Woo Them, or Wow Them: When to Use Subtle Marketing Tactics to Draw In Your Audience (Inbound Marketing) and When To Make a Splash (Outbound Marketing)
by Andrew Millar
When you’re trying to get your audience’s attention, there are several different marketing tactics that you can employ. Each one has its benefits, depending on whether you’re trying to woo or wow your consumers. Inbound marketing is the “wow”. It’s the kind of strategy that is diligently honed to your target. Its content speaks to your audience as though it’s talking directly to each individual, and it’s so enticing that people are drawn to it. Outbound marketing, on the other hand, is the “wow”. It’s boisterous and aims to be friends with everybody.
Let us explain the differences between inbound and outbound marketing in a context that many people can easily understand – as they relate to relationships.
Courtship
In the beginning of any relationship, there’s the “getting to know each other” phase. It contains a mixture of niceties and moments that make memories.
Inbound Marketing’s courtship is the part of the relationship where you’re showing how empathetic, emotionally connected, and willing to listen you are. It’s the soft, caring bouquet of flowers.
Outbound Marketing prefers the big “look at me” side of the courtship. It’s explosive and it’s made to make a big, bright splash that is available to a mass of people. It’s the fireworks display in the sky.
The Relationship.
Once you have entered into a relationship, you’ve gotten to know each other much better. You might go one way, and they may go the other when you go to the movies. When that happens…
You’ll find inbound marketing at the chick flick. Inbound marketing revolves around creating emotions and facilitating relationships with your consumers. Between these two marketing tactics, inbound marketing is the one that wants you to fall in love with it and become so invested in it that you don’t want to leave.
Outbound marketing will be at the other side of the movie theater. It doesn’t want anything to do with feelings or directly connecting with the audience; it’s much more concerned with being loud and entertaining an audience of all kinds of people. It wants to kick tail now and take names later. In other words, outbound marketing relates much more to the “Terminator” flicks that are packed with adventure, action, and suspense, and it’s not interested in pulling on heart strings.
Date Night.
There are long walks on the beach, walking hand-in-hand, and settling down to watch the sunset with a bottle of your favorite wine. And then there is a day at the game with a pint in your hand, and yelling as loud as you can. Hopefully by now, you can guess which date night these marketing tactics prefer.
You guessed it! Inbound marketing is focused on giving you the perfect date night. It’s full of your favorite things, and it’s put a lot of planning into making this date romantic and full of emotions and memories. It pulls out all the stops to make sure that you feel like you’re the only person in the world, and it seems like nothing else exists except for you and your date.
On the other hand, outbound marketing doesn’t want anything to do with the mushy stuff. It wants the roar of the crowd and the jeers and cheers that come with a little friendly competition. The overall date is designed to make tens of thousands of people enjoy themselves, and the only time you’re likely to see much emotion is if a Kiss Cam comes your way.
When do you utilize each of these marketing tactics? Please share your thoughts with us in the “Leave a Reply” box below!