I've been asking myself this question a lot lately due to the increasing popularity and buzz around inbound marketing. And, truth be told, I've also been asking myself this question because the majority of the consulting work I do focuses on enabling marketers to design and execute outbound marketing campaigns more effectively and efficiently. With this provocative question in mind, let me first define what outbound and inbound marketing is.
What is Outbound and Inbound Marketing?
Outbound Marketing refers to more traditional marketing methods that actively engage a target market such as direct mail, e-mail, phone, advertising and other marketing vehicles.
Inbound Marketing focuses on getting potential customers to "discover" your business by creating and publishing content that they want to see and perhaps even share with friends. Examples of inbound marketing include: search engine optimization, blog/website content publishing and viral marketing enablement. In a nut shell, inbound marketing focuses on:
- Creating and publishing content that "draws people in" to learn more about your company and its offerings
- Providing the tools for people to recommend your companies products or services (i.e. providing links on your product pages that visiters can post to their social networking sites)
Interestingly, as I was researching the Internet for the above definitions, I was reminded of push and pull marketing. I remember these terms from marketing courses that I took in college (in the early 90's). That said, I'm wondering if the terms "outbound" and "inbound" marketing are conceptually the same as "push" and "pull" marketing, but simply have different names and reflect the newer marketing channels and techniques leveraged today. Perhaps I can have someone on my upcoming podcast (coming soon) to answer this question.
What's the Research Say?
In my anecdotal research to find out whether outbound marketing is on the decline, I went to the Internet (essentially Google and Yahoo searches) and I posed this question to numerous marketing professionals. In short, the answers I got ranged from "Outbound marketing is on its way to extinction" to "Outbound marketing is absolutely not on the decline" and everything in between. That said, the research I performed didn't really tell me definitively (one way or the other) whether outbound marketing is on its way out.
Note: Not surprisingly, my research uncovered that many of the strong proponents of inbound marketing were individuals and companies that sell products and services related to inbound marketing (and vice versa).
So, What Do I Think?
What I think can be summed up as follows:
That's what I think. What do you think?
Note: A special thanks to the following sources that I referenced for this posting:
- Hubspot for their blog post on Inbound Marketing vs. Outbound Marketing
- DoshDash for their blog post on Push Marketing V.S. Pull Marketing
I feel that while outbound marketing campaigns are not going to go away anytime soon, their effectiveness will decrease as consumers get tired of them. For now it looks like that inbound marketing is the future.
Posted by: Kolb Learning | November 18, 2010 at 12:32 PM
Being a direct marketing professional specializing in mailing lists, I do not see outbound marketing campaigns fading anytime even in the next ten years. There was a large hype to save marketing dollars in the beginning of 2000 with email marketing, which is not effective at all in prospecting for new clients. Direct mail marketing has been the most consistant form of marketing and will continue to be for years to come. It will surpass the social media craze for sure.
Posted by: Kevin Deeb | November 29, 2010 at 02:00 PM
I encourage the businesses to do both forms of marketing. Inbound marketing can be very effective but it is also a much more passive. I tend to think the best approach is to build using inbound marketing channels for the long-term and then supplement this activity with highly effective outbound marketing such as email marketing, social media blasts, or even PPC.
Posted by: Matt @ Social Media Management | December 18, 2010 at 12:32 PM
This is interesting to read - and now a year since posted - I believe that inbound marketing is getting bigger and is on the up. Social media, mainly Twitter, I feel has become increasingly popular and is something I use on a daily basis. I think inbound marketing finds customers that would never have been found otherwise. I do still think outbound marketing has a purpose and that it won't be leaving us any time soon - but I do think that organisations will value inbound marketing more.
I have just written an article with recent stats which could be useful - and also some tips on inbound marketing, feel free to read http://www.lucidica.com/blog/emilys-corner/is-inbound-marketing-the-new-way-forward/
Posted by: Emily | November 08, 2011 at 04:45 AM