“Inbound is for those with more brains than money. Outbound is for those with more money than brains”. Let those words from Guy Kawasaki sink in for a second. Now, is it so surprising that inbound is the marketing world’s favourite strategy?
There has certainly been a significant shift from traditional, outbound marketing to new marketing tactics such as inbound. Whereas outbound methods have involved pushing your message ‘out’ and forcibly directing attention towards your product, inbound involves letting audiences ‘in’ through online content. Whichever strategy is your favourite, it is important to stress how both serve a purpose - to reach customers. And one doesn’t, or shouldn’t, replace the other.
Instead, integrate them both into your marketing plan and build a stronger and more aligned strategy. We’ve compiled a few tips to get you started:
So you’ve written your blog, added the right SEO keywords, shared it on social media, and now you’re waiting for the calls to start flooding in. Unfortunately, relying on these tactics might mean it could take time to see results.
While producing high quality content is great, it may not always be enough to draw customers to your website. Outbound tactics could help push your content to more customers and increase the chances of them actually engaging with it.
Outbound email campaigns, such as weekly newsletters, are great opportunities for sharing your online content. Encourage people to seek you out by incorporating links to your blog, social media and even upcoming shows and events.
Your blog is a major component of your content marketing strategy. It communicates your personality while raising awareness of your business through vital pieces of information.
Like we said above, it’s not enough to get it written - it needs to be read. Promoting your blog content across multiple channels will help ensure it is read by a bigger, better audience. Don’t be complacent though. Make sure you are posting regularly across your social media platforms, otherwise it may look like your business is inactive. Read our piece on multi-channel marketing for more information on why funnelling your marketing through a single channel may not be enough.
Additionally, think carefully about what you are writing about and in which tone you are writing. Customers may enjoy reading educational and informative content, but something that is persuasive and convincing is more likely to create a new sales lead and raise the profile of your business.
Take it one step further by producing product-based content, giving you the opportunity to really go into detail about what you are selling. For an extra boost, coincide this type of content with a product launch and start generating some buzz.
It might seem simple, but including a Call To Action (CTA) at the end of every piece of content will have inarguable results.
This means a CTA at the end of every blog, article and social post. Doesn’t matter what the piece of content is or its perceived insignificance - it will make a difference. This ‘action’ can be something as simple as a link back to your homepage, a “contact us” form, social media profiles or product pages.
Don’t just let your content ‘stand alone’ but instead, give it a function. Without a clear call to action, customers will likely move on to something else once they’ve finished reading. Be proactive - don’t be afraid to tell your customers what to do.
At the end of the day, we all want to connect with our customers, and there’s no better way to get through to them than direct communication.
Outbound marketers do this through cold calls, but such interruptive tactics aren’t hugely effective, with less than 2% of cold calls actually leading to a meeting.
A successful alternative is to establish contact before reaching out. In other words, only directly contacting customers that actually want to hear from you. For example, if a customer fills out a form to download your product brochure, take the opportunity to send them an email or give them a quick call.
These customers have already shown interest by engaging with your content, so they should be more ready to purchase.
Want help gating your content? Speak to one of our marketing experts
Marketing has evolved, with businesses just as focused on raising awareness as they are on making a sale. With this in mind, it’s no longer a case of inbound versus outbound, but understanding that these two strategies are just two sides of the same coin. Together, they’ll help you coordinate your perfect marketing mix.
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