Outbound or Inbound Marketing - Which Is Right for Your Business?

With mostly all businesses using the internet and social media for marketing it is becoming increasingly more difficult to stand out from the competition. With search engines changing their algorithms so often, new social media sites launching, it's difficult to stay ahead of it all. In short, internet marketing is no longer the easiest or quickest way and has its own set of pitfalls to understand before diving into it. Under these circumstances, the major question in the minds of internet marketers today is which will provide my business with the highest return on investment - outbound or inbound? And the answer to this question basically lies in understanding what each means, their differences and scope.

Understanding inbound and outbound marketing
Outbound marketing is traditional marketing, where businesses use various means to target their customers. These may include direct mail, organizing events, conferences, seminars, advertising, trade shows and making cold calls.

Inbound marketing, on the other hand, is where the business uses ways, means and techniques to increase the page rankings of their website - generally using the internet. This could be done through building a variety of links, which lead back to their website, instead of actively pursuing customers and other target audiences.

Scope of each type of marketing
According to a survey conducted, it was found that nearly 44 percent of the people did not open direct mail sent via the post office. Further, nearly 86 percent of the population did not sit through television ads/commercials. On the other hand, inbound marketing generated more organic traffic to the website while also keeping costs down. Keeping these facts in mind, it can be easily deciphered that outbound marketing has a lesser scope of being effective than inbound marketing. Additionally, the scope of outbound marketing is further restricted because it does not believe in creating and nurturing a direct contact with the customer. Further, traditional outbound marketing usually costs more and requires a higher investment than inbound marketing.

Which is the better of the two?
Given the vast differences between the two types of marketing, the question regarding which is more suitable for your business is of great concern when choosing where best to spending marketing dollars that generate revenue. However, it is not possible to truly state one as being better than the other. This is largely because marketing is an ongoing aspect of a business, and ideally businesses should base their decision on their situations, strategies, budget, current marketing trends and several other factors.

Businesses should fully understand their own business processes and the scope of their business before deciding which strategy to adopt and implement. This should be supplemented with details regarding the target audience in question, budgetary constraints and time limits as well as the overall goals of the business. However, despite this situation, it is clearly obvious that inbound marketing is definitely a trend that is here to stay for quite some time. However, these rules need to be changed and refined ongoing depending on the situation. With the rules regarding how you indulge in inbound marketing becoming more specific, it is important to adhere to it for maximum impact.