Inbound and Outbound Marketing

Inbound and outbound marketing represent two broad approaches to connecting with consumers. Inbound marketing aims at bringing visitors “in,” drawing them to your company via, typically, content marketing, social media, and well-optimized websites. In this first approach, consumers find you because you represent them.

Outbound marketing is what we typically think of when we think of advertising: the promotion of products or services through advertising and promotions. In this case, a message goes “out” from your company and stops consumers in whatever they were doing (e.g., a consumer is “stopped” by an ad when scrolling on Instagram or reading their Facebook feed; they are stopped by an ad at the start of a YouTube video, or they are stopped by an ad which cuts a newspaper article or a blog post in two).

Inbound marketing is also associated with permission marketing, where advertising is welcomed because permission to be advertised to has already been obtained and advertising is anticipated (e.g., email marketing), and two-way communication, meaning that there can be an interaction between consumers and the brand (e.g., consumers can comment on social media posts and on blog articles). A few further characteristics of inbound marketing are that it is

• sought, meaning that consumers find you,
• one of the fastest-growing strategies for marketing online and has been over the last decade,
• seen as cheaper to perform since companies do not need to invest in ads (although there are costs associated with content creation), and aimed at customer acquisition.

Conversely, outbound marketing is associated with interruption marketing, where marketing efforts such as ads interrupt what a consumer is doing, and one-way communication, because consumers cannot talk to ads. Outbound marketing is also

• imposed, because consumers do not agree to be advertised to,
• decreasing in popularity, although this is debated,
• expensive, because there are fees associated with putting ads online, and
• aimed at awareness creation, as has typically been the case with traditional advertising.

Examples of inbound marketing include blog posts, infographics, e-books, whitepapers, social media posts, tutorials, and the like.

Examples of outbound marketing include advertising of any sort, which we are going to cover in more detail in the next chapter.