Is inbound marketing the death of outbound?

With the rise in the prominence of the Internet, I too found myself 16 years ago caught up in the need to learn a new way of marketing, or staying true to what I have always done. Marketing as we knew it back then has had a 360 degree flip, and any marketer that didn't move with the times fell to the wayside, along with the brand that they represented.

It's important to note that the number of marketers who state they are practicing inbound marketing rose to 85% in 2014 from 60% in 2013. I am sure the old-hat marketers were reluctant to place the faith of their marketing budgets all in inbound, when outbound had got them to where they are... but the proof unfortunately for outbound marketers is in the pudding.

Last month Marketing Eye signed a new client in Atlanta that had solely focused on outbound marketing since its inception. The guy who owns the company is a fairly smart cookie, and the ultimate salesman. He realised that perhaps he had to go backwards temporarily to go forward and grow his business to the next level.

With 85% of people fast forwarding through television commercials and the rising cost of telemarketing, advertising, tradeshows and print - he knew that the only way they would continue to grow was to adopt change of the "inbound" kind.

Many believe that inbound marketing is all about content. While it certainly is important and imperative to creating inbound marketing, it wouldn't work alone without adequate search engine optimisation, website design and functionality, and a firm understanding of analytics.

At Marketing Eye, we have a strategic inbound marketing campaign in place that focuses on content creation, landing pages, email and lead nurturing, marketing automation, social media, search engine optimisation and marketing analytics. Together they produce more sales for our company than word-of-mouth. It allows us to reach more people, more often, and tailor our marketing messages to the customers interests. 

Outbound will always be there to stay and much of that has to do with marketers more so than what is the most cost efficient and effective way to reach audiences. Inbound is definitely the future and it is here to stay. As more and more tech companies invest in research and development of technology solutions aimed at reaching customers more frequently and more intimately with marketing automation - inbound will hold the majority of any marketing budget.