With around 32.5 million other small businesses in the US alone, you have your work cut out for you in terms of grabbing customers. Even if you don’t compete with all of those other businesses directly for customer dollars, you do compete with them for customer attention.
The heavy lifting for snagging that customer attention, and eventually those customer dollars typically boils down to marketing. While you can subdivide marketing in many ways, you can typically split it up into inbound and outbound marketing.
Are you asking, “What is outbound marketing?” Keep reading for a breakdown of outbound marketing and whether it’s effective.
What Is Outbound Marketing?
The simplest explanation of outbound marketing is that it’s when a business communicates with the customer first. Classic outbound marketing examples include TV ads and radio spots. The business creates the ad and then transmits it out into the world where customers see it.
Outbound Vs Inbound Marketing
You often see outbound marketing explained in an outbound vs inbound marketing context. Inbound marketing looks for ways to encourage people to, for example, visit their website. They typically do this through high-quality content that helps you build trust and establish your brand.
A couple of inbound marketing examples might include a how-to video or an ebook.
Types of Outbound Marketing
There are several types of outbound marketing. There are the high-profile TV ads and radio spots mentioned above, along with print ads. For many small businesses, TV and radio are often high-cost options with an uncertain ROI.
Let’s look at some of the other, often less expensive options.
Email Marketing
One of the most popular and arguably most effective outbound marketing techniques is email marketing. The thing you shouldn’t do is write a generic email and send it out to 100 recipients.
If you’re cold-emailing, you must do some research on the recipients. Tailor the email to their business needs. Also, make sure that the email goes to someone involved in decision-making for the product or service.
You can see some good marketing email examples here.
Direct Mail
Next up is direct mail. Direct mail typically caters to a larger audience than cold emailing, so you get less personalization. Make sure you use a mailing list that corresponds with your ideal customer profile.
Online Ads
Search engines and social media sites will let you buy ads on their platforms. These can potentially put your ads in front of many excellent prospects. They also provide you with more control over your ad spend.
Just make sure you tightly target your ad recipients.
Outbound Marketing and You
With the question of what is outbound marketing covered, it mostly becomes a matter of effectiveness. Is outbound marketing effective?
Yes, it can prove effective. It can let you reach people you might otherwise never reach. You can even target it fairly precisely.
In most cases, though, you’re best served with a combination of inbound and outbound.
Looking for more marketing tips? Check out the posts over in our Business section.
