Outbound marketing

Marketing is a key component of every business development strategy.

There are two types of marketing today: inbound and outbound marketing. Even though inbound marketing tends to be more popular today, outbound strategies are still used at some companies.

Otherwise titled “interruption” marketing, outbound marketing is about getting your message to the most customers possible. Via advertising, cold calling, direct mail, and other manuevers, you spread the awareness of your brand – often without much extra targeting.

How does outbound marketing work?

Outbound marketing is often known as a “traditional” marketing model. It necessitates a lot of time and effort pushing messages out through various channels in the hope that you’ll, at some poitn reach the right person. Outbound marketing campaigns use strategies that interrupt your audience, such as:

• Cold calling
• Pop-ups and display ads
• Billboards
• Television and radio ads
• Direct mail advertising
• Mass emailing

Over time, outbound marketing has become less popular as a result of oversaturation. Empowered modern customers are exhausted by seeing the same old ads. According to Statista, 27.5% of the world’s population will be using ad-blocker software by 2020.

Does outbound marketing work?

Different customers react to diverse kinds of advertising.

Older customers may be more inclined to pick up the phone and listen to a cold call or watch your advertisements on TV. These generations are used to this type of advertising and they’re less likely to object to it. On the other hand, younger people have grown up in a world of instant gratification, where they can eliminate the distractions they don’t want.

Inbound marketing presents a better ROI, some studies find. Inbound efforts cost up to 62% less than their outbound counterparts. However, inbound strategies are more elusive and complicated to measure. Instead of giving people the hard sell, you’re focusing on creating brand awareness, engagement and loyalty.

Combining outbound and inbound

One of the most notable critiques that people have about outbound marketing is that it’s too generalized. Traditional advertising uses a “shotgun” method to get a message to as many customers as possible. You spend thousands on a plan and hope the campaign reaches at least some of the correct audience members.

To make their outbound marketing more efficacious, businesses are starting to adopt inbound strategies. For example, on social media, sending out PPC ads with a link would usually be percieved as outbound marketing. Targeting options from Facebook, Instagram and Twitter make sure that you’re getting your message to people who are more inclined to be interested in it, by targeting niche audience traits.

For most businesses, the most useful strategy will be to deploy multiple marketing efforts and measure the results of each. Only via consistent tracking can you figure out which marketing methods will bring success for your audience and your brand.