When it comes to inbound and outbound, most people believe they must pick one or the other. They can choose to adopt that perspective and embrace it. However, it does not have to be an either/or situation. Both may be used together for the company’s benefit.
While the two techniques have opposing beliefs, they may be used together.
Inbound marketing focuses on meeting buyers where they are and providing value without being invasive. However, while this attitude is appropriate, individuals may not be aware of their issues.
People don’t know what they don’t know, so if they haven’t recognized their problem, they won’t be able to find answers organically.
Outbound can help people become aware of solutions that will improve their lives by occasionally forcing someone’s status quo to be interrupted in order to assist them. Outbound outreach may be part of an inbound strategy if it is done with the consumer’s needs in mind.
Balancing Inbound and Outbound
There are times when you may want to put a higher emphasis on your outbound activities, such as if you need quick wins to meet your short-term objectives. However, there are also situations when investing in outbound might be more expensive than beneficial.
Whatever you’re doing with outbound, you should always be devoting some resources to inbound. While inbound takes longer to establish, it helps you gain confidence and demonstrate consistency and dependability by demonstrating a higher long-term return than outbound.
The secret to combining the two techniques is to budget ahead of time for your objectives for a set period of time.
Your balance should not be a set it and forget procedure. It should be fluid, evolving as your company grows and changes. The amount of attention you devote to each approach might alter from month to month.
Example of Allbound-Airbnb
Adding value before taking it is the essence of the inbound approach. You want to offer value to your consumers without causing any disruption, but a company’s primary goal is to meet a consumer need in the market. A firm that is ahead of its time will have to spread its message so that people are aware of a new and innovative approach to doing things.
Airbnb utilized inbound methods of word-of-mouth marketing (WOM) and referral marketing to expand in existing markets but discovered that setting up booths, putting up fliers, and hosting in-person events like information sessions helped start new markets as the business expanded into new areas.
Additionally, arranging integration with Craigslist was one of their earliest marketing techniques. The connection posted their listings on Craigslist, allowing them to meet clients where they were already searching, but in addition to that, Airbnb raided listings from Craigslist via emailing property owners about renting out rooms on Airbnb. Those unsolicited outgoing emails aided the company to develop more listing options.
Although Airbnb is now well established in many countries around the world, it still relies on both inbound and outbound strategies. To increase organic reach, they utilize a blog, user-generated material, and WOM to supplement paid marketing and influencer marketing.
Airbnb’s wide range of tactics allows people to discover the firm quickly while looking for places to stay in certain regions, ensuring that the company is top-of-mind when travelers are trying to schedule their vacation around an experience or distinctive lodging.