In the present business world, marketing and advertising strategies can be broadly divided into two categories – inbound marketing and outbound marketing. Inbound marketing is the process of attracting customers towards your business while outbound marketing is the process in which you approach customers.

In terms of the effect they have on target audience, outbound marketing is perceived as an “interruption” while inbound marketing is perceived as “engagement”. This difference in perception defines the distinction between the two marketing methods.

Relevance to current customer behavioral trends

According to a recent study conducted by Mashable, outbound marketing is on a steady decline. The study found that 86 percent of people change to another channel during television commercials.

Direct mail fails to perform satisfactorily because nearly 44 percent of recipients do not open them. Ads, banners and pop ups posted on different websites and blogs receive unsatisfactory returns because more than 80 percent of people block them out.

Additionally, Hubspot conducted a survey and found that an average person sees nearly 5000 outbound marketing ads every week. So, naturally, people have grown reluctant to these strategies.

Inbound marketing in the other hand, is riding high these days, especially because of the increase in the use of the Internet. The Hubspot report reveals that almost 78 percent Internet users research for products on the web.

The report also says that nearly nine out of ten Internet users participate actively in at least one of the many social networking sites and nearly 25 percent people write reviews or post comments about products they buy and use.

Considering this sort of consumer behaviour, you can say that inbound marketing is in better resonance with the current trends.

Marketing Costs

Outbound marketing, be it television ads, use of print media, online ad posting or mail marketing, is expensive. Inbound marketing is much cheaper. In fact, costs of inbound marketing are negligible if you attempt it on your own.

For example, organic link building costs nothing. You can write and post articles for no additional expenses. Interaction with target customers on social media, which is one of the main inbound marketing strategies, is free of cost. You don’t need to pay to guest blog, create communities or post comments on relevant places.

However, if you want quicker results, you should consider hiring a professional Internet marketing company that offers comprehensive services. Even if you consider the cost of hiring a professional, the total expenses involved in outbound marketing are much more than inbound marketing.

Return on Investment (ROI)

Naturally, engagement is always more powerful and effective than interruption. So, by implementing a well strategized inbound marketing campaign, the returns you obtain on your money is much higher than any method used in outbound marketing.

Return time

Inbound marketing gets you returns sooner. Additionally, when you implement inbound strategies, you are very specific about the customers you target. So, your business receives more number of target customers. Subsequently, conversion rate of visitors is high. Outbound marketing, on the other hand, is often akin to shooting in the dark.

User experience

Inbound marketing makes the target customers active participants in the campaign. So, the experience is much better. In outbound marketing, customers are usually passive recipients and so, user experience is lower.

Inbound marketing definitely beats outbound marketing in several fronts. Let us know what you think of the impact of Inbound Marketing on your business!