To attract online traffic and turn them into business leads, we need to combine a tactic or two. Doing so allows us to make the most out of it and maximize the results.
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As the adage goes, do not put all your eggs in one basket. Hence, doing complementary lead generation campaigns can be your best bet.
It can be a combination of new and old tactics, like email marketing with social media marketing. However, you can also combine outbound and inbound marketing strategies.
But when do you call a marketing strategy inbound or outbound?
Inbound vs. Outbound Marketing
Think of marketing campaigns as a push and pull technique. You need to provide value to attract your ideal clients. Often, you need to get out of your way so your leads would know that you exist.
An inbound marketing strategy is any promotional tactic meant to attract your leads. This includes writing a compelling blog post, posting a viral video on TikTok, or using the right hashtags on Instagram.
On the other hand, outbound marketing is when you go straight to your ideal clients in hopes of transacting with you. This can include emailing business proposals to your list of potential clients.
Regardless of what tactics you use, it would be best to combine inbound and outbound marketing.
Combining Inbound and Outbound Marketing for Better Lead Generation
Think of leads as your potential client. These are people who need your products and services. However, they do not know that you exist or they are using your competitor’s products.
As such, you need to find ways (other than web design and development) to build awareness around your brand, get your leads’ attention, and turn them into paying clients. Here are five examples that you can follow:
Marketing Automation and Outbound Calling
Automated marketing and outbound calling is a typical combination of inbound and outbound marketing strategies.
What happens is that you encourage your leads to subscribe to your email list. From there, you can send a sequence email that is meant to enable them to do business with you.
You can segment your list of email subscribers based on the subscription source (i.e., blog post vs. product page). Doing so lets you know if a lead is just looking around or interested in what you can offer.
Another way is to ask them if they are facing challenges in their business. That way, you can schedule a call to demo what your products or services can provide for them.
Account-Based Marketing and Content Marketing
Content marketing stands out among the inbound and outbound marketing strategies available. For example, Ascend Finance uses content marketing almost exclusively to generate bankruptcy leads. That’s because many people are researching bankruptcy tips online.
Meanwhile, integrating ABM with content marketing also lets you repurpose your content. Doing so allows you to save time and resources.
You build inbound marketing content that lets you reach a wider audience. However, it should also be detailed enough to attract the accounts you’re targeting in your ABM campaign. Then, you can utilize your ABM content to have a more robust inbound content marketing strategy.
Case studies, eBooks, and whitepapers that you built targeting specific accounts with ABM can be repurposed and added to your site. That way, you can save time and resources building your online knowledge base.
SEO and Paid Search
If properly mixed, both SEO and paid search can significantly enhance your marketing results. That’s because they both boil down to using the search terms that your leads use to find a relevant result.
Mind you, keyword research is vital as it can impact the kind of content we need to produce. After all, we need content that drives volume.
For example, you write a blog post or run a PPC campaign for BSNL’s 4G internet connection. We want to ensure that it will rank for relevant keywords like “BSNL 4G data balance check.”
From there, you can focus your paid search on prospective customers you’ve previously interacted with before. Again, retargeted ads on posts on social media are excellent solutions over more high-demand and costly keywords.
Inbound Marketing and Paid Media
Using inbound marketing alone isn’t enough to reach your target demographic. Chances are, a lot of your prospects haven’t heard from your brand yet.
That’s why a great strategy is combining your inbound marketing with paid media. Paid media usually includes print ads, radio ads, TV commercials, social media ads, and PPC. By combining both, you can take your marketing to the next level.
A great way to do this is to publish ads that provide prospects with special offers through paid media. Of course, it would help if you also came up with a hashtag for that offer that prospects will find shareable.
Email Marketing and Offline Events
Hosting an offline event can be an excellent way to collect and build your email list. It also enables you to meet your potential clients, pick their brains, and build meaningful relationships.
On the flip side, email marketing can help you fill a room in an offline event. That’s because you can invite people in one go and quickly confirm their attendance.
Whether it is via email or an offline event, though, ensure that you are straightforward.
This means that you have to convey your marketing message early on. Let people know what you do as a business, who you serve, and how they can benefit from your products or services. Doing so allows you to weed out who you should attract.
Wrapping it Up
Inbound and outbound marketing has their pros and cons.
Inbound marketing compels you to provide value since consumers now have the power to choose what kind of content they want to consume. However, seeing results can be time-consuming.
This is where outbound marketing comes in, as it allows you to get quick wins. However, it can be expensive.
Nonetheless, knowing how these two complement each other should help improve your lead generation campaign.