First I think it’s important to clarify the difference between inbound and outbound marketing. I think of outbound marketing as traditional marketing, it includes advertisements, conferences, cold calls, etc. Basically it is when the company is reaching out to the potential customer base to spread the word about the product or brand. Inbound marketing is different in such that the customer is the one searching for you, for example a customer goes online performs a search that leads them to your website. Both types of marketing are very important but the relative importance of each will be driven by the type of product.
In terms of inbound marketing it is feasible to have inbound marketing only if the product or service is only sold online. This is emphasized for the product or service if it could be considered a commodity. The first thing that came to mind for me was invitations. Say you are planning a baby or wedding shower and you go online and do a search for invitations there are several websites that will come up. Your first impression on the way that these websites look and the ease of use when trying to navigate will influence whether or not you will use the site, often even if the prices are lower.
Outbound marketing is more important if:
1) Trying to promote the brand
2) Convert customers from a competitor
3) The product is unavailable online
4) The consumer base in unlikely to do an Internet search for the product
An example of this would be in new technology development. If the consumer doesn’t know to search for it then the inbound marketing would be useless. An example of this is online insurance. When this industry was new it was extremely important to have a combination of outbound marketing for brand promotion to get the word out and inbound marketing so once they have gotten to the site it is visually attractive, easy to use, and providing a service of value.
Within a long period of time, I was confused about the method of inbound marketing, I thought it was targeting at existing customers or people already know your customer, which would be too marrow down the prospect. However, inbound marketing was more about how to drive/pull customers to your business. BTW, thank you for pointing out Outbound marketing is more important when product is unavailable online, I guess that's relatively more likely happened to B2B side.
ReplyDeleteI think outbound and inbound marketing both have their own advantages and disadvantages. And Chelsey I think you did a great job on describing the situations where company should pay more attention to inbound more or outbound more!
ReplyDeleteDid you mean if the product is available for purchase online...or just that there is a web site describing the product/service, regardless of how the final purchase takes place?
ReplyDeleteYes, If the product or service is sold online the importance on inbound marketing increases dramatically. Inbound marketing can of course still be a valuable tool if sold through other avenues but in that case should not be your only marketing method.
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