You would wonder that when Inbound Marketing is in high fashion, why do we need to talk about outbound marketing? The solution is clear. Within the marketing world, it still exists and plays a crucial rule in attracting the so-called “appropriate” consumer. The new-age marketers, however, perceive it as an outdated marketing strategy that is fading away.
Customers now have access to a lot of details about what they want to purchase. Having a structured selling process is necessary, primarily when we are talking about complex sales. When your company is involved in making commercial deals and has a long-term purchasing process, techniques for it can be a rewarding investment.
To dispel this misconception, we bring this “What is Outbound Marketing: A Beginners Guide 2019” to aid the new-age marketers, and advertisers understand the importance.
Outbound Marketing Meaning
It is a method of aggressive exploration. Outbound Marketing strategy involves actions that allow your sales team to get directly to the potential customers of your brand. The process of outbound marketing considers the consumer journey and happens critically, helping the organization to calculate the results. Your sales force can meet a higher number of clients by using Outbound Marketing techniques.
Who Should use Outbound Marketing?
After the Outbound Marketing meaning, let us move to it’s use. Since the digital transition, Inbound Marketing has gained a lot of attention in recent years. The truth is, however, that people are still much more inclined towards companies they have in the first touch to communicate. It, therefore, increases the chance of direct interaction, allowing companies to grow significant and loyal clients.
Everyone seems to be aware that with the growth of the internet, Digital Marketing took over the marketing landscape. This has made room for new, innovative, and online advertisement and marketing methods. It has actually lost its worthiness during this period. Nonetheless, some businesses do use Outbound Marketing in their overall marketing system.
As said, it’s ultimate objective is to produce targeted leads that can be converted into prospective and long-lasting clients. Therefore, for businesses looking forward to getting on the road of attracting buyers, outbound marketing is one of the effective ways to reach out in comparatively less time to a relatively broad audience.
The very first thing you need to decide is the aim of your marketing plan to employ Outbound Marketing in your overall marketing strategy. Decide whether to create brand awareness or approach certain parts of the audience. Target customers you want. See what’s the most efficient way of meeting your clients. Also, test the industry in which you are working. Outbound marketing, for instance, would prove to be a lucrative marketing strategy for a local restaurant owner who wants to draw a massive local audience.
Benefits
However, this is no brainstormer because Inbound Marketing is successful, that does not make Outbound Marketing less efficient. Here are some of the outbound marketing benefits which make it the appropriate marketing strategy for you.
1. High Speed
2. Efficient Branding
Most of the companies think Inbound Marketing is the perfect way to do successful branding. That’s real, but you should definitely not forget that you need to have direct contact with them if you want to have accurate and relevant information to the target audience. This is only possible with the aid of an outbound marketing campaign that is great & well thought out.
3. Quantitative and Flexible
Inbound marketing takes a considerable amount of time to produce results. The time period also stretches to months, occasionally. Outbound marketing, on the other hand, is extremely scalable and produces results very quickly because it interacts directly with the target audience.
4. Certified Lead Creation
Although Inbound Marketing generates a lot of leads, it definitely does not guarantee highly competent leads. Outbound marketing, on the other hand, helps vendors to approach the ideal prospects, which are highly adapted towards conversions. Thus, you can move forward with the valuable leads directly with the aid of Outbound Marketing.
How to Develop an Outbound Marketing Campaign?
It is about sending out messages to the target audience. Whatever strategies are used, customers and individuals are always targeted via a wide range of branding and marketing messages.
1. Assessment of the Product/Service
The very first step in an Outbound Marketing Strategy is to determine the product/service they will deliver. Analyze your service and product, and check what makes it different from the rest.
Is the product or service Industry Compatible? Is it meeting specific requirements?
2. Data Compilation
You need to collect data to get the answers to the above-listed questions. In the case of a company, you can conduct surveys, interviews, offer free samples, or perform a demo in case of a service. Using the feedback created to further improve your product or service, and then build a target market list.
3. Develop Messages
The next step is to build messages after setting out the target audience. Be sure to include something in your post that will draw the audience’s attention in the first shot and produce a positive response.
4. Platform Selection
Choose the platforms for your message to be delivered based on the target audience. A broad audience that needs mass media such as television, radio, newspaper, or a magazine. In contrast, brochures, emails, or even calls can take care of a small audience.
Outbound Marketing Strategies
It should be remembered that the old ones are not to be discarded with the advent of modern approaches. It has maintained its position on the market by establishing itself only in this case.
Outbound Marketing has linked up with the B2B domain and announced an outbound marketing strategy to keep up with the growing trend. A business plan is an integral part of the strategy. If it is well designed and optimally executed, a B2B Outbound Marketing Plan will help you generate eligible leads.
What is B2B Outbound Marketing Strategy?
It has embraced the most recent Inbound Marketing Principles. The explanation for this is that Targeting requires outbound marketing. Through using the internet, you can work easily to generate leads with a huge amount of database. You can also differentiate the unwanted leads created with the aid of the internet & work on the good ones.
The new Outbound marketing strategies look forward to providing future customers with a value-based link. This can be done by informing and educating customers about their problems and coming up with solutions.
Eventually, the new outbound marketing techniques provide the target audience with tailored and personalized messages. The most popular strategy is to use their names and provide solutions to the most likely problems.
