Marketing campaigns often differ regarding marketing techniques used, depending on the business and the campaign objectives. There have been so many changes in the past decade regarding successful marketing techniques, which has lead to the development of many different tools and platforms that can be utilised in a variety of ways. Today, both traditional and modern ways of marketing are present in campaigns, often referred to as outbound and inbound marketing… but are both still effective, or have times changed?
Outbound techniques, are also known as traditional advertising methods including platforms such as television, radio advertising, print advertising, telemarketing, direct mail and outdoor advertising. It is often thought of as being a mass media tool to push adverts onto the public, without any specific targeting. The end result depends on whether enough people who view your advertisement, have a particular interest in your campaign and hence convert into a lead. For example, placing an advertisement for a book aimed at teenagers on a London tube train will be guaranteed to be viewed by many people, but the majority of these people will most likely be commuters, so it is questionable as to how many of the target audience for the product will actually view the ad and hence buy the book.
One major issue with outbound marketing, is that it is difficult to calculate and track how many of your target audience have been exposed to your advertisement as many people who view your ad, for example, a billboard or newspaper ad, are not in your target audience, and this therefore causes advertising in this way to be less cost effective in terms of actual sales from adverts. Although these methods have proven to be successful in the past, and are still used frequently today, with the increase of online presence in users and businesses alike, are people less likely to notice advertisements that are not specially tailored to their personal interests and needs?
Inbound marketing techniques focus on pulling relevant audiences in, rather than reaching out. Inbound marketing works to draw visitors in, increase exposure to your brand or company, and create a brand authority through creating valuable, engaging content. Online advertising using inbound techniques is a highly effective way of marketing your product, as you can ensure your ads are shown only to those who have shown a previous interest or have searched for similar products or services. Creating high quality content to entertain and educate your potential customers with powerful keywords help to ensure your company is noticed by the right people, at a much lower cost than outbound techniques make inbound marketing techniques highly cost effective.
Inbound relies heavily on online services, such as SEO, online blogs, social media and emails. SeeLocal is an online advertising platform that allows users to control their ads on a variety of online platforms, and control who sees them based on users’ previous search history, and interest in the product or service. SeeLocal also has a unique aspect, Campaign Guard, which means you will never be paying for a campaign that is not generating positive results for your campaign. Campaign Guard immediately pauses any campaign that is underperforming, allowing for it to be reoptimized before being relaunched at no cost to you or to your budget.
So, before beginning your marketing campaign, consider what the best way for you to reach your target audience would be.
