Most marketers often use outbound marketing to generate their leads and fill their sales funnel. However, recently more and more marketers have begun to embrace the strategic art of inbound marketing. It’s important to understand the components that make up each methodology. This will allow you to understand how to usefully administrate the right one to grow a relationship with the customer. Let’s take a closer look at inbound and outbound marketing!
What is Inbound Marketing?
Inbound marketing is a method of building a meaningful relationship with your customers. This is when the customer comes to the firm for guidance in their buying process. Some examples of inbound marketing are content marketing, SEO and opt-in marketing. This concept provokes the customer to set goals for themselves while also giving them the satisfaction of obtaining the goal which will build a stronger relationship with the firm and client. The firm will gain an understanding of the mindset of the buyers through this process and then use this to keep pushing them along in the sales process.
It’s important to develop content that is appreciated by the customers. If you tailor the buying experience and the customer does not like it, they will be more likely to spread the word faster. Studies have shown that the average American tells nine people about experiencing good service. However, when they experience bad service, they will tell 16 people. Bad experiences travel faster than good experiences, so understanding the right approach to your customers is crucial to building a long-lasting relationship.
Three ways to Apply Inbound Marketing
The inbound marketing method can be applied through these three steps:
- Attract
- Charm the customer with valuable content that draws them in. Guiding them through the material will establish the firm as a trusted advisor while allowing them to engage with the firm more.
- Engage
- Giving insight and solutions to the points of contention will make them come to you for the purchase.
- Getting to understand the reasons for buying or obtaining a service will give a firm more accurate data to give insight to the customer rather than guessing their needs.
- Delight
- Helping the customer through the buying process will empower them. Giving the customer more information will make them more confident in their decision and also give them more satisfaction when they buy it.
What is Outbound Marketing?
Outbound marketing is any type of marketing that the company initiates with its customers. Some examples of outbound marketing are cold calls, TV ads, radio ads and print out advertisements. Even though this seems like an outdated method to connect with customers, companies still spend 90% of their marketing budget on outbound marketing.
Although this is a more traditional form of marketing, it doesn’t get through to the consumer in this day and age. The market is so flooded with this style of marketing that the average consumer is numb to it. The average person is exposed to 2,000 outbound marketing interruptions throughout the day, so being creative and unique is crucial to catching the eye of the customer.
Problems with Outbound Marketing
The problems that outbound marketing has with firms are as follows:
- Difficulty tracking return on investment
- It’s difficult to track the number of people that this method of marketing reaches because there is no way to measure who has seen the advertisement.
- Increase in blocking techniques
- People are more likely to use things like “do not call” lists, SPAM blockers and even Tivo. People are not able to come in contact with the advertisements on platforms that were more responsive in recent years.
- High cost, low yield
- The amount of production and money that goes into producing things like radio ads and TV commercials is very high. In many cases, the advertisement doesn’t even make the money back for the company.
Moving Forward with Inbound and Outbound Marketing
In this day and age, it’s important to study the behavior of the consumer. If you’re trying to reach a specific target market, then you have to comprehend the buying process of that demographic. Traditional outbound marketing still has its place in the marketplace. We can’t just do away with it because if a firm is trying to target people of an older demographic, the use of TV commercials would be most effective due to these consumers being willing to watch these commercials. One the other hand, if a firm is trying to gain customers of a younger demographic, then inbound marketing techniques would be more effective.
At Burkhart Marketing, we take the time to get to know the buying process of our customers. If you are interested in learning more about inbound and outbound marketing techniques, then visit our website today!
