Outbound marketing is a term that describes the traditional form of marketing. In this type of marketing, the company reaches out to the customers by utilizing media sources (such as TV and radio advertising) or by making an in-person contact.
Categorization
Outbound marketing can be categorized into the following forms:
Extremely broad: When the target audience is reached by utilizing mediums such as TV, radio or flyers.
Thoroughly personal: When you reach the target audience directly by meeting them face-to-face.
Impersonally personal: When the target audience is contacted through cold-calling.
Differentiating outbound marketing from inbound marketing
Outbound marketing differs significantly from inbound marketing in the sense that inbound marketing requires the employment of web technology and targeting audience based on relevancy of their searches and preferences whereas in outbound marketing, the marketers target audience relevant and irrelevant alike. As is obvious, larger target audience translates into higher expenditure which means a bigger budget is required for outbound marketing.
Why people still prefer outbound marketing
Despite the rapid growth of the internet many marketers still speak in favor of outbound marketing. This is because they believe that outbound marketing is more beneficial in establishing a trustworthy relationship with the consumer because inbound marketing can be readily mistaken for a scam. Consumers need to have an initial exposure to the product before any inbound marketing will be effective and that is what outbound marketing efficaciously achieves.
Areas where outbound marketing is effective
Outbound marketing is mostly effective in targeting audience of the old age group because it is the mode of marketing that they have become accustomed to and also because outbound marketing requires the use of media which can easily be accessed by those consumers.
Factors to be considered
The campaign should be adjusted according to the target audience.
If the product is unique or relatively new to the market, it would require excessive feature description and persuasion.
If the market is saturated with competition then it would require aggressive promotion
The outreach should be done keeping the company’s budget in mind.
Flaws in outbound marketing
Outbound marketing has its fair share of disadvantages as well. The main one being difficulty in tracking the return on investment (ROI). Similarly an increase in blocking techniques such as the Do Not Call list and Spam filters has made it difficult to implement impersonally personal outbound marketing. Outbound marketing is also very costly and constitutes a major chunk of the marketing budget for many businesses.
