Inbound Marketing Vs. Outbound Marketing

When marketing your company, it’s important to understand inbound marketing vs. outbound marketing.

These are two very different strategies with very different associated tactics.

Let’s look into it more.

Inbound Marketing vs. Outbound Marketing: What’s The Difference

Inbound marketing is all about getting people to organically find you. 

What this means is that you don’t pay for advertising. You instead (usually, as we explain in our ultimate guide to content marketing) make great content that people love.

This is the process of providing value first and building an audience through that value. 

Outbound marketing, on the other hand, is much more about actively introducing yourself. Under this category you will usually find activities like paid advertising.

Outbound marketing is the way almost all marketing used to be done. While inbound marketing has become the de facto strategy of many modern companies.

Which One Should You Choose?

Both of these marketing strategies can be beneficial. Still, inbound marketing has been shown to have a higher rate of long term success. Prospects that find you through inbound marketing had a prior interest in your company. You didn’t need to convince them of anything.

This makes it much more likely that they stick around.

Outbound marketing, on the other hand, is often seen as annoying. It can also be characterized as an “interruption marketing,” which marketer Seth Godin points out.

This makes it something your prospect didn’t actively choose to discover. Your conversion rate is likely much lower as a result. After all, nobody likes to me interrupted! 

Most businesses will use a healthy mix of both inbound and outbound marketing to gain more customers. Both can work, considering they are done correct! 

Inbound marketing should focus on a strategy that goes above and beyond to be helpful for prospects. That’s even before they become customers! Outbound marketing, meanwhile, should focus on effective targeted advertising.

Follow these two rules of thumb and you should be good to go! 

Are you looking for help growing your online business or nonprofit? Give us a shout! We provide a free consultation. Email us at info@lughstudio.com!