INBOUND, OUTBOUND AND CONTENT MARKETING – WHAT ARE THESE?
In case you didn’t know, traditional marketing and advertising is…while not exactly “dead,” it’s definitely in the palliative care unit of business.
What has replaced traditional sales models? For corporations and entrepreneurs alike, the answer is “content marketing.” Described by the Content Marketing Institute as “the art of communicating with your customers without selling to them,” content marketing is what’s driving the majority of advertising and marketing you see today.
CONTENT MARKETING
In its most basic form, content marketing means that your sales efforts are focused on creating, curating and sharing valuable and consistent content that’s aligned with the products or services you sell. The idea is that potential customers discover your content, find value in it, then continue to seek it out because it’s so darned interesting and/or entertaining. Through continued exposure to all that good content, a relationship – and trust – is built. The result is that when a customer finally reaches out they are already primed to purchase. No high pressure sales required.
WHAT DOES CONTENT MARKETING LOOK LIKE?
It is likely you see and engage with content marketing every day and don’t even know it. When it’s good, it’s entertaining, it’s informative, it imparts value and it doesn’t look anything like an advertisement.
That clever infographic, thoughtful podcast, video, webinar, e-book or the blog post that makes you laugh? Content marketing. The truthy gif, vine or even that eye-rolling captioned photo or quote? Often content marketing too.
When content marketing works, we WANT to engage with it. We may even look forward to spending time with it because – this is the hallmark - it ADDS VALUE. Somehow we’re better for it. “Adding value for free” is the quality that most distinguishes content marketing from more traditional sales approaches.
Compare: A series of episodic videos telling the hilarious story of young people in absurd circumstances without insurance, where they ultimately learn the value of insurance and how to buy it vs. sales circulars, the too-loud TV commercial or the heinous dinner-hour cold call selling the same message. We clearly don’t want to engage with the latter and if anything, feel like our lives are made worse for it, not better.
The idea central to content marketing is that a brand must give something valuable to get something valuable in return – your loyalty and business.
- James O’Brian, Contently
Content marketing has turned many businesses into de facto publishing companies as they committedly churn out content, in some cases, multiple times a day. But it works! The impact content marketing has on an organization’s consumer engagement and bottom line is growth you can measure.
INBOUND MARKETING
The term “inbound marketing” has been around for over a decade. First coined by Brian Halligan in 2005, it refers to any sales effort that brings customers or clients IN, rather than reaching out to get their attention. Inbound marketing is essentially all “carrots,” leading people down a delicious path where they ultimately purchase your product or service.
As companies draw consumers in and usher them through the so-called “purchasing funnel,” content marketing, has become the main method of attraction. So inbound marketing may be a blog, newsletter, free podcast, video, webinar or e-book. The key –again, still - is that the content provides value at no ostensible cost.
Traditional marketing talks at people. Content marketing talks with them
Consistency and quality are trademarks of the best inbound marketing strategies. Given it can take up to seven “touches” before a client is ready to buy, staying top of mind with content people want is crucial to the success of any inbound marketing plan.
OUTBOUND MARKETING
Outbound marketing is the yang to inbound marketing’s yin. If inbound is all subtle leading with treats and rewards, outbound is telling potential consumers exactly what to do and how to do it.
Inbound marketers earn their way in. Outbound marketers buy, beg or bug their way in.
Outbound marketing refers to more traditional sales models where a company reaches OUT to get the customer: phone sales, email blasts, TV and radio advertising, mail-out flyers, etc. Direct sales techniques, generally they are all methods with some kind of “call to action” on behalf of the consumer: “Buy now, sign up here, get 20% off if you jump in today,” etc.
THE COMBO PLATTER
The best marketing strategy of all is neither all one nor the other, but a combo platter of both - heavy on the inbound. Big brands like Westjet and John Deere do this incredibly well to tremendous success.
Westjet has done an amazing job at connecting with customer’s emotional core with their Christmas video campaigns, for example. Tears are shed when people watch! With nearly 3.5 million views to date and counting, this is the kind of advertising reach and branding organizations salivate over. As a consumer, we watch and feel like Westjet is a company we want to be associated with – it’s sensitive, thoughtful and responsive. Couple this with the Westjet blog, the email blast advertising 30% off your next winter vacation and beautiful beach photos and “take time for you” inspirational quotes via Instagram and Twitter, and you’ve got a marketing strategy that’s killing a lot of the competition.
John Deere likewise has a video series of beautifully shot, emotional stories of families facing the challenge of balancing full time jobs with running the family farm. Combined with the John Deere blog (yes, even JD’s blogging!), gifs, fan photos and historical fun-facts on Twitter and Instagram along with the requisite seasonal sale email blasts and snail-mail circulars, it adds up to a creative and wide-ranging marketing strategy that speaks directly to the hearts and minds of John Deere’s target market.
SOOOO….?
It doesn’t matter if you’re a company of one or ten thousand and one: if you want to grow your business, developing an inbound/outbound marketing strategy focused on quality content is key. Bill Gates said it back in 1996 (clever guy) and it’s as true today as ever: Content is King. Create value for your customers and you will be rewarded with their enthusiasm, engagement and business. Like that old shampoo commercial, when it's good, they'll tell two people, who'll two people…”