The best inbound strategies to complement outbound marketing

In recent years, many companies have focused their efforts on generating and implementing inbound-based marketing strategies, believing that this is the only way to generate leads.

With the premise of "content is king", inbound marketing has become the protagonist of marketing. Although this sentence is valid in a world where social networks predominate, outbound marketing continues to play an important role in successful campaigns.

It may be considered a more traditional way of reaching your target audience, but learning to integrate these two ways of working should be of utmost importance to you or your team, as it will dramatically optimize your lead generation.

Imagine outbound as bread and inbound as peanut butter, you could easily eat either one separately, however, when combined, the taste and your satisfaction will improve.

A good marketing sandwich should contain two ingredients: inbound and outbound.

What are inbound marketing and outbound marketing?

As we have already explained, prospecting clients with these two strategies require different approaches, but before implementing an action plan we must know what they both consist of.

What is inbound marketing?

Inbound marketing can be understood as those activities designed to capture the attention of customers, generate a magnetic effect, and lead your potential customers to you.

The number of leads you generate will depend on your efforts and effectiveness in getting users to express their interest in your products or services.

What is outbound marketing?

On the other hand, outbound marketing concentrates efforts on contacting your potential customer, being your company the one that questions if there is interest. Usually, this interaction is more personal, because to question interest you have to generate personalized messages based on data collection.

These messages are usually placed on direct channels such as cold emails or social outreach, on platforms like LinkedIn.

The popular belief is that outbound marketing is too laborious and traditional, as they target messages to a single potential customer and not thousands as inbound approaches. But over the years this has changed drastically, one of the great advantages of outbound is its ability to keep messages personal even when sending more than 500 cold emails a day.

What is integrated marketing?

Integrated marketing is always present, even if it is not very noticeable. But think about it, it is impossible to generate inbound content without strategies, such as data collection, that is based on outbound.

Conversely, your outbound campaigns will be less effective if you don't have content that engages your prospect after your first contact. Once an email is read, the person will likely search for your website or your social networks.

As you can see, there is no war between which strategy is the best. For specialists, both strategies can be equally effective separately, but when combined they not only create personal links, but also effective brand awareness and brand identity.

How do I combine inbound and outbound?

As we have already said, successful campaigns integrate both types of marketing. According to the Content Marketing Institute, 69% of successful B2B marketers created their strategies from these two focuses, complementing direct contact with quality content.

If your content and your message do not provide a real solution, no strategy will work.

The lack of prominence of outbound is due to the immediate relationship we give it with traditional contact methods, such as phone calls. But with technological advances, it is no coincidence that it is the preferred model for B2B marketers.

The new tools allow the collection of thousands of data intelligently, along with an automated delivery that is still personal but now with much more reach.

With this technology, we can bring new solutions to our prospects without being invasive or incurring high costs.

The combination of these tactics, such as the intelligent use of data, will help you create more effective content. Generating content for mass audiences doesn't stop them from feeling like you're talking to just one user.

“No one cares about anything unless it applies to them, especially on the Internet!”

And in a world where integration is slowly reigning, it is almost suicide not to optimize your content to your target audience.

Another important aspect is the time in which results emerge. Content marketing and SEO strategies (both belonging to inbound) regularly get to reflect their results in the medium and long term.

If you want to grow your brand from day zero, cold emails are your perfect ally so that people will gradually identify your brand and your products. Understanding that you will not start with just any person, but with profiles of great importance to your market.

What strategies should I implement to integrate outbound and inbound?

There are three general strategies that encompass this way of working: Marketing lead growth, Product lead and Sales lead growth 

The first strategies focus their efforts on inbound recruitment in a heavy way, although they can integrate outbound strategies, they are usually based only on attraction.

The third strategy focuses its efforts on generating contact and attracting high-value profiles (leads that meet all the characteristics of your target audience) and in addition, the inbound strategy manages to reach profiles that you would not contact directly. This is achieved thanks to content, webinars, ads, eBooks, etc.

For example, you have generated content for your website, it is valuable content for your target audience and it is properly optimized for your Google ranking. People interested in the topic will enter the page thanks to your inbound efforts, several of them will qualify as your lead.

One of them will place their email address on your form, then the strategy moves to outbound practices.

Your sales team will contact that lead. Once direct interaction occurs, the chances of closing the sale become more and more feasible. To achieve this flow, you must implement effective Call To Actions.

This action can also be generated in the opposite way, your sales team contacts prospects through cold email, the prospect is hooked by your message and the possible solution you offer. Due to the interest you have already generated with outbound, the customer consults your website, reads your content, eBooks, etc. and ends up convinced that you are a good option. A move from outbound to inbound.

Consider cross paths between inbound and outbound

Let's say you are a new company and you have implemented inbound marketing strategies creating interesting content of value, the next thing is to get that valuable content to your target, you can wait for the growth to happen little by little. But you can also accelerate the process by implementing outbound strategies.

As you can see, the dynamics are cyclical.

Take advantage of your data, reinforce inbound with outbound.

One of the keys for cold emails to be effective is to direct them to profiles that are truly interested in the solutions you offer. Sometimes these people or businesses do not express it directly, but they do make a clear intention with their interactions. Leverage the data your content generates and contact people who really want to be contacted.

As you have already seen, creating a campaign that integrates inbound marketing and outbound marketing can help you achieve your goals in record time.

We adjust integrated marketing to your objectives

If you are looking to maximize the exposure of your brand or to reach your target audience, Skief Labs can be your perfect ally.

Which strategy is best? There is no right and wrong approach, we help you choose which is the perfect balance for you. Considering and evaluating different aspects, such as your objectives, the price of your product or service and even the size of your company.