Inbound and Outbound Marketing: The Advantages and Challenges of Both

According to Neil Patel, “the difference between outbound and inbound marketing boils down to getting your business in front of two different groups of people. That is, those who go out of their way to find your product or service when they need it; or, those who you must go out of your way to bring your business to their attention.”

There are a number of key differences between inbound and outbound marketing. Each strategy offers benefits and presents challenges. The FineView Marketing team has the expertise to implement each type of marketing, moving your company in the right direction to attract customers and convert leads.

The best way to define the differences is to begin with a clear explanation of each type of marketing tactic.

Inbound vs. Outbound Marketing

Inbound marketing is the more subtle strategy of the two. It is centered on the creation and distribution of content that attracts people to your website. Relevant content that answers questions, provides helpful information and offers solutions, will engage prospects in a way that is “non-promotional” and not forced. Examples of using inbound marketing include, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), content marketing, and email marketing.

Outbound marketing, on the other hand, is a more aggressive approach. It uses marketing tactics to get your message in front of a broad audience who are not necessarily looking for your product or service. Outbound marketing examples include paid ads, TV ads, radio ads, trade shows, print media, cold calling, and cold emails.

These approaches may differ, but they both work.

Inbound Marketing Advantages and Challenges

Keep in mind that with inbound marketing your prospects should receive relevant, thoughtful content at each stage of their buying journey.

Let’s imagine that a customer is searching for RV storage in a convenient area. Initially, this person may type “enclosed RV storage ‘LOCATION’ ” into their search engine. The first organic result may be a blog explaining how to prepare an RV for self storage. After reading this blog post, he might want to look at prices and sizes of parking spaces for RVs.

There is a convenient link in the blog leading to the desired information. The customer clicks the link, finds the information they want and, because the location and pricing are a good fit, proceeds to complete the contact page. The storage manager will contact the prospect, who is already interested in the service. Even if the consumer continues to check other facility prices and sizes, this process provides the manager with an easier sell.

Advantages of Inbound Marketing

• Inbound marketing is non-invasive. Prospects can read your blog or attend a webinar at their convenience.
• Inbound marketing is educational. It’s specifically designed to be informative and engaging for each stage of the sales funnel.
• Inbound marketing is quantifiable. Each part of your strategy can be aligned with a metric that can be monitored over time.
• Websites and content are continuously being updated to attract qualified leads.

Challenges of Inbound Marketing

• Inbound marketing requires a holistic approach, meaning that you’ll have to buy tools to help implement the right campaigns.
• Consumer wants and needs are constantly changing. To ensure that consumers are attracted to your content, inbound marketing needs regular maintenance.
• Inbound marketers spend a lot of time creating and testing unique content that will entice prospects to convert.

Outbound Marketing Advantages and Challenges

Outbound marketing is proactively designed to capture consumer’s attention. Outbound marketing is typically associated with traditional marketing tactics like direct mail, cold calling, and billboards. However, it can also be applied to today’s technology in the way of pay-per-click ads and spam emails.

Outbound marketing has additionally been dubbed “interruption” marketing. For instance, a customer may be scrolling through a website and be interrupted by an ad listing the reasons that one might need a self storage unit. He or she might think about a cluttered garage, and how convenient it would be to actually keep a car in that space. A few weeks later, while watching a basketball game, the consumer notices a scrolling self storage ad. Again, the cluttered garage comes to mind for a few seconds but is forgotten in the excitement of the game.

A month goes by and this consumer discovers a self storage brochure in their mailbox. Winter is approaching and a clean garage would make life so much easier. The prospect decided to check the website and immediately rented a unit online. A self storage unit was not at the top of his mind, but repeatedly seeing attention-grabbing ads for a wanted service sealed the deal.

Advantages of Outbound Marketing

• Outbound marketing promotes brand awareness by attracting consumers who may not have heard of your products and services.
• Outbound marketing can encourage people interested in your products and services to make a purchase immediately.
• A number of consumers are familiar with outbound marketing and trust those ads above those presented on newer technology.

Challenges of Outbound Marketing

• Outbound marketing is not personalized because it has to be appealing and relevant to everyone.
• Consumers can easily tune out this type of marketing by discarding junk mail, muting TV commercials, and deleting cold emails.
• Traveling to trade shows and paying for billboards, mailings, and banner ads can be costly.
• It can be difficult to measure the effectiveness of some of these strategies.

Final Thoughts
Inbound marketing is best if you’re looking for a targeted approach. On the contrary, outbound marketing is about sending a message at scale and can be expensive. FineView Marketing has the expertise to guide you in creating a customized marketing strategy that will make your company stand above the “noise.” They are backed by both marketing and operations experience and have the knowledge to unlock your company’s potential.