Obviously, lots of how we go-to-market is shifting. The last couple of years has been pretty much like a reinvention challenge for marketers. Every time you turn around, you're seeing new mandates about how to market, what to say, how to engage, what to measure...and the list goes on.
The biggest shift is in the availability of the technology to actually do some of this stuff without going insane. And, that's a good thing. But, it also necessitates that we stop doing what we've always done if we expect our results to change.
Then again, change is relative. If we go to extremes, we may lose some of our best processes and techniques. I'm going out on a limb here to say that "new" offers advantages. I'm also taking the side of "old"-with a refresh.
If we get really basic, we could say:
Inbound is all about getting prospects to pursue you.
Outbound is all about you pursuing prospects.
The problem for me with this delineation is that it's verbiage. I mean think about it.
- you send an email - your prospect clicks the link
- terrific - you've pulled them to your website
- if your content and offer are compelling, they'll opt in for more
This is a combination of outbound plus inbound - right?
- awareness must exist for inbound to work
- posting an article somewhere your target market will see it is an outbound effort
- when someone clicks on the link in your bio to visit your website they're inbound
Once again a combo.
If you pick up the phone and call a prospect with a valid business reason and they engage in discussion with you - that's outbound.
If, after the call, they choose to visit your website and download a white paper you mentioned during the call, that's an inbound response.
You see, quite frankly, I don't know how you separate one from the other.
The only distinction I see is the context and focus. If you're sharing compelling content and conversations your prospects find valuable, you're going to cultivate their interest.
If you're not, no matter how much effort you put behind either inbound or outbound, the results will be dismal. Marketing just doesn't work in a vacuum.
There's a lot of hype around relationship marketing, conversational marketing and customer engagement. By their very nature, each of them is indicative of two-way exchanges. Therefore, the combo pack of inbound and outbound.
Am I missing something?
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