If you are involved in the world of marketing, it’s quite likely you’ve come across inbound and outbound marketing. For those not so familiar, outbound marketing is more traditional, using advertising on channels such as TV, radio, magazines, billboards and telemarketing.

Inbound marketing, using content to influence the sales cycle, relies on more organic reach through creating useful and informative content that people want to read such as blogs, video and podcasts.

More simply, outbound likes to interrupt, while inbound draws in and engages your audience by fulfilling consumer needs. Inbound focuses on influencing the reader whilst in the research phase of the buying cycle which is critical as 57% of the buyer’s purchase decision is made before they make contact with a solution provider.

Long term cost considerations

As every marketer knows, inbound marketing tactics such as content creation, social remarketing, Google ads and organic SEO can sometimes take longer to see results.

It is sometimes thought that outbound tactics provide a better targeting option, but it has been found that the leads they generate won’t necessarily convert in the same way as inbound leads.

By building trust with your audience, inbound offers a greater opportunity for growth and a larger recurring audience. Inbound leads are more likely to buy after they have read your content and engaged with a business on social platforms such as LinkedIn or Facebook. This means a higher volume of potential and greater ROI in the long term. In fact, Hubspot reports that inbound marketing tactics see a per-lead cost that’s 61% less than their outbound campaigns.

Search engines love inbound

In today’s online world, it’s important your website gets the traffic edge over your competitors. Google’s algorithm loves content, which in turn boosts your search engine optimisation (SEO) and visitors to your site.