If you use the Internet to promote sales, you have most likely come across the term Outbound Marketing. For a company to sell, it has to define how it is going to capture customers. In this regard, there are basically two options, which are Outbound Marketing and Inbound Marketing.
In this article, we will better explain what it means, presenting the differences from Inbound Marketing, advantages, and how to apply both strategies in your business. Both Inbound and Outbound Marketing, as will be seen, can be used in parallel. Read on!
What is Outbound Marketing?
Outbound Marketing is an active customer acquisition approach. This means that the company, once using this strategy, will have the means to initiate a contact with the potential customer, with a focus on selling.
In practice, there are many ways to implement Outbound Marketing. The intention of this modality is to communicate more directly with people, so that they pay attention to that advertisement, show interest in having that, and then contact the company.
On the Internet, some of the main ways of doing Outbound Marketing are sponsored ads on Google and on social networks, as well as direct contact, using e-mail or WhatsApp, for example.
What are the differences between Outbound Marketing and Inbound Marketing?
While Outbound Marketing is a more direct approach, the focus of Inbound Marketing is on a passive strategy. In other words, instead of using a more incisive communication aimed at selling, Inbound Marketing does a capture whose results tend to come in the medium or long term.
Publishing relevant content to potential customers on websites, blogs, and social networks is one of the main ways to use Inbound Marketing. The idea, therefore, is to inform and educate the leads, so that they themselves will seek out the company to close a purchase.
What are the advantages of Outbound Marketing?
On the Internet, you can reach a very wide audience. When the active approach was practically limited to the telephone, for example, there was a certain limitation to the number of people that could be approached.
Today, however, there is technology, which assists businesses with various solutions. One of them is the use of applications such as WhatsApp, which is usually employed from the first contact of the potential customer who wants to know more about a product or service, until the moment the purchase is made. All this 100% online and without the need to go to the store. That said, check out, below, the main advantages of adopting Outbound Marketing!
Ease of finding professionals
If you are looking to hire a team to handle Outbound Marketing, know that there are many professionals available in the market. Even people unfamiliar with online sales can have plenty of background in face-to-face communication in physical stores, for example.
Validation of assumptions
Suppose you contact a large number of potential customers. Only with this initiative, it is possible to get an idea of what is positive and what needs to be improved in communication. In addition, it is easier to get an idea of the ideal profile of those who buy from your company.
Faster return on investment
This benefit is a consequence of the previous subtopic. As many people are approached, a percentage of them will close a deal, so the return on investment can be positive or negative. This way, your company can have a better idea of how to direct the resources, for example, in the broadcasting of paid media on Google and social networks.
How to unite Outbound Marketing with Inbound Marketing?
Planning, organization, and skilled people: with these three elements, it is entirely possible to adopt Outbound and Inbound Marketing in parallel. Considering Google, it is crucial for every company to be found there, regardless of whether the user just wants to find out about something or make a purchase.
In this sense, Inbound Marketing can be very effective, as SEO (search engine optimization) techniques are applied to the content. As the leads appear and mature in their buying decision, they can be directed to the sales team, so that contact can be made and, who knows, the deal can be closed.
One of the main advantages of structuring both marketing strategies is scalability. Some customers demand more than others, when it comes to breaking through objections. As the lead base increases, the chances of the Outbound team dealing with them will be greater.
However, it is possible that some doubts and objections have been handled by Inbound Marketing, thus making the contact and negotiation a little more agile.
To better understand this question, consider the following situation: your company uses both Inbound and Outbound Marketing. In this context, several leads are obtained through a content in which they leave an e-mail address to receive a more specific material, such as an ebook.
Over time, those who have consumed the ebook content tend to be more informed and aware of their needs to purchase a certain product or service. If the company used only Inbound Marketing, the attendant would have to explain many of the things in the rich material, making the process much more time consuming. Therefore, there may be a direct relationship between Inbound Marketing and shortening the sales cycle.
Besides scalability, another advantage of structuring Inbound and Outbound Marketing is the ease of training new employees. In other words, when you have everything structured, the activities follow a defined flow, so that the new team members do not have great difficulty adapting.
In this sense, the content produced in the Inbound Marketing strategy is very useful to guide the team around the process. Such content can be categorized according to the level of awareness of the lead, and is customarily referred to as:
- attraction;
- consideration;
- decision.
Outbound Marketing, as we have seen, consists of a more active and direct approach to the customer, compared to Inbound Marketing. However, it is possible to use both strategies, as long as all the steps are planned, organized, and structured.
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