Inbound Marketing vs. Outbound Marketing

Most companies still use the old-fashioned marketing method of Outbound Marketing. Outbound Marketing, essentially, is when companies constantly throw money at mass emails, cold calls, trade shows, and different forms of advertising. They assume that because they are putting “good” in, they will get “good” out; which more and more enlightened companies are finding out, is not always true. In a world where thousands of advertisements are thrown at us on a daily basis, our eyes begin to blend it all together though.

So how can companies grab the attention of potential customers? The most effective and cost-efficient way is through Inbound Marketing. This relatively new form of Marketing is all around us and just because the name is unfamiliar, it does not mean you have never seen or used it. Inbound Marketing consists of different types of blogs, podcasts, webinars, and videos posted all over the web to generate SEO (Search Engine Optimization) on sites like Google, Yahoo, or Bing. These techniques are used to promote the company’s content to the masses without shoving it down their throats. The famous movie quote from Field of Dreams can be tweaked to apply directly to this theory, “If you blog it, they will come.”

Brian Halligan, a blogger from Hubspot.com, made a well put analogy comparing the two, saying that outbound marketers looking to gain interest from customers are like lions hunting in the jungle for elephants. A couple of decades ago the jungle was full of elephants, but now the elephants have started moving towards watering holes (the internet). Instead of continuing to hunt for the last remaining elephants in the jungle, why not set up shop next to where the elephants are going, the watering holes.