While outbound marketing uses traditional media to push messages onto an audience (TV/radio commercials, press ads, flyers, brochures, catalogs, cold calling…), inbound marketing focuses on attracting leads through relevant and helpful content (blogs, search engines, online forums, social media…).
Inbound marketing is now considered the most effective form of marketing for lead generation and definitely the most ethical.
Think of all the undesired calls, mailers, and spam you've recently received and how invasive it felt at times. Inbound marketing means that instead of chasing after your audience using interruptive media, you make yourself as relevant and visible to them as you possibly can so that they can easily find you when they need you. You are more likely to close a deal with a lead that found you while actively searching for your service or product rather than with someone you've chased after at the wrong time.
The process buyers go through to become aware of, evaluate, and purchase a new service or product is known as the buyer’s journey. You will know where and when to push a specific piece of content to a potential buyer depending on where they are in the buyer's journey.
According to HubSpot's State of Inbound Marketing Report:
Marketers today find generating traffic and leads to be their biggest challenge.They found that inbound campaigns yielded higher ROI compared to outbound campaigns.They still rate inbound marketing leads as the highest quality leads year after year.
Although outbound marketing still generates leads, leads generated from inbound marketing are more qualified to sell to thus resulting in a higher ROI.