Home Business Expert: Inbound Marketing V Outbound Marketing

There are 2 different approaches to marketing - inbound marketing and outbound marketing. So which one is better? Let us find out.

Normal 0 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;}

Every business needs to market itself – no matter how big or small it is. Now the act of marketing itself can be distinguished broadly into 2 categories. In other words, there are 2 different approaches to marketing. They are…

 

·         Inbound marketing

·         Outbound marketing

 

Let us now try to define both of them.

 

Inbound marketing: Inbound marketing is when the customers are calling you to make appointments, purchase products, or gain information. Inbound calling is marketing and promoting a business with the customer's permission. In the competitive market we live in today, it is a key to accept that the customer wants that control. But there can be another kind of inbound marketing. Supposing you are a travel agent and let customers enquire and book travel packages. When a person calls in and asks for a package and makes a booking, you may also offer him/her car rentals as well. Cross selling can be very profitable and you can do it with inbound marketing.

 

Outbound marketing: This is easier to define because outbound marketing is what we normally come across every day. Outbound marketing can be defined as the effort of the business to reach out there to let the world know about its products or services. The idea is to grab the attention of the prospective customer, make him/her interested in the offering, hold the interest for long enough to deliver a message, and motivating the person to take positive action.

 

Here are a few examples of outbound marketing. Actually we come across such efforts all the time – the advertisements we see on TV; the traditional advertising on the billboards, newspapers and magazines; the printed material in brochures; cold calling and even business merchandising such as printing the company logo or a message on coffee mugs, key rings, pens etc.

 

Outbound marketing first aims to establish the brand when a new product is launched and then there are follow up advertisements to keep the brand alive in the mind of the people.

 

So which one is better for you – inbound marketing or outbound marketing?

 

The fact is, both inbound marketing and outbound marketing is very effective – there have been many businesses that have tried both and been successful. So it is best for you to have enough information on both of these and then decide which one is better suited to your business and your unique situation.

Article Tags: Inbound Marketing, Outbound Marketing

Source: Free Articles from ArticlesFactory.com

ABOUT THE AUTHOR