What exactly is inbound marketing, and, for that matter, what is outbound marketing? If you are somebody with even a bit of experience in marketing on the world wide web, then you likely have been exposed to both types of marketing.

 

In a nutshell, you can look at inbound marketing as a way that actually gets your customers to find you, which is a neat and revolutionary way of marketing when you think about it! Clearly, this method of marketing is very attractive to people and companies since it hones in on folks who are already looking for a specific product and/or service. In addition, it produces a lot more qualified leads than anything else!

 

The principles behind inbound marketing are straightforward and easy. They involve coming up with material, fresh and targeted content that is meant to reach a specific audience. Inbound marketing includes:

 

  • PPC or pay-per-click ads
  • SEO or search engine optimization
  • Infographics
  • E-books
  • White papers
  • Podcasts
  • Content marketing and Blogging
  • Social media marketing

 

Finally, it must be pointed out that inbound marketing is a lot more cost-effective (and cheaper) than outbound marketing, as you will soon see.

 

On the other hand of the marketing spectrum, you have outbound marketing. Outbound marketing is different from the inbound marketing in one important way. Outbound marketing concentrates on broadcasting a marketing message so that consumers can be found who will listen to this message. One way of looking at it is that it is a shotgun-based approach to marketing and advertising in that these campaigns will be quite broadly based and also designed in such a way to be distributed as far as possible. You will find that the majority of Fortune 500 companies utilize a combination of outbound and inbound marketing strategies. For small business owners it is not as effective to use outbound marketing as a primary strategy due to the investment levels needed to penetrate their target audience effectively.

 

The goal of outbound marketing is to reach a large and diverse audience, with the hope being that getting to such an enormous audience will pay off in increased sales. Basically, this type of marketing is a numbers game. For example, the greater number of ads you purchase, the greater number of people who see or hear your message promoting your product or services. Thus, you should theoretically make more money.

 

Here are some of the most popular outbound marketing techniques:

 

  • Direct mail
  • E-mail marketing
  • Trade shows
  • Press releases
  • Cold calling
  • Telemarketing
  • Banner ads
  • TV ads
  • Radio ads
  • Print ads

These days, thanks to the internet, inbound marketing is gaining in popularity, mainly because it is more effective than outbound marketing. Outbound marketing is seen as an old-school, traditional type of marketing. To remain current, you may want to focus more on inbound marketing for your business, especially if you are a small business owner.

 

© 2012 -This article was written by Lori A. Manns. Want to use this article for your website, blog or newsletter? No problem. Here’s what you must include: Lori A. Manns, CEO of Quality Media Consultant Group your marketing and sales success mentor, and founder of Marketing For Trailblazers System;TM  that shows you how to get more clients, more visibility and increase your income, guaranteed. To purchase consulting  services on marketing, advertising or sales and, learn how to increase your revenue and grow your business; please visit www.qualitymediaconsultants.com.