Inbound marketing vs. Outbound marketing for companies!
For many years, marketing has been changing it’s form and coming us within different ways. The internet has also become a key actor in the last 15 years.
Today, companies also have two lives: Online and offline!
Source of image: https://bitly.com/blog/what-is-inbound-marketing-vs-outbound-marketing/
In the past, company owners mostly reached leads and prospects upon close and small communities, trade fairs or bilateral relations in common.
When they had an opportunity for advertising, they communicated with sectoral magazines, televisions, offline billboards, etc.
All in all these were just only outbound marketing activities. Then, rising of the internet started to change everything.
Now, billboards are inside of people’s telephone. People see personal ads because of cookies.
People don’t need to talk with sales people, when they decide to buy something. These are also steps of sales 1.0 and sales 2.0.
We call this inbound marketing beside outbound marketing. Whether it is online or not, some internet activities can also be thought as outbound marketing.
For example, pop ups and pop unders are outbound.
It is very important to understand the nature of inbound and outbound marketing.
What is an inbound marketing?
It is the marketing activities that attract people with helpful content and resources. It means that a buyer is going to reach those contents and resources, when a buyer needs something and start searching. For example, blogs, products in the website, videos, etc.
What is an outbound marketing?
It is the marketing activities that push messaging out to a buyer, when a buyer mostly not thinking about that companies products. For example, offline billboards, tv, radio, print ads, trade fairs, etc. It can be defined as interruption marketing.
Source of image: https://ariadpartners.com/inbound-vs-outbound-marketing/
While inbound marketing can be thought as a “magnet”, outbound marketing can be thought like “loudspeaker”
So companies websites are very important about inbound marketing. Most companies still don’t understand the importance of inbound marketing.
They are thinking that they can attract leads with just only paid ads. Performance marketing is just a branch of inbound marketing. PPC. What about SEO?
Source of image: https://www.proceedinnovative.com/blog/when-stop-doing-seo/
What about the importance of contents and resources? Companies may think blogs as contents and products as resources.
More than this, what about a print media, a PR, a thought leadership, a community building, an influencer outreach, an earned social media, a world of mouth marketing, a viral affect, video contents, etc.
When you dive deeply to inbound marketing, it is much more like a team work under marketing and this team also communicate well with the sales team, customers, leads and prospects, employees.
Marketing is very close to HR, but it should be placed to the center of the company.
Beside websites there is another way of becoming online.
For example marketplaces. Bidustry is also one of them. It is industrial B2B marketplace for sellers and buyers.
If you are an industrial manufacturer or supplier, you can also have online channels to your company with your products at Bidustry.
Source of image: https://www.bidustry.com/en
Companies can also upload all their product to marketplaces so as to increase the number of online channels to them.
Most marketplaces offer three value propositions:
-To Increase brand awareness,
-More online channels to your company at search engines,
-Leads and prospects.
There are different types of marketplaces. B2B marketplaces, B2C marketplaces, C2C marketplace, niche marketplaces…
The most importantly, which one is fit for your company. For example, B2C marketplaces mostly work with consumers at buyers side. They offer payment and logistic options for buyers.
There is one decision maker. Mostly adding the product to the cart. Then payment and logistic.
If your company is working with companies, it means that you are working B2B.
B2B marketplaces structure may be different because there are 4 decision makers average at buyers side. Product prices are higher and changeable in the way of a stock status, manufacturing quantities and global logistic costs, etc.
As a result of all:
-Inbound marketing is rising,
-Your website is very important.
-Alternative resources like marketplaces for your company are also very important.
So what % of your company leads are being expected from inbound sources in 2023?
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