How Is Inbound Marketing Different from Outbound Marketing?
In addition to inbound marketing, there is another marketing channel known as outbound marketing. With such similar names, it can be easy to think these two marketing types are interchangeable, or at least connected in some way, but they’re actually total opposites.
Inbound marketing is all about drawing potential customers in.
Outbound marketing is all about outwardly pushing a business’ offering toward potential customers. In other words, inbound marketing focuses on earning attention while outbound marketing usually involves buying attention.
Inbound Marketing and Earned/Owned Media
Inbound marketing actively uses owned and earned media to engage prospective customers in creative ways. let’s take a closer look at these media types:
Owned Media
Owned Media refers to those channels that a business already has control over. These can be your business website, blog, YouTube channel, and business social media profiles. On owned media, you have the power to choose what to publish, how to publish it, and when.
If working from a business website, chances are you’re also working with a content management system in some capacity, giving you and your team the access and power needed to control your business’s content output across all lines, avenues, and channels.
Earned Media
Earned media refers to the coverage your business earns as a result of your hustle and hard work. It includes traditional coverage in newspapers and magazines as well as coverage on news sites, social media posts, campaign hashtags, and more online. Valuable earned media also includes any coverage gained through digital PR as well as online reviews from reputable sources and similar businesses and conversations in online forums.
The one downside to earned media is that you have less control over it than you do over owned media. However, earned media is like a reward and acknowledgment that your inbound marketing campaign is working so well that other media outlets are taking notice.
Outbound Marketing and Paid Media
Outbound marketing is most closely associated with paid media. This can be anything and everything from offline advertising, pay-per-click (PPC) and display advertising, and paid emails.
In addition to this, paid media can also include social media advertising such as promoted posts on Facebook, LinkedIn, X, and Instagram, and even work with influencers on different social media channels. In fact, it is important to note that social media marketing is part of both inbound and outbound marketing. The category it ultimately falls under depends on how you use it.
