What is outbound marketing? Explained with examples
Outbound marketing is getting sidelined and less effective, like failed proposals to your crush. No matter how hard you try, your target audience has put up their barrier with ad blocker browser extensions, email spam filtering, caller ID, and whatnot. They get bombarded by 2000+ emails from different businesses. It annoys them, and all of a sudden, they don’t care.
Does that mean Outbound marketing is done for? Wait, what is outbound marketing? What makes it different from other types of marketing? What is the example? If you still have these questions, then this article might be worth reading.
What Is Outbound Marketing?
Outbound marketing methods are more traditional forms of marketing. It is the business or the organization that starts the conversation in this marketing initiative. This traditional form of marketing has an imposing nature and is used consecutively/ constantly across a wide reach of audience parameters until a handful of them respond/convert.
Some well-known examples of outbound marketing include trade shows, seminar series, and cold calling/telemarketing, email blasts. Radio ads, TV commercials, and print advertisements also fall under this category. Outbound marketing can be used for both B2C marketing and B2B marketing initiatives. These marketing strategies for marketing tend to generate lesser ROI compared to inbound marketing.
Outbound Marketing Key Points
- It is a traditional marketing method.
- The company or the business initiates the conversation in this type of marketing.
- Some outbound marketing examples would be trade shows, seminar series, cold calling, email blasts, print advertisements, TV commercials, and telemarketing.
- Businesses try to reach a Wide range of audiences using this type of marketing.
- This type of marketing generates lesser ROI compared to inbound marketing.
Outbound Marketing Examples
This form of marketing is opposed to inbound marketing, where the audience reaches out to the business in pursuit of its solution. Here are some widely utilized Outbound marketing practices.
1. Traditional Advertisement
The traditional advertisement works best for B2C marketing campaigns. Outbound marketing, as a mode of traditional marketing, uses traditional platforms extensively. Advertising products through TV commercials, billboards, print media( like magazines and newspapers), and Radio commercials are some examples and practices used in this type of marketing.
2. Digital Advertising
People are more used to digital marketing tactics nowadays than traditional ones. Digital platforms have grown more sophisticated over the last few years. They offer a more controlled and wide reach to the audience. Some digital outbound marketing efforts include –
- Search engine marketing (SEM)
- Video ads
- Over-the-top (OTT) ads
- Display ads
- Email ads
- Native advertising
- Social media ads
3. Cold Calling
Cold calling ( from the audience’s perspective) is the most notorious form of marketing. The salespersons of a company have a vast database of different audiences’ contact. They call different prospects and try to convert them. It is the most challenging aspect of outbound marketing. It is also getting more and more backdated since the prospects can block list them as spammers.
4. Event/Tradeshows
Events and tradeshows are a more expensive form of outbound marketing and generate a lesser amount of ROI. More so, Companies can organize their own events, or they can attend different events as sponsors. Additionally, companies can generate leads, convert their prospects, and retain existing customers through events and tradeshows,.
5. Email Marketing
Email marketing is a more acceptable form of cold calling. Since the business initiates the business conversations despite the audiences’ interest, it can be branded as outbound marketing. Email marketing helps businesses understand and prioritize and nurture their leads and existing customers. It is a great way to retain customers and build a brand.
Outbound Marketing Strategy
How to build y our outbound marketing strategy? Here are some worth knowing answers –
1. Understand Your Business Offerings
Your first step should be to understand the product or service offering of the business. Also, the offering differs based on whether it is B2B or B2C. Mainstream media and channels work perfectly for B2B businesses, whereas a B2B product requires more of a niche platform. You should plan your outbound strategy accordingly.
2. Know The Audience
A good outbound strategy requires a good understanding of the buyer’s persona. A good understanding of their habits, interests, and demography will help businesses find out the right channel for the right product offering.
3. Competitor Research
In the case of inbound/outbound and B2B/B2C, competitor analysis and market research are crucial parts of successful marketing. All the marketing channels you hope to use are already occupied by a massive number of competitors.
A successful business always keeps an eye on its competitor of the business. Additionally, they also check the activities, strengths, and weakness, of their competitors to find the loophole to better ROI generation through outbound marketing.
Once you are done with the steps above, you are ready to start your campaign on suitable platforms.
Inbound Vs Outbound Marketing
The main difference between outbound and inbound marketing is in who reaches out to who. In outbound marketing, businesses proactively reach out to the audience. The opposite happens in inbound marketing. Here are some key differences you need to spot–
| Inbound Marketing | Outbound Marketing |
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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs):
The above sections of this article cover the basic ideas of outbound marketing. Here are some additional questions and answers in case you need them–
1. Why Is Outbound Marketing Important?
Outbound marketing is a persistent trial to get the prospects to notice a business and convert to paying customers. As a traditional mode of marketing, it allows businesses to boost their brand awareness. That is why it is an important mode of marketing.
2. What Are Outbound Marketing Channels?
Outbound marketing channels are more traditional channels. Some outbound marketing examples include trade shows, seminar series, cold calling, email blasts, print advertisements, TV commercials, and telemarketing.
3. Which Is Best Outbound Or Inbound?
Both outbound and inbound marketing have different pros and cons. Outbound marketing is great for short-term marketing needs., boosting brand awareness and increasing sales. On the other hand, inbound marketing helps a business sustain and remains effective in the long term.
Final words
Instead of being bothered by different outbound strategies, the audience of the 21st century loves to reach out to businesses through online channels, blogs, and social media. However, it does not mean a business should dispose of its outbound strategies. On the contrary, it has its use cases and can help a business in specific ways like boosting brand name or increasing sales.
I hope that you have found the answer you were looking for. You can ask me questions in the comment section if you have any other queries.
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Shahnawaz Alam
Shahnawaz is a passionate and professional Content writer. He loves to read, write, draw and share his knowledge in different niches like Technology, Cryptocurrency, Travel,Social Media, Social Media Marketing, and Healthcare.
