Marketing teams in all companies and firms try to use both inbound and outbound digital marketing techniques to promote their products or services. Though both are vastly different in process and results, when both are used properly, companies can surely see good results over a period of time.
Inbound Marketing:
Hubspot defines inbound marketing as,” Inbound marketing focuses on creating quality content that pulls people toward your company and product, where they naturally want to be. By aligning the content you publish with your customer’s interests, you naturally attract inbound traffic that you can then convert, close, and delight over time.” It is also defined as a new marketing method.
As the definition clearly explains, inbound marketing is used to create an environment where the customer reaches out to the company through various means. One method is through content lead generation. Good and relevant content published on various popular sites or company blog. If the visitor is happy and satisfied with the information provided in the write up, they could click on the link to come to the website. As the prospective customer makes the visit due to personal interest, the chances of conversion are relatively higher.
Outbound Marketing:
Opposite to inbound marketing, outbound techniques try to reach out to the prospective customer through various means. This traditional marketing technique has been employed by many companies over the years, even before the rise of the digital media. Media ads, television advertisements, cold calls by trained sales executives, email marketing, and in-person contact are some of the commonly used methods of outbound marketing. In this method, the company looks for means to reach out to the prospective customer and convince them about the product or services.
With increasing digitization, marketing teams prefer to employ inbound marketing techniques rather than outbound methods. The evolution of the social media platforms and increased awareness of customers are two reasons that have spurred the use of inbound marketing techniques. In order to reach out to a wider audience and make a stand in the competitive marketing, companies should use a combination of both inbound and outbound digital marketing techniques.