing is to create mind-blowing content. The content involves blogs and articles. You can label it as a quality marketing strategy.

5 things to keep in mind while considering inbound vs outbound marketing

Both types of marketing are necessary. Nevertheless, one has to be more beneficial than the other. Let’s explore these 5 things and then, you can decide for yourself.

Does the audience receive your messages?

Outbound marketing generally focuses on reaching a maximum number of people through ads, email marketing, and text messages. However, how much impact does it have on your audience? These emails mostly go to the junk and spam folders. Some people don’t even bother looking at it. People delete these text messages simply because they are uninterested. 

On the other hand, inbound marketing companies have a better success rate in reaching the audience because the audience seeks the content itself. Moreover, inbound marketing consists of transparency. You have to engage with your customers and be honest.

Which is more costly?

The cost of mass distribution and mass promotion is much more comparatively. Still, after all this investment, the results aren’t satisfactory. During a recent survey by HubSpot, they found that inbound marketing leads cost 60% less than outbound marketing.

This is logically true because if you invest in the interested leads, you will get 100% results. Therefore, inbound marketing is more cost-effective and beneficial.

Where do you stand?

With outbound marketing, you are always searching for ways to get attention. You do not have the upper hand here. Moreover, the competition is so tough that people won’t even notice you if you don’t stand out. These methods are so old school now. You don’t mean anything to your audience.

In contrast, inbound marketing revolves around creating great content for the audience. The audience feels a sense of belonging to your website and they keep coming for more. Many people get excited if you are about to launch something new. Such passion can move other people as well.

Which strategy is better?

Outbound marketing strategy is very straightforward. If you target tv ads, only people who watch the tv will be able to see them. You only give away the same message on every platform and your job is done. It is boring.

Inbound marketing strategy is generalized. It covers many platforms at once. Let’s suppose, you started a campaign on social media, now you will have many options like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn. This is a chance to get creative on each platform. You can do a giveaway to engage more of the audience. The people love it. They will come to you themselves.

Whose content is superior?

The content differs for both marketing types. The outbound marketing content is based on catchy phrases that make your customer want to buy your products. The content is concise. 

On the other hand, inbound marketing content is very insightful. The content includes blogs and articles. People carefully search for keywords that increase their chances of visibility. Moreover, links and photos to another website make your content more attractive and catchier. Apart from this, the content itself is educational therefore, people like it.

Summary: 

After considering different aspects, inbound marketing certainly surpasses outbound. Many businesses are focusing on inbound marketing yet they haven’t completely stopped using the outbound one. So, a mixture of both marketing is suitable for your business. However, in my opinion, people will focus mainly on inbound marketing shortly.