Leads are the life source of every business. But getting them can be a real challenge, especially if you’re using the wrong marketing methods.
Now, there are two forms of marketing brands use to boost their business – outbound and inbound lead generation. A lot of companies juggle between the two and some marketers will even say one is better than the other.
In most cases, outbound marketing gets a bad rap, but don’t give up on it just yet. In this article, we’re going to go over what inbound and outbound marketing have in common and how (or if) you should use the two.
Let’s take a closer look.
What is Outbound Lead Generation?
First, let’s review what outbound marketing is all about. Outbound marketing is oftentimes referred to as disruptive marketing. This is because you’re contacting prospects directly, which may disrupt whatever they’re doing at the time.
For instance, giving a prospect a call, text, or email while they’re washing dishes or watching TV. Back in the day, knocking on someone’s door was a popular method for outbound salespeople. But because of the intrusion it imposes on consumers, it received a bad reputation.
This is especially true for the businesses that abused this method and made consumers hate it.
So a lot of the focus went to inbound lead generation.
What is Inbound Lead Generation?
You can look at inbound marketing as the exact opposite of outbound. In this case, prospects are coming to you, rather than you going to them. This sounds like a gold mine but isn’t always easy to pull off.
One way to get inbound leads reaching out to your brand is to use incentives or information trails that they can follow to your business. This allows consumers to choose whether they want to interact with your brand and when.
Now, there are various ways you can get inbound leads. Two of the most powerful tools you can leverage today are search engines and social media platforms.
The issue is your content trail ages quickly on these channels so it requires consistency in your posts. But that’s the beauty of using content marketing, which is a form of inbound marketing.
Next, let’s take a look at the similarities and differences between inbound and outbound lead generation.
What’s the Difference Between the Two?
Here’s a quick look at what you’ll get with outbound lead generation:
- You choose when interactions occur
- You choose the medium where the interactions occur
- The campaign duration is finite
- The campaign has short-term, but higher costs
- Main mediums used included phone, web, direct mail, and email
- Skills needed include planning, graphic design, internet, and copywriting
Next, let’s review how inbound lead generation is:
- Prospects choose when they interact with you
- Prospects choose the medium used for the interaction
- The campaign duration is indefinite
- The campaign cost is long-term but lower
- The main mediums used include social media, web, search engines, and email
- Skills needed are same as outbound marketing and SEO, social media, and internet marketing
Now that you understand the differences, let’s see what the two have in common.
How Are Inbound and Outbound Marketing the Same?
Inbound and outbound lead generation have key areas in common. For example, the objectives are the same – to get more traffic/calls to increase conversions.
Both require an understanding of the core audience so the campaign is successful. Also, the two fair better when you use incentives to motivate consumers to act.
Last, lead nurturing is essential on both fronts, which can help convert more prospects into customers.
Which Should You Choose for Your Business?
If there’s one thing you’ll learn about business marketing it’s that there’s no black or white. In many cases, there’s black, white, gray, blue, and a host of other variations.
There’s no definitive method a business can use to get great results because there are so many factors at play. For instance, the audience demographic and location, the product/service you’re selling, and the mediums you can reach your audience on.
This is why it’s recommended that you use all available options to test and see what works best for your audience and brand. You may find that a nice combination of inbound and outbound works well for converting your prospects.
Also, keep in mind that inbound marketing yields long-term results.
How You Can Use Both in Your Lead Generation Strategy
Now, there are many ways you can combine inbound and outbound lead generation in your strategy. For instance, you can have a blog and social media accounts to promote your blog content on.
And while that’s generating traffic to your blog, each post has a call to action to convert visitors into a subscriber or buyer.
At the same time, you can use outbound marketing, such as email marketing. All the subscribers you convert from your blog are sent an email directly.
You can promote your content, share tips, and offer discounts on your products or services. But this is just one type of strategy you can use by mixing both forms of lead generation.
There are many different ways you can remix and add to it so definitely play around with your options!
Getting Lead Generation for Your Business
What’s great about the internet is that it makes it easy for brands to market their products and services. However, you need a solid strategy to make it work.
Unless you have experience or the time to learn all there is to know about marketing and inbound lead generation, you should hire a pro.
The experts at Hyper Target Marketing offer a range of services that can help boost the traffic and conversions for your business. This includes PPC campaigns, SEO, social media, pay per call services.
If you’d like to learn more about how we can help grow your brand, then contact us today