Components of B2B outbound marketing strategy
1. Email Marketing
Indeed, people still regard a direct and aggressive approach as worthwhile. Thus, discounts can get you a wider range of targeted audiences by creating emails with promotions, product releases, and launch. The leads generated by the direct mail campaigns are valuable because they have better conversion chances.
2. Event Marketing
Event marketing is an effective way to create long-lasting, lead-generating relationships with your target audience. Event Marketing typically focuses on engaging in upselling and cross-selling practices with existing customers. Events like webinars, conventions, trade shows, a public product presentation, or seminars may be of any kind.
3. Inside Sales
The ability to turn leads into sales is one of the most critical and important elements of outbound marketing. That emphasizes the internal sales team’s role. They take up the marketing-generated leads to review from the viewpoint of sales. They start their careers after shortlisting the potential leads, to turn those leads into sales.
4. Lead Nurturing & Scoring
It is not justified to generate leads just for the sake of it. If you think that once you have generated leads, your task is over, then you are wrong. There are a lot of leads created that aren’t ready to convert. You can send them emails on a regular basis to turn the cold lead into a warm one, with the aid of lead nurturing. You may also give them lead scores to see just how close they are to converting.
How to Choose the Right Channel for Outbound Marketing Strategy?
Whenever there is a debate about outbound marketing, all tactics & outbound marketing examples such as cold calling, direct mails, TV advertisements, radio, and print advertising are usually taken into account. Nonetheless, all these strategies are valuable, but in terms of B2B and B2C, their use differs.
Television advertising, for outbound marketing examples, is very costly, and its reliability for B2B is questionable. The reason for this is that reaching the target B2B customers ass they don’t listen to the radio nowadays becomes quite difficult. B2B items are often very complex and require detailed explanations.
Television ads, on the other hand, is also a strong outbound marketing tool for reaching out to B2C customers because most of them watch TV as a source of relaxation. B2C products also require minimal explanation and, therefore, TV can be a good outbound marketing strategy for connecting with B2C customers.
Thus, when choosing which channel to use for B2B or B2C, you should acknowledge the channel’s performance, scope, and potential with respect to the customer category.
Professionals Who Work with Outbound Marketing Strategies
1. Outbound Marketing Assistants
They are the outbound marketing assistants who make the very first contact with the target audience. They use common outbound marketing strategies such as cold-calling, emails, and sales events. By presenting product and service information, they create interaction with the target audience. They further create potential audience lists through sales activity and signify the business in sales and marketing events as well.
2. Marketing Copywriters
They are the ones who are ultimately responsible for generating the messages sent by outbound marketing strategies. They create engaging content that makes readers appreciate the product/service and want to it. They often work with the design team to develop graphics specific to the product or service. They also engage in public relations events, media interviews, and public speaking processes.
3. Product Marketing Managers
They are responsible for implementing the company’s goods and services outbound marketing activities. As well as planning meetings, workshops, conferences, and presentations, they organize the launch of the goods & services.
The Inbound and Outbound Mix
Well, in fact, both Inbound and Outbound Marketing have their own set of advantages and disadvantages. So you need a perfect blend of Inbound and Outbound Marketing Strategy to attract huge target audiences and develop positive and long-lasting relationships with them. With the help of Search Engine Optimization, optimize your website. Build appropriate and insightful content that is associated positively with your target audience’s interest. Increase and communicate with social media interactions via email campaigns.
Hopefully, by now, you would have grasped the idea of outbound marketing and debunked the theory about it’s downfall. So, if you’re looking too much to expand your marketing efforts, include it in your overall strategy.
Pros
1. Predictable
When the company constructs the sales process, the conversion rates of each member of the sales team can be known, the stage of the funnel your customers are, and other relevant information. All of these data will give you details on how to plan your development. If you need 2 salespeople, you can increase your sales by hiring more salespeople to convert 100 leads to 10 customers.
2. Customized
Its close approach allows for a higher level of customization. This way, you can establish a relationship with your customers based on their needs and objectives. This strategy will increase the chances of concluding deals.
3. A Complement to Inbound Marketing Actions
If a company introduces and runs an Inbound Marketing campaign, it will draw more leads. But if there is no strategy for the next steps, this method may not work correctly. It is a strategy that complements this process, influencing those leads to the deal being closed.
Cons
1. High Cost
Outbound Marketing approaches typically require higher budgets, and most businesses are afraid. The project needs to operate with a professional team, specialized resources, and good management. In addition, the organization must be mindful of the expense that may arise during the campaign. That is why measuring Return on Investment ( ROI) is so relevant.
2. One Way Communication
Digital marketing strategies run to indirectly capture the customer’s attention. The result is that customers are looking to buy the company’s solution. It, in contrast, approaches customers when they have not requested it. This action can make them feel uncomfortable and less purchase focused.
3. Adblocking
Another consequence of the unrequested approach could be a blocking action by the audience. Many people today know how to use technologies like advertisement blockers, phone call blockers, and email spam filters. They are also very good at unsubscribing from unsolicited mailing lists.
Conclusion
It is true, it’s heart and soul is effective communication. Although Inbound Marketing takes all the love of new-age marketers, for many companies, Outbound still takes up a majority of marketing budgets.
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