Rocks – Paper – Scissors…Hammer – Magnet
Comparing inbound marketing to outbound marketing is like playing a game of rock-paper-scissors. The age-old dilemma always begs: if rock crushes scissors, scissors cuts paper, and paper covers rock, then which is the strongest?
Our answer: none of them. We prefer to use more advanced tools for marketing.
For much of the 20th century, outbound marketing practices have been the standard—cold calls, direct mail, print advertising, and email blasts. Unfortunately, consumers have more ways of avoiding marketing messages than ever before, drastically changing outbound marketing trends. Do you like watching TV ads? Do you enjoy receiving junk mail? While the answer might be no, we firmly believe that outbound marketing will never die. Video didn’t kill the radio star, after all.
With outbound marketing methods already intact, a solid inbound marketing plan can offer any campaign a shoulder to lean on and create warmer leads. Like a magnet, inbound methods take advantage of digital mediums such as blogs, YouTube videos, Search Engine Optimization, websites, email blasts and social media pages to attract a focused group of consumers based on their interests and internet consumption habits. Such methods allow consumers to interact, ask questions, comment, like (or dislike), share and learn more about the product or service. More importantly, digital marketing success can be quantified and measured, allowing marketers to understand what works, what doesn’t, and why. Inbound marketing tactics foster relationships between a consumer and a brand, and according to the Corporate Executive Board, via inbound marketing, buyers come 57%-70% through the sales funnel before they contact the seller.
So, if inbound marketing is like a magnet, luring people in with the unstoppable force that is dynamic, relevant content; and outbound is like a hammer whose repetitive knocks might distract you at first, but are only the first part of something bigger; then Strategis has a clear advantage in the game. Unlike a game of rock-paper-scissors where only one tactic wins, Strategis prefers to join forces, combining the hammer and the magnet, inbound and outbound, to create brands that are founded on trust, cooperation and integration.
