What is the difference between inbound and outbound marketing

All businesses need to undertake marketing in one form or another. This could be using a website and digital marketing such as email campaigns and social media or it might be utilising print, tv and radio. Getting new customers into your business is the lifeblood of its sustainability and marketing can really help with this. It is important that your marketing has a plan attached to it and a Marketing Strategy Consultants such as Really Helpful Marketing is a great place to begin.

There are two distinct types of marketing – inbound and outbound and it is important for businesses to understand the differences between these two.

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Inbound Marketing

This type of marketing looks at getting customers to buy your products and services. This can be by providing them with informational guides on your services or other pieces of content marketing. The information that you share can be given via your website or through reports and even social media posts. All of these marketing methods are designed to give informative content to potential clients and customers with the aim of getting them in front of your products and services and then buying them.

This type of marketing is often less “salesy” and more people feel comfortable with this. It is seen as very educational in its approach and it also allows you to use the content that you create in a number of ways and across a number of different platforms.

Whilst inbound marketing is less salesy in its approach it is a type of marketing that needs more time dedicated to it and it also needs to have a consistent approach to help make the most out of its impact.

Outbound Marketing

This type of marketing is designed to get your products or services out to a large number of people in one go and this is often seen as your much more traditional types of advertising such as radio and television adverts as well as direct mailings and pay per click advertising. Outbound marketing helps to reach a large number of people in one go and is often much less about educating them on the finer details of your products and services and much more about getting the items in front of them in a visual way. It is often a much more “salesy” way of marketing.

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Outbound marketing can be more costly than inbound but it often requires less time and less of a consistent approach is needed. It is often used to help promote a particular product or for us on a particular project within the business.