Inbound vs Outbound Marketing: time for an upgrade?

• 21st Monday 2011
• Oscar Del Santo
• Inbound Marketing,Marketing Online,Social Media Marketing
• 1

Old habits die hard – or so they say. Bad old habits are  harder to kill, even if they are costing you and your company thousands and thousands in the current economic climate with no appreciable returns.

I am still amazed at the number of small and medium companies mis-spending their hard-earned money in outbound marketing initiatives that simply don’t work and bring (in the best case scenario) diminishing returns. Some of them have become so prohibitively expensive that even the die-hards are starting to become discocuraged.

Take Trade Fairs as an example. A client recently told me that setting up a stand at the Bilbao Exhibition Centre was costing her company nearly €13,000 (add to that figure the labour costs involved and we are closer to €15,000) with no guarantees that despite their best efforts they would get either the visibility, the sales or attract the right clients. Their best bet was to ‘break even’.

Now please don’t get me wrong: I am most definitely NOT claiming that at times Trade Fairs cannot be a good initiative and bring home the desired results. If they work for you, go for them!

The sad fact is thet they often are a hyper-inflated and extremely expensive alternative to inbound marketing alternatives that are infinitely more flexible, cost-effective, labour-savvy and that let your customers find you and establish enduring relationships without the hassle and the massive upfront investment.

If I was to run an imaginary scan through your marketing brain what would I discover?

Image Credit: Grass Roots Marketing Inc.

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Only you have the answer to that. All I am asking here is – please, please, please: before you squander your money in poorly targeted marketing efforts that actually annoy people (‘cold calling’ being the best example) consider an inbound marketing strategy that can actually bring qualified leads to your business in style. At the very least, have a mixture of inbound and outbound marketing strategies and see which ones do better for you in this digital age.

To learn more about inbound marketing, please check this post in Spanish here , join my for free and/or check these great resources from fellow Certified Professional Cherry Rahtu in English.

And feel free to ask me about actual examples of inbound marketing successes in Spain at personal, company and institutional level. Are you ready for a marketing upgrade yet?