What is Outbound Marketing?

In a previous article, we touched briefly on outbound marketing while talking extensively about inbound marketing. In this article, we'll focus more on outbound marketing and how businesses can leverage it for success.

But first, what is outbound marketing?

Outbound marketing is a type of marketing where a business directly initiates the marketing conversation. Many would refer to it as ‘traditional marketing’ because it is the conventional way of doing marketing. In actual sense, outbound marketing has evolved beyond that. As opposed to the more passive approach of inbound marketing, outbound marketing involves a business taking the bull by the horns and directly reaching out to the customer.

Without further ado, let's dive into the stages and strategies involved in outbound marketing.

Outbound Marketing vs Inbound Marketing

Inbound marketing relies on using marketing strategies to subtly attract customers without making it seem like you're actively trying to market to them. Outbound marketing, on the other hand, confronts the target audience with direct messages inviting them to take action in favor of a product or brand. While inbound marketing relies on the customer searching for the brand or its services, outbound marketing requires the business actively searching out to the customer.

Outbound marketing is not subtle. Brands put out their messages with a clear call to action and take responsibility for them. The expectation is that the right audience sees this (which is why targeting is still a huge deal in either method) and makes a purchase. The creativity employed in outbound marketing is primarily to persuade customers to make a decision, not keep them in close check until they make a purchase. 

Therefore, we can conclude that while inbound marketing is information-based, outbound marketing is awareness-based. These outbound messages are often in competition with other messages the target audience gets regularly. Creativity is therefore needed to distinguish a brand’s message from the noise.

Benefits of Outbound Marketing

Statistics show that businesses spend more on outbound marketing than inbound marketing. There are a few reasons for this.

1. Faster and easier results: A major advantage outbound marketing has over inbound marketing is that it is much simpler to execute. With some knowledge of the brand's target audience, all that needs to be done is crafting a simple message that attracts them. The intent, of course, is to sell, and brands can do this more directly with outbound marketing than with inbound marketing. The message is then put on the appropriate platforms to get results. This is different from inbound marketing where brands have to wait patiently to reel in customers with non-sales messages that hopefully lead to sales in the long term. Outbound marketing brings in results faster because it is more direct.
2. Wider reach: Outbound marketing helps you to reach a wider audience. This is especially because the platforms used for outbound marketing are not restricted to a specific category of people. Instead, outbound marketing makes use of regular, everyday platforms where you would normally see everyone. From mass media to social media and emails, outbound marketing offers you the opportunity to reach farther and wider. While you reach your target audience and make sales, you also reach more audiences that can make purchases, spread your marketing message, and just generally give you feedback. Talk about the golden advantage of measuring brand perception. 
3. Brand awareness: Outbound marketing generally increases brand awareness. Outbound marketing screams your brand's offerings and how they differ from the competition. Even though inbound marketing is more known for educating customers, outbound marketing, when done right, can also educate customers about your business. From watching ads to viewing print messages, customers who get exposed repeatedly are more likely to subscribe to your business offerings.
4. Lead generation: Since outbound marketing reaches a wider audience, it also does extra for your business with others. Interested audiences can reach out to ask questions. As earlier mentioned, some might make purchases immediately, adding to your customer base, and some would simply develop an interest in the brand. These potential buyers are referred to as leads. Leads are people who have shown an interest in your product or service and have the potential of converting to customers. With more persuasive follow-ups, these leads can grow your customer base and even bring in more business.
5. Supports inbound marketing efforts: Outbound marketing does not only work well on its own. It can also support your inbound marketing efforts. While inbound marketing thrives on subtlety, it still needs some promotion to get those informative content out to the target audience. This is where outbound marketing helps your inbound marketing efforts. Important information like emails and phone numbers can be gathered through some form of outbound marketing. Leads generated from these outbound marketing activities can be used to target a more specific audience during inbound messaging. 

Stages of Outbound Marketing 

Outbound marketing is a vast world with different stages depending on which tactic is in place. However, all these stages can be summarised into a handful of key steps:

1. Targeting: You need to define your target audience. Define who your ideal clients are, where they are, their interests and dislikes, motivation for purchase or engagement, etc. These information will be crucial in deciding which outbound marketing tactics to employ and what considerations to make for your campaign.
2. Identify the channels: Channels are the medium through which the audience gets your message. Depending on the product category, some platforms are more suited for some audiences than others. Other things to consider are the channel's features, reach, popularity with the target audience, and so on. You also need to decide on the specific platforms to use within the chosen channel. For example, after deciding on broadcast media, you need to choose between radio, television, or both. Even after that, you must choose the particular radio or television station to advertise on.
3. Define your message: Outbound marketing needs a message to shout about. You need to create and define what your messaging would communicate to the audience. What is the message meant to achieve and what does it say about your business? It helps to introduce your unique selling proposition (USP) in your messaging as this is often the final push many customers need to make a decision.
4. Create message content: After deciding on your unique message, you need to put that message into the appropriate format. A message can be adapted for video adverts, expanded as a drama series, simply printed as a poster or billboard ad, converted into songs⏤the list is endless. The outcome will be quality content that is attractive, direct, and boldly shares your brand message.
5. Share the message: Use distribution tools to share the messages you created across the chosen platforms. Outbound marketing relies on distribution and this is where much of the budget often goes. Do not hold back, because a well-crafted message on the right platform will convert a significant portion of your target audience. All things being equal, you should get a few quality leads too. 
6. Measure, evaluate and re-strategize: After the timeline of your marketing campaign, or some period in between, measure the results so far. Check what is working and what needs to be improved on, and what practices to discard. One of the benefits of outbound marketing is that you can make adjustments when needed and continue your campaign.

Outbound Marketing Strategies

There are many ways to leverage outbound marketing for your business: 

1. Emails: Emails can be done in two ways. You can send cold emails to email addresses of your target audience without establishing any prior communication or relationship. These emails may end up in their spam folder, but at least some of them will see the emails, and a few might even open them. Alternatively, you can directly email previous customers with new offers. These types of emails tend to have a higher success rate because of the pre-existing relationship. Email campaigns, when sent from a recognised brand, are perceived as trustworthy and provide have higher open and conversion rates.
2. Media Adverts: Broadcast and print media exist as platforms for sharing brands' messages to their different audience categories. From television houses to radio stations, newspapers, and magazines, the options are endless. Put out direct broadcast commercials and print advertisements if those are where your customers are.
3. Social Media Ads: Social media is a not-so-recent development that has taken over marketing. Various social media platforms exist with different audience categories that can be adapted for your brand message. Your brand’s social media pages are a platform for outbound marketing and with most social media sites providing you with an option to run sponsored ads, you can reach beyond your followers to directly target specific persons.
4. Sponsored Shows and Events: As a brand, you can sponsor shows and events happening around you. This can be done in many ways. You may offer to provide your products for free (if your product is relevant in some way to the event), provide funding, handle branding, or pay for certain services required for the success of the event. In return, you get the opportunity to showcase your brand to the audience at that show or event. 
5. Activations & Product Placements: Taking your product directly to the customers in a “market or city storm” is also another outbound marketing strategy. You may sometimes have to add some element of fun to grab potential customers' attention as they go about their day. Discounts, new product ranges, and bulk sales can be marketed this way.