Inbound marketing vs. outbound marketing: which strategy to choose for your company?

Although they can be complementary,inbound marketing andoutbound marketing are two very different strategies. How to define them? When should you choose one over the other?

We’ll explain.

Inbound and Outbound marketing: definition

Inbound marketing was born with digital marketing. It is defined as all the actions undertaken by a brand to attract consumers to it via a content strategy. The aim is to interest the consumer who is in the research phase, so that he or she visits your site, consults its content and ends up buying your products or services: the objective is thus to convert the Internet user into a customer. This is called pull marketing.

Conversely, outbound marketing consists of marketing actions that seek out consumers who are not in the research phase to encourage them to come to a brand. This strategy corresponds to push marketing.

To put it simply, in one case the active consumer comes to the brand, in the other it is the brand that comes to him while he is in a passive state.

Which media for inbound and outbound marketing?

In B2B and B2C, inbound and outbound marketing are based on different media.

Inbound marketing generally uses the following actions:

• Natural referencing or SEO: optimize your content to appear in the first results of the search engine pages.
• Paid referencing or SEA: purchase of sponsored links from Google Ads to appear at the top of the page when the user types in a specific query.
• Writing blog posts: offering quality content that responds to a query / search of Internet users.
• Creation of landings pages or destination pages: to ensure that the brand’s site appears in the first results of the SERPs when a targeted search is performed.
• Social media communication : creation of posts & adapted content.
• Creation of newsletters : maintain a regular link with your leads and customers by offering them quality information on a specific subject.
• White paper writing : providing reference content for an industry or profession.
• Production of videos or podcasts, etc. : produce videos or tutorials on subjects that interest our target audience.

Outbound marketing uses more traditional levers:

• Traditional media and non-media advertising : TV, radio, print, billboards.
• SMS or email campaigns.
• POS (point of sale advertising).
• SEA: purchase of sponsored links.
• Social media advertising: Facebook ads, Instagram ads, etc.

Inbound vs. outbound: which marketing strategy should I choose for my brand?

Before the rise of the web and the emergence of the concept of inbound marketing in the 2000s, only traditional communication strategies corresponded to what is now called outbound marketing.

If the latter remains relevant, especially for those who have the means – unlike inbound, outbound can require considerable investments that only large companies can agree to – it is nevertheless showing signs of running out of steam because of its techniques, which are considered too intrusive and sometimes associated with “hype”.

While outbound marketing no longer manages to capture consumers’ attention because it overwhelms them with messages, inbound marketing, which is more recent but also more refined, is perceived by many communicators as a more flexible, less intrusive and more effective technique for reaching consumers. Inbound marketing, by letting consumers come to the brand and offering content that makes sense to them, is also preferred by consumers.

In short, inbound marketing offers all companies a new way to communicate with their consumers, less intrusive and more effective. As it requires less investment than outbound, it is perfectly suited for companies or startups in the launch phase, or any company with a limited communication budget. So with little money and by creating quality content, it is possible to do a lot: notable gains in notoriety and visibility, traffic acquisition, quality lead generation and excellent conversion rate.

Inbound marketing is said to cost 65% less for companies that use it and to be up to 3 times more effective, so why go without?

How to set up a good inbound marketing strategy?

A good inbound marketing strategy requires in-depth reflection on your company’s or brand’s specific needs: what is its current situation, where does it want to go? Who are its consumers?

The definition of personas can help you to better understand your target and to identify their needs.

You will then need to create quality content that will interest your target audience. For this purpose, the use of specialist writers on certain subjects is essential.

Finally, your website must be optimized for inbound, meaning that it must both offer a rich experience with quality content, but also be ready to convert your prospects into leads.

The writing of this blog article is part of our agency’s content strategy and is a good example of inbound marketing: creating quality content that will interest our potential clients. To find out more about our inbound offer, consult our business pages:

• SEO optimization;
• Setting up Google Ads campaigns;
• Content writing;
• Social media communication;
• Creation of newsletters.

See you soon.

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