Can a company today survive on inbound marketing? Why or why not? What is the
role of outbound marketing?
Absolutely not. A company could not survive on inbound marketing alone. Due to the popularity of the internet and social media by individuals and now companies, inbound marketing has become a critical addition to the marketing tool belt, but is not a stand alone strategy. The sales teams outbound efforts are critical to a companies success. The inbound efforts may help better target the outbound efforts, however the inbound marketing can not stand alone.
Certainly for a start up, perusing the inbound marketing approach is a reasonable choice since the cost is significantly less. However, as soon as financially possible, a company needs to invest in outbound marketing. In order to establish a strong brand, there is a consumer expectation that your branding is prominent. All the brands that advertise at sporting events, highway billboards, and television and typically viewed as being a strong brand; Coke, Chevy, Capital One, Verizon, etc. Large commercial product companies with out an outbound marketing strategy would leave themselves conspicuously absent from the market landscape.
Inbound marketing can certainly aid in determining demographics and even specific target leads, however, you still need direct marketing to engage with these leads. The problem is that it limits you to only the confines of the internet. It's funny to me how many of the social media marketing consultants spout that "business is social" in an effort to illustrate that our historically personal social media profiles can be utilized for business. I agree that social media is indeed social, however, I would also point out that trade shows are social, and sales calls are social.
I believe a balance can be reached between inbound and outbound marketing. Inbound marketing limits you to selling to only that are looking to buy. A good salesman will be able to sell things that people arn't naturally looking buy. Inbound should be getting peoples attention, so the the outbound team can follow the leads to the customer.
I think the inbound vs outbound discussion is very different for start-ups and established corporation. Social media has allowed start-ups to market and increase sales without the investment, and this has allowed for brand development faster and cheaper.
ReplyDeleteIts hard to speculate how brands like Coke, Chevy, Capital One, etc would have approached things if they were developed in a time of social media and inbound marketing. This is something that has interested me since our discussions and the HubSpot case. It is interesting how brands like Coke are trying to break into social media and use inbound while other brands, like Bai5 who used basically inbound and social media are now buying ad space on bill boards, bus sides, etc.
Can a start-up really afford to rely on inbound marketing alone, until they have the finances to pay for outbound marketing? Much depends on the type of company and what product or services they intend to offer. For those firms with large start up costs to develop and manufacture their initial product, waiting for interest from their target market is not an option. They must engage these potential customers as soon as possible... letting them know this product exists, will solve problems they didn't even know they had and build demand. Generating this kind of general awareness can only be accomplished through outbound marketing.
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