An average person is exposed to about 6,000-10,000 advertisements per day on average, including browsing the internet and using various apps, including TV commercials, radio, newspaper ads, and ads across the web and social media. At any given moment, there is immense competition for the attention of your potential customers.
The fact that the level of competition and the number of competitors are constantly increasing makes business owners raise valid questions like: “How can I reach the exact people who need my product?” and “What message should I deliver to them to make them buy?”. Business owners usually choose between 2 different marketing methods: Inbound Marketing, which appeals to a more targeted audience, and Outbound Marketing, which is more reminiscent of traditional marketing of the past on TV and radio. Let’s dive deep into these methods.
What is Outbound Marketing?
Outbound Marketing has no precise translation into Hebrew; the best Hebrew translation in my opinion is wide-reach advertising. It is called this because Outbound Marketing is a marketing tactic that delivers marketing messages to a large audience without specific segmentation through non-targeted advertising channels such as: commercials on radio and TV, newspaper ads, cold calling, mass mailing, and more. This method focuses on presenting the product and its benefits, and usually, most of the audience does not even know or look for the advertised product. This method is somewhat reminiscent of door-to-door sales of the past.
Main Problems with Outbound Marketing
One of the main problems in traditional marketing is that in order to fit a large number of people, the marketing message must be very general. In other words, in Outbound Marketing you won’t be able to deliver a relevant message to a specific target audience, but only a general message. Below is an additional list of problems with this marketing method:
- With the growing number of streaming services, TV commercials can easily be skipped and their impact is much lower than in the past; a high percentage of viewers are not exposed to the advertisement and the marketing message. Personally, I prefer not to watch a live show and wait half an hour to an hour so I can watch continuously without commercials.
- Today, there are about 777 million Spotify users. This means that the number of people listening to the radio is significantly smaller than in past years, and therefore the percentage of those exposed to radio commercials is also smaller.
- Most marketing emails arrive in the “Promotions” tab or, in the worst case, in the “Spam” folder, making untargeted mass mailing ineffective.
Pushing messages aggressively is a less effective method because the audience you are advertising to has the ability to avoid receiving your messages. To work optimally with Outbound Marketing, marketers should ask themselves: how to reach customers who are looking for the product and how to turn potential customers into paying customers.
What is Inbound Marketing?
More targeted marketing works like a magnet – instead of sending general messages to an audience that is not necessarily interested, Inbound Marketing allows you to attract potential customers and those looking for the service online. When they arrive at your website, they are exposed to information and guidance precisely tailored to what they were searching for on Google.
The core of Inbound Marketing is the use of content. Content can be blog posts, videos, infographics, guides, eBooks, and more. To execute Inbound Marketing correctly, marketers tailor content to specific points in the customer journey.
- At first, potential buyers look for possible solutions to their problem.
- In the middle, they compare several solutions they found during their search.
- At the end of the journey, they make a decision based on the most relevant content to solve their problem that they were exposed to.
There are many types of content that are excellently suited to each of the stages in the customer’s journey. By properly presenting the content, you promote your product or service in an effective way that explains to the potential customer how you can solve their problem in the best possible way.
Key Differences Between Inbound Marketing and Outbound Marketing
Many marketing professionals are still divided over which of the methods is more effective and whether in Outbound Marketing we can really measure the results of our investment or at least a certain impact generated by the advertising. And most importantly, how to combine both methods in an optimal way. Let’s start by understanding the differences between the marketing methods.
Outbound Marketing
- Displaying untargeted ads
- Promotional content
- Exposure to a maximum number of people
- Where can this type of marketing be seen: TV, billboards, magazines, telemarketing.
Inbound Marketing
- Its goal is to attract readers and turn them into product prospects
- Content marketing and value for web users
- Use of non-aggressive marketing techniques
- Where can this type of marketing be seen: Websites, blogs, social media posts, content delivered via email.
Why is Outbound Marketing Still Effective?
Outbound Marketing VS Inbound Marketing – Which is right for your business?
The comparison between these 2 marketing methods is reminiscent of the comparison between paid promotion and organic promotion. In general, paid promotion is a kind of derivative of traditional Outbound Marketing. There are advertising platforms where precise segmentation and targeting can be performed for the desired customer audience, but there are also campaigns aimed at achieving as much reach as possible, just like in traditional marketing (Google Display Network campaigns, banners on large websites, reach campaigns on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and more).
Just as you can’t choose between paid promotion and organic promotion, with Outbound Marketing and Inbound Marketing it is also better to combine the 2 methods. It is important to understand that Inbound Marketing is a long-term investment and content strategy; this marketing method will not pay for itself initially, so you will need to work prudently with your budget. Those who expect quick results from this method will be disappointed, but those who are patient and build properly will reap the rewards.
Summary
Ultimately, Outbound Marketing and Inbound Marketing have different goals. As marketers, you need to decide which marketing channel you choose to invest your budget in and how much of it you will invest in each method. The best recommendation is to combine them. Outbound Marketing will give you results and conversions immediately, while Inbound Marketing is building a solid foundation for the business’s future.
About the Author
Dvir Naaman, 26 years old, an entrepreneur at heart, loves e-commerce websites, and specializes in SEO.
