The short answer is, yes. And the long answer is… well, yes.
The short answer is, yes. And the long answer is… well, yes.
When we think about marketing, we think about TV advertisements, billboards, print advertisements, email marketing, direct mail marketing etc. What’s the one thing that all these methods have in common? They’re all outbound. They all involve the company reaching out to the consumer to try to convince them to buy the product in question.
People are so used to the idea that marketing is outbound that they can’t always grasp the concept of inbound marketing. So when their digital agency recommends that they try it, their first impulse is to shrug their shoulders and move on. However, as per this article at Entrepreneur, “the days of outbound marketing are over.”
Does Outbound Marketing Really Work?
Think about this from your own point of view. How many of the TV advertisements you’ve viewed lately have made you want to run out and buy the featured product? What about print ads? What about billboards? The thing about billboards is that they’re difficult to ignore. But does that mean that you buy more of whatever they’re trying to sell?
Direct mail marketing and email marketing are even more selectively successful. Most people just take the brochures they receive in the mail and dump them in their trash cans as soon as they enter their houses. Promotional emails are automatically redirected to spam.
Once in a while, an advertisement you come across might help you remember something you need. And, of course, traditional advertising and marketing methods do have a subliminal effect. You may not run out to buy the product they’re selling immediately. But seeing the same advertisement or email over and over will help you to remember the product and might, in the long run, induce you to try it.
So outbound marketing methods do work but they have a somewhat low rate of success. People are so used to being bombarded by them that they tend to tune them out. This article from Forbes puts it very bluntly: “people don’t like ads.”
Does Inbound Marketing Really Work?
Inbound marketing has the advantage of originating in the mind of the customer. Once a customer recognizes that they need something, they’re much more likely to look up the company, do the necessary research and actually buy the product. In order to understand how this works, consider the following customer journey:
Sounds too good to be true? That’s because it is. Not every company or website is as well-prepared as the one described here. Some companies might have a website but may not yet be prepared for prom season. Others might have started promoting their prom dresses already but may not have updated their blogs or social media pages quite yet. Yet others might be missing crucial colors and sizes in their inventory.
This is because many companies don’t realize the value of inbound marketing, which involves being ready when the consumer does a search for you on the internet. You have to be able to give the customer all the information they need, which can be done via your blog and social media pages. You have to simplify their customer journey; make it easy for them to find you and buy your product. You have to convince them that you’re a brand worth investing in, which is done by regularly updating your website and your social media pages. These are the crucial components of inbound marketing.
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