Outbound (traditional) marketing is the glamorous, flamboyant, and flirty extrovert, the life of the party and the talk of the town, always focused on making an entrance that blows minds. It’s all over the place: on radio and TV, on billboards and print, at trade shows and events, pushing a message out, and hoping to get your attention.
Inbound marketing, on the other side, is an introvert. Not necessarily a socially awkward one, but definitely a nerd who’s always busy searching for facts and arguments, professional advice, and detailed answers to questions you ask online. It may surprise you, but he also enjoys socializing and can be extremely refined, brilliant, and charismatic. Still, he will never be the one tugging at your sleeve at the party.
In other words, while outbound marketing is a “narcissist” desperately seeking validation from the masses, inbound marketing is a “pleaser” focused on creating content that speaks to different audiences, capturing them exactly where they are, and helping each individual to learn more about shared subjects of interest.
It may sound like the relationship between these two “guys” is toxic, but in reality, at least for now, they complement each other. Clearly, large portions of the budgets that used to be initially invested in traditional outbound lead generation approaches are now transferred to digital. However, the allocations between the two are still balanced.
It absolutely rocks, and it is here to stay because it generates crystal clear measurable outcomes. The return of investment is working for both enterprises and SMEs and for B2B companies and B2Cs. It becomes a less expensive and more efficient source for lead generation when smartly organized and implemented than any other traditional method.
Unlike other marketing approaches, inbound marketing is a long-term relationship that needs dedication and consistency. You may have to treat it as an ongoing campaign during which you test anything from design to calls to action, analyze things, and adapt for the better. Usually, it takes about three months on average just to set up the process for low to normal complexity projects. In-depth analysis is absolutely mandatory to customize solutions as what works for similar companies may not work in your case. It also takes a lot of expertise to establish what type of content is supposed to be developed to reach your goals.
As with SEO, you should not expect amazing results in the first six months. While you may experience an increase in traffic and leads generation immediately after starting the campaign, significant feedback can be registered in the long term, usually between one and two years, depending on your resources, the industry, the market you act on, and a series of other similar variables.
In the tech era, things change faster than ever. What is valid today may not be working tomorrow, and teams that cannot keep up with such rapid transformations won’t be a great match for your business. Here are some areas to always keep an eye on when choosing your digital marketing agency :
Don’t look exclusively for people who have coding and design skills. If you want your inbound marketing to work properly, you need experts to strategize and create amazing content that is valuable and relevant for your clients. They should also be familiar with marketing automation for you to get the best out of your efforts.
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