Inbound and outbound marketing both play a role in any well-rounded sales and marketing strategy. But which one is best? And when should you deploy one over the other? Read on to find out.

Inbound marketing

Think of inbound marketing like a magnet. It’s a powerful force which pulls visitors towards you by offering them invaluable content and experiences. That content is designed to add value to their day-to-day lives by helping them solve problems, be informed, feel entertained or empowered to make decisions.

This type of marketing paves the way for long-term relationship building. That’s because you’re nurturing trust in your brand by being useful and helpful. To be successful at inbound marketing you must know your target audience and create content closely aligned with the needs of that cohort.

Your inbound campaigns should:

• Span multiple channels, including your website, social media and SEO
• Be built around tailored content pieces and experiences
• Be personalised for your target demographic
• Include a variety of content types, such as blog posts, videos, email, social posts and downloadable resources
• Be authentic, genuine and useful
• Be targeted and measurable with defined KPIs

Outbound marketing

Outbound marketing is the opposite of inbound. It’s more of a ‘push’ than the ‘pull’ associated with inbound tactics. Outbound marketing is rooted in advertising which promotes products or services to the desired demographic. That advertising could look like a paid search ad or a promoted social media post, but it could also take an offline format such as a radio spot or TV advert.

Unlike inbound content and experiences which seek to impart knowledge or be useful, the purpose of outbound marketing is promotional. It’s a sales channel – as such it needs to be planned and measured with care to ensure the right outlets are selected, the right keywords used, and the best possible ad text is deployed. Results and ROI need to be studied to understand where the budget is being used to its maximum potential, and where spend is being wasted.

Outbound marketing is ideal for moments when you need to build brand visibility and awareness. It can deliver an instant uplift and is working for your brand as soon as your ads go live.

Your outbound marketing should:

• Be used when you want to build visibility
• Grow awareness of your offers, special promotions and new launches
• Be measurable
• Have attribution
• Be continually evaluated to ensure optimal use of your budget
• Be carefully targeted to the right people, at the right time

Many brands opt to use inbound and outbound marketing simultaneously. Insights can be used across both campaigns to elevate the performance of content pieces and paid search activity. Want to find out more? Our performance marketing experts are here to help. Get in touch to see how we can help you scale your marketing performance.