Inbound vs. Outbound Marketing: Pros & Cons

"The aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well the product or service fits him and sells itself.” With the changing marketing scenario, every year the customers become more demanding and their chase for new products and services are also accelerating. Hence, the businesses always need to rush to stay ahead of the competition.

Today’s business must follow a good marketing strategy to insure that they are meeting the maximum needs of their customers. According to Wikipedia, “Marketing Strategy is a process that can allow an organization to concentrate its limited resources on the greatest opportunities to increase sales and achieve a sustainable competitive advantage.” Necessitating the present market conditions, this stuff discusses the pros and cons of the (Inbound and Outbound) new and old marketing strategies.

Inbound Marketing: Inbound Marketing is the simple process of bringing potential customers to your business by reaching where your potential customers hang out, engaging in conversations with them and drawing them to your website, blog or brick and mortar store. This process is also known as content marketing and pulls marketing. Inbound Marketing tactics used by businesses to reach potential customers and current customers include blogs, articles, newsletters, Twitter, Facebook, webinars, podcasts, videos, social networking sites, and websites just to name a few. 

Pros of Inbound Marketing
• Inexpensive way of marketing
• Handled by one person
• Effective for all size businesses
• Levels the playing field
• Reaches targeted Customers
• Build credibility and loyalty

Cons of Inbound Marketing
• Time consuming
• Can be overwhelming
• Can be slow to produce results
• Learning curve can be long and confusing
• Can be difficult to measure results

Outbound Marketing: Outbound Marketing is the process of pushing potential customers towards your business by interrupting potential customers and customers with your message in places where they hang out. This process is also called interruption marketing and push marketing. Outbound marketing is about telling listeners about your product or service and pushing them towards your website, blog or brick and mortar store. Outbound Marketing tactics used by businesses to reach potential customers include cold-calling, commercials, post-cards, direct mail, radio spots, trade shows, just to name a few. The key to Outbound Marketing is reaching as many people as possible to attract enough people to purchase your product or service.

Pros of Outbound Marketing
• Reaches the masses
• Effectiveness can be measured
• Offers tried and true results

Cons of Outbound Marketing
• Too Expensive
• Conversions rates are very low, usually 1-3%
• Harder to get prospects to listen to messages
• Prospects are turned off by interruption messages
• Prospects are less trustful of outbound messages
• Does not engage prospects

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