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The Difference Between Inbound and Outbound Marketing: How to Scale your Agency Business

Outbound Marketing

Outbound marketing is just another name for traditional advertising practices. It is devised to contrast with inbound marketing and includes television and radio advertising, print advertising, telemarketing, direct mail, and outdoor advertising.

The main idea is that advertisers use mass media tools to push their message and products out to the public. The thing is that if many people in your target audience hear the message, they will react somehow. Such marketing tactics were effective, but nowadays, ads are so saturated and similar that people no longer pay attention to them. Another problem is that many people who are not in your target audience are also exposed to the message, which makes the cost of advertising less effective.

Traditional marketing is interruptive. Commercials interrupt television shows, door to door salespeople and calls interrupt what people are doing to present a sales pitch, but modern communications technology has allowed people to escape and avoid these annoying interruptions.

Inbound Marketing

Inbound marketing refers to marketing strategies that focus on pulling audiences in instead of going out to get attention. It pulls visitors in, increases brand exposure, and creates brand authority by creating interesting and useful content.

Today’s homeowner is going to get his phone out, open up a web browser to look for the best search result to solfe his problem.

This search may lead him to some blog posts about his problem, and he may even download a white paper for even more information.

If he needs further assistance, he may go to his Facebook or Twitter account and ask his connections for their recommendations. 

This new marketing strategy is called inbound marketing.

Inbound marketing is slightly more complicated and indirect compared to outbound marketing, but it’s just as, if not more effective than traditional outbound marketing in terms of reaching your target audiences.

Differences

  • Outbound marketing uses push tactics, while inbound marketing uses pull tactics.
  • A big part of inbound marketing relies on creating useful content and attracting visitors with it.
  • It relies on modern communications technology like the Internet, mobile phones, and social media to attract consumers.
  • Instead of pushing a message out onto a large population, inbound marketing attracts specific audiences that are out there looking for information.
  • The goal is to pull interested people toward the marketing materials and attract them to the business with valuable information. 
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