Inbound and Outbound Marketing: Explaining The Trend Toward Inbound Marketing

What Is Outbound Marketing?
Outbound marketing refers to traditional marketing strategies that depend on trying to reach as many people as possible by paying for advertising through print media, snail mail, the telephone, billboards, radio or television for example.

What Is Inbound Marketing?
The term "inbound marketing" was conceived by Brian Halligan, the CEO and founder of HubSpot. Also known as permission marketing (coined by entrepreneur and author, Seth Godin), inbound marketing focuses on attracting and building long-lasting relationships with customers. The idea is that a company can earn attention, respect and trust from potential customers by creating and providing valuable content over the Internet. People talk about interesting and informative content, which translates into increased website traffic that can lead to conversions and sales.

Why Are More Companies Turning to Inbound Marketing?
Since Halligan began developing the concept of inbound marketing in 2005, there has been a gradual transition from outbound to inbound marketing, which now plays a more dominant role in many companies' overall marketing strategy. There are 5 main reasons why:

1. People can and do ignore outbound marketing ads. The public has become savvier to advertising, which is often viewed as intrusive. This is why outbound marketing has been known to be called "interruptive marketing" that we've learned to tune out, whether we change the channel during a commercial break or throw out fliers we receive in the mail.

2. Customers are more intelligent and more informed. These days, many purchases involve Internet research on a product or service. We're also more likely to buy from a reputable company that has demonstrated authority in its industry.

3. Prospects who find you through the compelling and useful content you share on the Internet are already searching in and interested in your field. They're targeted customers who are more likely to make a purchase.

4. The effectiveness of inbound marketing can be analyzed with precision. Halligan emphasizes that measuring results is an important part of the inbound marketing process. With web analytics, you can examine rich data on your Internet marketing campaigns and use these results to refine your strategy and increase inbound sales.

5. Inbound marketing is affordable. Small businesses especially benefit from inbound marketing because they can be as competitive as large corporations on the Internet for a much lower cost. HubSpot's 2012 "State of Inbound Marketing" report found that inbound marketing leads cost 62% less than leads from outbound marketing.