What is Outbound Marketing?

Like the name suggests, outbound marketing is essentially the opposite of inbound marketing and is more in-line with traditional marketing concepts. Contrary to inbound marketing, outbound marketing is a form of internet marketing that gains attention to a brand or product by actively reaching OUT to consumers, rather than waiting for them to find it on their own.

Examples of Outbound Marketing

• Banner ads
• ‘Chat with a Live Sales Rep’ feature on websites
• Direct email campaigns
• Google Adwords (PPC)

• Pop-up ads
• Sponsoring websites
• Writing and distributing press releases to the media
• YouTube commercials

Benefits of Outbound Marketing

The main benefit of outbound marketing is that it tends to generate immediate results and feedback from consumers. You can quickly see whether a tactic is working or not, and compare cost to direct sales. If something isn’t working well, you can take immediate steps to improve the strategy before a lot of time and money is invested.

Mixing Inbound & Outbound

Marketing is always about understanding what the target audience wants, and delivering it to them. Different strategies work on different audiences. Combining tactics from multiple marketing concepts like inbound and outbound will help you cast a wider net. An example of mixed inbound and outbound marketing could be to write a really useful eBook and then use a direct email campaign to tell people about how they can go to your website to download it. Keep in mind that inbound marketing relies on trust from the consumer, so your outbound efforts should always respect that relationship. In other words, don’t spam!

Tags: Digital Marketing • Questions & Answers