Inbound vs Outbound Marketing

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It always amazes me to see the amount of traffic that searches for inbound vs outbound marketing. The amount of blog entries, ebooks and slideshare presentations etc. dedicated to it, all eulogising how inbound is a billion times cheaper, faster, smells better and looks younger.

Let’s first examine who is pumping this message out? Inbound marketing and marketing automation software companies - that’s who. That’s like a turkey blogging on why Christmas is bad.

incite is a business that does both. We also manage early stage sales for our clients, so we see the relative merits of both - which one produces the best leads and which produces the most leads that go on to close - so we have a slightly more balanced view. In reality our day-to-day business is a test of Inbound vs Outbound Marketing.

Our view is, like beer and crisps, they are better together.

We believe it shouldn’t be the case of dropping one for the other, particularly when it comes to targeting mid-sized to large businesses, with a high value product or service. The market is simply too small to leave it to chance.

Lots of businesses, including many of our clients, are now using outbound marketing techniques to drive interaction with top of funnel content. Particularly for high investment pieces of content, or where search terms are highly competitive.

Some tactics commonly used include buying PPC or display to drive to blogs and whitepapers. Phoning key prospects to alert them to something they wouldn’t want to miss is also valid.

Remember, a yes to content is much easier to get than a yes to a meeting or a firmer commitment. Once your prospect interacts with good relevant content, they are one step closer to buying.

Used at the right stage of the game outbound marketing is a very useful tool and one that enhances inbound - so not a case of inbound vs outbound, more of a case of playing them on the same team.

Kristian Gough

Written by Kristian Gough