Outbound Marketing Tips for an Inbound Marketing World

If you’ve been following our coverage of the topic, you by now know that inbound marketing’s older, and less fashionable outbound cousin. What we’ve been trying to get into your head is that a more balanced strategy that combines both inbound and outbound marketing is the best option for most small businesses.   With that established, here are three ways to use the many valuable things you’ve learned from inbound marketing to step up your outbound game:

 

Use the Inbound to Go Outbound

  What made traditional outbound marketing so unpalatable was the fact that it was always shouting at you to Buy Now! Then, when you switched to an inbound strategy, you created a library of content to bring in customers organically .   There is no reason not to advertise the availability of this (presumably) great content. Get out there and tell people to view your new blog post or download your latest infographic or get a copy of your new ebook. And because the content is free, no one will complain that you’re bothering them with ads. [Caution: this only works when your content is actually good and provides value.]

Get Technical

  Analytics get used a great deal to track inbound traffic, but many small businesses fail to leverage technology to properly research potential customers. Do you know which of your followers’ friends would also be interested in your company’s offerings? Do you know how many people “checked in” on the same block as your storefront today?   Mining social networks for this kind of data can be incredibly valuable for providing outbound leads and, ultimately, customers. All this information is being readily provided by the social media users themselves, so they can hardly blame you for taking them up on their offer and reaching out to them while they’re in the neighborhood.

 

Keep It Personal

  If you’ve learned anything from inbound marketing, it should be that no one wants to feel anonymous. Keep this in mind as you do outbound marketing, and try your hardest to reach out to customers in a way that feels genuine, not generic.   Even if you’re sending large batches of emails, try to group your customers into smaller chunks and modify the message to make it seem more relevant to them. It’s more work up front, but your conversion rate will make it worthwhile.   Use these three inbound strategies to boost your outbound skills, and you should be able to notice real results in your monthly numbers. Now you know how to school any newb who comes at you touting that outbound marketing is “dead”. Doesn’t it feel good?   [templatera id=”10396″]