The art of bringing together a brand and its consumers is continually reinventing itself. The emergence of new media, the saturation of others, marketing strategies adapt. In 2005, the latest revolution to date, the birth of inbound marketing, a new approach where we patiently "bait" rather than "hunt" the customer in the public space.
Before the digital lawyer database explosion and the endless possibilities it offers, marketing was limited to very simple means based on advertising and promotion.
These more traditional techniques have been renamed " outbound (vs inbound) marketing ". Should you choose one or the other? Not so sure! Things are a little more subtle than that and today, outbound is reinventing itself. But what exactly is outbound marketing ? What realities does it cover? What is the difference with inbound marketing? How to set up an inbound marketing strategy? How can it be characterized? We tell you everything in this article.
Also called push marketing or inbound marketing, it consists of "pushing" commercial messages to consumers without them having requested them. This is the case for all actions in traditional operational marketing . They are a response to the objectives of awareness, sales and loyalty. They use promotional techniques. These actions remain an important part of BtoC marketing (towards end consumers).
Here are some of the most common outbound marketing actions as examples .
Sales canvassing: it is carried out by telephone, email, SMS, conversational agent (chatbot) on digital media. The sales force is in direct contact with the end customer.
Advertising: by posting in public spaces or at the point of sale, it can also be broadcast in television and radio messages. These oldest techniques have a hard life, despite their high cost.
Buying digital space: Display campaigns on digital media or paid search (SEA) put brands in front of consumers. They appear directly on their screens, their favorite platforms, their news feeds, their video games. This is the new public space.
Social Ads: Advertisers rent space on their potential customers' social networks. Amidst news from acquaintances and friends, from the star to the fashionista, brands solicit them.
What is the difference between inbound marketing and outbound marketing?
The Content Marketing Revolution
In contrast, inbound marketing, or content marketing, or inbound marketing, was born in 2005. Theorized by Brian Halligan, head of Hubspot, a pioneering software for these new approaches, inbound consists of brands no longer soliciting through imposed advertising. More subtly, it arouses interest by creating high added value content, recognized by search engines.