It’s neither strange nor a miracle. Inbound marketing performs better than outbound marketing. Driving inbound traffic can be a complex process as there are several existing strategies alive.

Some of the all-time tested methods are blog posting, ranking on high-performing keywords, e-books and outstanding social media posting. 

One interesting fact about inbound marketing is the trends shift as fast as SEO tactics. Thus, staying on top is never that easy as it seems to be one. 

In this article, we will have both the inbound and outbound marketing under the scanner and decide which one is more effectual for businesses.

Image courtesy of findthatlead.com.

Outbound marketing used to be a popular marketing strategy in the early days. With the major technical shift, the entire scenario has taken an about-face. Start-up industry is taking the forefront utilizing inbound marketing. 

“If you have more money than brains, you should focus on outbound marketing. If you have more brains than money, you should focus on inbound marketing.”

Guy Kawasaki, Chief Evangelist of Canva.

The above expert quote says it all why inbound marketing could be the ideal game plan for the start-up ecosystem. 

Let’s dig deeper and start with the basics-

What is Inbound Marketing?

Inbound marketing is a specific online marketing method that involves a chain marketing method viz. – SEO, blogs, content marketing, Social media marketing, Live events and Webinars. This is the most effective method for promoting brands online, creating brand awareness, and bring in more conversion. 

Then again, there are several definitions of inbound marketing. The core inbound marketing asks for ‘earning attention’ over ‘renting attention’. 

Here’s what it means-

To create an online brand reputation or to earn quality leads developing steady customer relationship is needed. 

If you buy advertising slots like magazine, TVC, radio ads- you reach your potential target audience by paying a substantial amount of money. In very rare occasions you get the personal info of your TG. This is termed as ‘rented attention’.

By ‘earned attention’ we mean publishing quality content, build an informative and compelling website, work on your content to top the SERP, link with other relevant websites so that you earn your potential customers’ attention with value, awareness, the information they are seeking of. This is known as ‘earned attention’. Since the process is exclusively data-driven, here you have complete information about your niche audience.

Thus, with inbound marketing, you don’t have to go after your audience. Rather, your customers will get to know about your company starting from the beginning till branching off and thereby resulting in the purchase decision.

Digital Marketing has become one of the mainstream subjects to pursue in these days. This job-oriented course is hugely popular amongst the youths and professionals. Since inbound marketing is an integral part of Digital Marketing, enrolling in a Digital Marketing course from any reputed digital marketing institute in delhi can get you the best knowledge of inbound marketing.

Benefits of Inbound Marketing

There are several benefits of inbound marketing such as-

• Develop brand preference and impact purchase decision. Circulate exclusive offers through social networking sites and inbound connections.
• Designed for clients’ benefits.
• Drive higher traffic to the website.
• Increases caution control. 
• Empower clients with a bigger brand image with a steady purpose solving approach. 
• Produce quality leads in a lesser budget.

Inbound marketing acts faster than most of the conventional marketing strategies. Esp. offers tend to acquire a higher conversion rate once it’s live. Customers get a clearer vision of your company from your website. An SEO optimized, mobile-friendly website not only reflects sales figures but also accrue social shares and hearsay.

What is Outbound Marketing?

Outbound marketing is a traditional marketing method where businesses used to communicate with their customers through messages. 

Outbound marketing envelopes TVC, Trade Shows, print ads, radio commercials, cold calls, email blasts. Here, clients come to know about your brand through paid marketing channels. Consumer response is harder to track in outbound marketing and budget is almost 90% higher than inbound marketing spending allocations.

Businesses that want to excel within a budget constraint must keep aside a separate budget for inbound marketing to secure a higher expansion rate. Inbound marketing can be tedious and tricky, but at the end of the day, you need it to mature your business. 

Businesses with a wholesome campaigning budget can only go for outbound marketing. Since outbound marketing has been an integral part of marketing plans of businesses it has marked benefits too. Again, if the strategy goes wrong, there is no way you can tweak or adjust it. 

Top 5 reasons why you should choose Inbound Marketing

Let’s have a look at the stark benefits of inbound marketing and the reasons why it has taken over: 

1. Inbound Marketing is more affordable

Inbound marketing can come at a shoestring price in comparison to traditional marketing. 

It’s quite visible that the cost of traditional marketing is substantial. Inbound marketing also involves the cost of content marketing and SEO but it’s peanut to traditional marketing methods. 

2. Inbound Marketing can be customized 

For online marketing customized content connects with its niche target audience. The prime USP of inbound marketing is with customized content it effectively builds a relationship with existing and prospective target audience. That’s why the content communicates well individually and builds greater brand impact. 

3. Inbound Marketing starts functioning when you opt-in 

Whether it’s a good or bad time we have to attend a promotional call or a have to go through an ad in between our favourite programs. Thankfully, this not-so-good part is exempted from inbound marketing. 

Since inbound marketing deals with targeted ads, it will be shown to individuals who are interested in those segments. Those relevant content will only appear only when you approve of those. 

By no means would you be directed to those websites which you are not interested in. The same goes for social media platforms. Those won’t display such ads which you haven’t been targeted/re-targeted with. Even if you are targeted, you can anytime opt-out whenever you wish to. 

4. Inbound Marketing is a non-stop process

Whatever sources may be traditional ad is run for a certain period and create impact within the said period. Once the duration is over, businesses have to re-pay for the same. 

On the other hand, inbound marketing with e-book and white paper will sustain keep alive forever. After the content gets uploaded, you can download anytime you want year after year. Hence, it will generate leads time and again.  

5. Inbound Marketing is less time consuming 

Conventional marketing strategies such as roadshow, trade affairs need a good amount of time, budget, and manpower to be executed. 

With automated inbound marketing, you can easily save such expenses and time too in the first place. 

These are the positive aspects of inbound marketing. Thus, in the era of digitalization businesses can’t afford to ignore it for their industry sustenance provided you should know how to effectively strategize it to reap the best outcome.