There has been a significant amount of speculation on the decline of outbound marketing as part of a business’ strategy over the past few years, but further research has actually shown that outbound marketing is still a valuable part of the marketing mix. While it’s true that over 200 million Americans are on the “Do Not Call” list and have spam blockers on their email, at the same time, more and more Americans have taken advantage of new technologies designed to bypass social media advertising and pop-up ads.
The paradigm for both outbound and inbound sales is shifting, but even considering this evolution, both are still largely viable to generating sales if used the right way, in a cohesive manner. If you’re not utilizing both strategies, you may be missing out on a major revenue source.
Outbound Marketing Benefits:
New services and products often remain relatively unknown to the public for a considerable amount of time. This is especially true for businesses that may be opening in a new territory or retail location. Traditional outbound marketing tactics such as direct mail can help these businesses target their audience through mass mailing campaigns. If you were just strictly relying on inbound marketing to drive traffic and revenue, it would be a much harder push to try and reach your specific geographic location and demographic.
Inbound sales media have migrated in the masses towards the Internet over the past 5 years or so, leaving those who do not use the Internet or shy away from technology and social media in the dust. Your business could be missing out on a huge opportunity to target the technologically un-inclined with an outbound campaign.
Interestingly enough, I’ve also talked to many business owners over the past several months who are actually cancelling their social media accounts and are unsubscribing to e-newsletters by the dozens because of how much these technologies are interrupting the way they do business and communicate. One owner even told me that he’s more likely to look at a direct mail piece that’s addressed to him because receiving those campaigns have become so few and far between. That leaves me to ask, “Are we reverting backwards as a society towards traditional advertising methods because they are less interruptive during business hours?”
Inbound Marketing Benefits:
Since inbound marketing is about attracting customers and clients right when they are looking for your goods or services, less energy and resources are spent in the process. A huge benefit to this is that your business will experience more qualified prospects because as a lot of inquiries that you will get will be by those who have decided on their own that they currently want or need what you’re selling.
Also, your Return on Investment (ROI) with inbound marketing campaigns will be easier to analyze in various ways that can be used to improve and hone in on your sales efforts. Campaign data can be compiled by your marketing team and examined in order to determine which strategies are working, which ones aren’t, where your approach is working, and where it isn’t. By analyzing this data, it’s much quicker to refine tactics.
Let’s face it: No stone should be left unturned
By utilizing both an inbound and outbound marketing strategy, it will facilitate a multi-tiered approach when promoting your brand and creating awareness. In this way, you will ensure that your brand is constantly fresh in the mind of all consumers. The more you push your brand, the more likely people are to think of your brand when they are in the market for the products or services offered by your business.
The combination of these two methods will also help you to truly maximize your reach. Your marketing team can launch campaigns aimed at triggering the public’s appetite for your brand, effectively generating more sales and business growth. And while the tactics of both inbound and outbound marketing strategies have changed drastically over the past few years, outbound marketing is not any less viable when it comes to a complete business marketing strategy.
