When marketers refer to Inbound Marketing, they primarily refer to implementing solutions with social media such as blogs, videos and Webinars. One assumption is made that marketers simply abandon traditional advertising; many marketers and I agree that Inbound compliments the Outbound marketing. I’ll share a few examples.
As you know, I’m at the Inbound Marketing Summit, and I’ve watched the numerous presentations and connect with many great marketers. You can watch the latest on my efforts on my other live Twitter account, I’ll post interesting quotes and advice that I hear live — expect frequent updates.
Outbound marketing often refers to the practice of using traditional advertising — interruption marketing — with consumers. Inbound marketing is the softer side of advertising of marketing where marketers attract consumers based on their interest and wait for the consumer to interact first, not just blindly broadcasting. There’s an interesting correlation between email marketing and social media — it’s about understanding your audience and subscribers. It’s also about providing instant value to recipients so they want to engage with you.
Connecting Outbound marketing with an Inbound marketing solution with a great marketing strategy is the most effective. The trend seems to be using email marketing software, connecting that with a blog, and connect all that with a content management system so your Website is dynamic and fresh. It’s not the technology, it’s the process of integrating an Inbound marketing approach into your business.
You can’t just refuse a pistol for a rifle. Marketing requires multiple mediums, numerous testing, research into prospects’ and customers’ minds and the willingness to test, fail and test again. Inbound marketing is not a replacement for Outbound marketing, it compliments it.
Some of you might wonder how you can implement Inbound marketing with Infusionsoft? It’s actually very easy to integrate it with your blog. You can insert a Web Form into the template of your blog, and have it capture the referring URL so you can identify the interest of the prospect on your blog and send a follow up email related to their interest. Additionally, you can offer a valuable report, allow the prospect to opt-in and download it and use that as the starting point of conversation with a prospect. Segment and offer special content for special segments of your subscribers. By doing this, you’ll be marketing with precision, accuracy and around your customer
Perhaps, don’t renew that ad in the Yellow Pages. Put those fees into building your website. 
I hope I made it clear that companies can market better by implementing Inbound marketing solutions into their outbound marketing. Results will vary — test, tweak and listen to your customers.
I couldn’t agree more. Successful marketing requires multiple strategies and persistence. Thanks for the tips!
I couldn’t agree more with this post and line of thinking Joe. Sound marketing addresses both inbound and outbound marketing. I was particularly struck by your sentence “The trend seems to be using email marketing software, connecting that with a blog, and connect all that with a content management system so your Website is dynamic and fresh.”
You’ve certainly hit the nail on the head. Content Management Systems, like Joomla, combined with Infusionsoft empower companies to compete with anyone anywhere and I would highly recommend it.
Joe, you guys are using Joomla somewhere too aren’t you?
[...] missed the point. It’s about relevance and enabling people to find your business on their terms. It would be a good idea to point to your Website, Twitter, Facebook Page and include key local [...]
Joe, this puts the last part of the marketing foundation in place for a full package. I agree with everything said on all posts thus far. I have been peeling the onion back so to speak for some time now, developing a complete strategic plan to reshape my business model. Testing is critical. Where performance is measured, performance is improved, and follow up is critical. Keep the info flowing and Thanks for all you do!
[...] take it for granted and neglect to optimize it to ensure we’re only getting the best, qualified inbound traffic. Admittedly, traffic will only get you so much business. Doing business online also [...]