Traditional marketing such as TV spots, billboards and other non-interactive advertising are quickly becoming less effective. A good way to remember it is that these are Out, or outbound marketing. It is a one way communication of your sales pitch for your brand. Inbound marketing on the other hand gets the consumer to come to you, offers value instead of a pitch and is interactive. Which one do you think is gaining more traction with the masses?
The big difference between inbound and outbound marketing is that one goes out to bring in customers; the other uses techniques to help the customer find the brand on their own. In other words, inbound marketing communicates with consumers by leveraging content that the consumer is actively looking for at that moment or regularly. This content can be the topic of an article or blog, viral content such as a video, search engine optimization (a biggie) or of course, social media. People like brands that are associated with the things that they like and have as common interests. Using inbound marketing is more about earning a buy-in and less about pushing a sales pitch.
Why is there such a big shift in the effectiveness of these marketing ideas? It's the change in the modern consumer. We are all inundated with information. We have it all right at our fingertips, eyeballs and eardrums every day. So in order to filter this deluge, the modern consumer has learned to sort and strain out what they want and don't want in their heads. Think of shows recorded on the DVR, how many would opt to sit and watch the commercials when they can simply fast forward? Instead of silently sitting while being forced to see and hear what brands want to pitch, today's consumer will go out and look only for the content they are interested in and want to see while ignoring the rest. It's the natural evolutionary adaptation in response to the information age.
Of course here at One WiFi we are huge fans of interactive inbound marketing and some outbound marketing tools as well. Email marketing for example, when done well, can be a huge boon for a brand. Our managed WiFi systems were specifically designed to leverage tools in both outbound and inbound marketing strategies keeping the evolving consumer behavior in mind. Utilizing a mixture of these strategies can help increase brand loyalty and keep the customer engaged. An engaged customer is a loyal customer.
Certainly the differences in these two schools of thought can be confusing. So here is a link to a nifty infographic on the topic of inbound marketing vs. outbound marketing plus some more info on the topic. Enjoy!
