{"id":103069,"date":"2014-05-19T10:02:59","date_gmt":"2014-05-19T17:02:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/feedproxy.google.com\/~r\/GleansterInsightsBlog\/~3\/DuyzJMBJhwk\/"},"modified":"2014-05-19T10:03:13","modified_gmt":"2014-05-19T17:03:13","slug":"whats-the-end-game-for-inbound-and-outbound-marketing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/customerthink.com\/whats-the-end-game-for-inbound-and-outbound-marketing\/","title":{"rendered":"What\u2019s the End Game for Inbound and Outbound Marketing?"},"content":{"rendered":"
Outbound marketing had its heyday. Back then, Mad Men got rich by telling buyers what to do (\u201cdrink this and you\u2019re hip\u201d) and buyers listened. Then consumers were empowered with digital and social connections and they started to wise up. Today, buyers are easily fatigued by irrelevant communications and they are quick to opt out, ignore, or, worse, flag it as spam. So we ushered in a new framework and coined it inbound marketing. The idea behind inbound marketing was that the relevance of quality content will engage just the right target audience at just the right stages of the buying cycle \u2013 and hopefully, they reach out to you. (To learn more check out the Gleanster CheatSheet on Inbound Marketing<\/a>\u00a0or the one on Content Marketing<\/a>.)<\/p>\r\n\r\n But we are all starting to get more and more frustrated by the astronomical amount of content online. Some of it is good, but most of it is just noise. Ironically, the very catalyst for this explosion of \u201cinbound\u201d content was an attempt to resonate more intimately with buyers because generic outbound communications were not as effective. But can we abuse inbound content and create too much of it? Can we create so much that buyers become fatigued and frustrated? What happens when everyone starts trying to resonate more intimately with buyers? Can too much content lead to diminished effectiveness of yet another marketing tactic?<\/p>\r\n Outbound marketing has been diminishing in effectiveness for the better part of a decade. But make no mistake, diminished effectiveness does not mean it\u2019s not effective. The tried and true elements of advertising still have a role. For example, the rapidly growing real-time bidding of online advertising inventory is still done with CPM pricing. That\u2019s right, cost per 1,000 impressions. Why? It works! Exposing buyers to a brand multiple times still has an impact on sales. So don\u2019t toss out the old for the new quite yet. Traditional channels like direct mail, email marketing, and display still perform in predictable ways. Sure, performance may be half what it was a decade ago, but there\u2019s still a role for it. That suggests outbound marketing will have a role decades from now. So what about inbound marketing?<\/p>\r\n Buyers are savvy, and they are connected. But so are marketers. Social media isn\u2019t just about the consumer; it brought parity to the competitive differentiators in your marketing strategy. Before digital, marketers could count on longer-term advantages with a good campaign slogan or tag line. Think Different. Got Milk? Just do it. In an offline world, it took much longer to establish a credible slogan for a brand, but it also lasted longer than it does today. Today, taglines and slogans are fleeting. Sure, they may trend on social media and they may generate buzz, but it\u2019s generally very short lived. That\u2019s because our attention span as consumers is a few seconds. You have 2 seconds to capture a visitor\u2019s attention on a website. The problem, as I see it, is that we may inevitably move toward an abundance of digital content that undermines your ability to stand out.<\/p>\r\nThere\u2019s Still a Place for Outbound<\/h2>\r\n
But Inbound Is on Probation<\/h2>\r\n