Use a combination of in and outbound marketing techniques

When planning your lead generation activities, use a combination of in and outbound marketing techniques to increase awareness and build the sales funnel.  You’ll want to find the best cost per qualified lead to meet your objectives.

Inbound marketing

Inbound marketing activities focus on being found by customers and use web related technologies for implementation. Inbound marketing activities are typically part of a long term customer acquisition strategy, and the cost per lead is less than traditional outbound marketing activities.  Inbound marketing examples include:

Outbound marketing

Outbound marketing activities focus on finding customers. Objectives are usually met within a set time frame; the cost per lead tends to be higher than inbound marketing techniques.1 Examples include:

A combination is best

Use both in and outbound marketing when budget is available. While use of the web has increased tremendously – especially the use of social media – the time people spend on the web has not.2 The proliferation of smartphones, tablets, and other mobile devices allows people to do more within the same time frame, searching or sharing information while watching videos, socializing, shopping, or working. Watching television, however, continues to take the lion’s share of media time.3 Plus, direct mail continues to be an effective way to reach prospects, receiving higher response rates than email campaigns.4

With there being so many ways to reach prospects and customers, review your customer touch points to determine which ones make the most sense to influence given what your competition is doing. Keeping your prospect’s attention is challenging; your message needs to break through the ‘noise’ coming from different devices. With prospects being exposed to hundreds of advertising messages per day, you’ll want to make sure your message is targeted and resonates. And to increase recall, your message will need to be repeated in different mediums or communication channels to reinforce brand recognition and be top of mind when the prospect is ready to act.5 By using a combination of in and outbound marketing tactics, you’ll have more ways to reach customers with reminders of your offerings.

Keep in mind…

  • Marketing is not an exact science. Adjust images, change messaging, and transform old tactics into new approaches. Implement A/B testing or multivariant testing to gather results on what works best for your offering.
  • Don’t be afraid to try new communication channels or guerrilla marketing activities to spur sales.
  • Your messaging will evolve just as your products and features evolve to entice prospects.
  • Revisit your target customer’s profile and customer touch points to find the most cost effective means for reaching them, wherever that may be.

Discover more…

  1. Greene, Jessica. “Outbound Marketing Strategy: 12 Tactics to Optimize Lead Generation in 2024” Databox, Inc. Last modified February 13, 2024. https://databox.com/outbound-marketing-tactics.
  2. Guttmann, A. “Media Use – Statistics & Facts.” Statista. Last modified December 17, 2018. https://www.statista.com/topics/1536/media-use/.
  3. Ilutsa, Tania. “Inbound vs. Outbound Marketing:What Works Better for Your Business.” Cience (blog). Last modified August 14, 2024. https://www.cience.com/blog/inbound-vs-outbound-marketing.
  4. Smale, Thomas. “6 Ways to Attract More Customers Through Outbound Marketing.” Entrepreneur Media, Inc. Last modified April 25, 2018. https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/312446.
  5. Leonard, Jay. “How to Get Started with Inbound Marketing.” Business 2 Community. Last modified August 28, 2024. https://www.business2community.com/brandviews/shelley-media-arts/how-to-get-started-with-inbound-marketing-02047777.
  6. Patel, Neil. “The Complete Guide to Outbound Marketing.” Neil Patel Digital, LLC. Accessed September 6, 2024. https://neilpatel.com/blog/outbound-marketing/.
  7. “The Ultimate List of Marketing Statistics for 2024.” Hubspot, Inc. Accessed September 6, 2024. https://www.hubspot.com/marketing-statistics.
  8. Zilak, Alejandra. “Inbound Marketing 101: How to Attract and Close Your Ideal Buyers.” BluLeadz (blog). Last modified September 21, 2021. https://www.bluleadz.com/blog/inbound-marketing.
  9. Zhao, Alan. “Inbound Lead Generation: Top 10 Strategies from Experts.” Warmly.” Last modified August 8, 2024. https://www.warmly.ai/p/blog/inbound-lead-generation.
Sources:
1 Sukhraj, Ramona. “What Does Inbound Marketing Cost?” IMPACT, accessed February 14, 2022. https://www.impactbnd.com/what-does-inbound-marketing-cost.
2 Dana Kerr, “Overall Time Spent Online Remains Static,” CBS Interactive Inc., last modified July 28, 2009 (5:19 PM PDT), https://www.cnet.com/news/overall-time-spent-online-remains-static/.
3 Joe Mandese, “Nielsen: TV Usage Of ‘TV’ Continues To Erode, Mobile Is Fastest- Growing Segment,” MediaPost Communications, last modified November 13, 2012 (9:00AM), http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/187163/nielsen-tv-usage-of-tv-continues-to-erode-mobi.html#axzz2PXQVPdzP.
4 Ivana Vojinovic, “Direct Mail Statistics That Will Have You Running to the Post Office,” SmallbizGenius, last modified September 17, 2019, https://www.smallbizgenius.net/by-the-numbers/direct-mail-statistics/.
6 “5000 Brand Messages Per Day And You And You And You!” Jean-Paul Treguer & TBLowCost & Senioragency, last modified April 27, 2008, http://treguer.wordpress.com/2008/04/27/a-consumer-is-exposed-to-an-average-5000-brands-message-per-day-tvlowcost-will-help-your-brand-by-reducing-spectacularly-the-cost-of-the-most-powerful-and-influential-media/.

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