Marketing is an essential practice for every business. Read on to learn which marketing initiative is more effective - inbound or outbound marketing.

Different businesses have various tactics for marketing their brand. Whether it's through cold calling or search engine optimization (SEO), every business has its own way of marketing their products and services.

However, are these methods effective? Do these methods yield productive results, and are you seeing tangible growth combined with a high return on your investment? Unfortunately, many businesses across the world can’t answer these important questions with even a modicum of certainty.

Although marketing is a custom strategy, there are two common marketing initiatives that many businesses use today, which are inbound and outbound marketing.

In this article, you will learn the difference between these two concepts and understand the more effective marketing initiative you can use to increase your leads and augment your sales.

What is Outbound Marketing?

Outbound marketing refers to any activity in which a company initiates a conversation with a prospect. Particularly, outbound marketing is solely based on the concept that a business must reach out to a prospect to directly market their products and services.

By definition, outbound marketing strongly differs from traditional marketing tactics. Instead of funneling prospects through advertising and designated marketing channels (social media, internet, etc), businesses who utilize outbound marketing rely on their prospects to accept their cold sales pitch.

Examples of outbound marketing include:

Cold Calling
TV Commercials
Email Spam
Print Advertisements

Overall, outbound marketing is an attempt for a business to send a direct message to their prospects. The success in this strategy solely relies on if that prospect will be willing to listen and commit to that message.

What is Inbound Marketing?

Unlike outbound marketing, inbound marketing is based on the concept that your customers will find you when they need you.

Paid search marketing, SEO, content marketing, and opt-in email marketing are all examples of inbound marketing because customers can use all of the following to find a prospective business when they’re ready to purchase - not the other way around.

Which Marketing Initiative is Better?

Quick!

Which marketing initiative do businesses typically spend more money on? Shockingly, the answer is outbound marketing. The reason the word “shockingly” was used in the previous sentence is that inbound marketing produces more lucrative and long-term results than outbound marketing.

Yet, according to WordStream, organizations spend as much as 90% of their marketing budget on outbound marketing. You may be wondering “why do so many businesses throw their money at outbound marketing techniques if they’re not working?”

Your guess is just as good as ours, but there are several reasons why you shouldn’t increase your outbound marketing budget any time soon.

Low ROI: It can be difficult to track the success of an outbound marketing initiative, so many businesses end up being blindsided with the amount of money they’re getting back from their campaigns.
Too Many Obstacles: Consumers don’t like spam. Technology such as a do-not-call list, email spam filters, and even Netflix can prevent you from sending your message directly to a prospect.
Not Worth It: From an elementary standpoint, you can’t possibly spend thousands of dollars on TV commercials and print ads and receive low yield. It’s not practical and it’s a waste of time and money.

As you can see, outbound marketing is not an ideal marketing strategy if you’re serious about seeing every spent dollar of your marketing budget return to your business.

Accordingly, here are the benefits of delegating your budget to an entirely inbound marketing strategy.

Higher Conversion Rates: Since your prospects will come to you when they’re ready to buy, they’ll be much more likely to close a purchase.
Peace of Mind: You’ll never have to worry about getting your email or call blocked by a prospect. When an interested prospect wants to learn more about what you’re offering, you’ll be the first to know.
Increased ROI: Inbound marketing success is easy to track because you’ll be instantly aware once a prospect calls you or signs up for your email list. This will allow you to nurture your leads effective and achieve an increased ROI.

To answer the question of this section, inbound marketing is the better marketing initiative. If you’re ready to commit your marketing dollars to develop a sound inbound marketing plan, then keep reading to access some effective inbound marketing tips.

What are Some Effective Inbound Marketing Tips?

If you are attempting to delve into the world of inbound marketing success, you’ll likely need some help from a professional (we’ll get to that further below). Nonetheless, inbound marketing isn’t a challenging activity.

To provide you with a great idea of how you can start getting more leads and increased revenue from your marketing campaigns, here are 10 simple tips you can start putting to action right now!

Write an eBook to establish your business as an industry expert.
Utilize effective SEO strategies to improve your online visibility.
Target specific consumer locations using PPC ads.
Give away a free item in exchange for a prospect’s email address.
Answer your prospects’ “pain points” or FAQs on your landing page.
Focus your content on what questions consumers are asking and not solely on keywords.
Offer a free online course to create personalized experiences.
Invest in developing extensive buyer personas
Partner with influencers with the same audience as you.
Participate in online communities such as forums, non-competing blogs, and even YouTube.

Clearly, inbound marketing isn’t very hard to do. However, to receive tangible growth from your strategy, it would be wise to partner with a professional marketing company.

Since you’re already interested in utilizing inbound marketing for your business’ success, give us a call today at 1-877-FIREDRM (1-877-347-3376) or click here to speak with us right now about how we can take your sales from the basement to the roof.

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Scottsdale Phoenix Marketing is a digital marketing agency and web design firm specializing in a variety online marketing channels. Since our founding in 1999, it has been our goal to help all business run more efficiently and effectively online. Combined, our team of designers, developers, and marketing experts have over 40 years of experience and an ever growing drive for success.