Using Inbound and Outbound Marketing Tactics Together
Inbound Marketing is a concept that is increasingly being discussed and mentioned in the American market. Even with that air of novelty, many companies are already implementing the methodology and many questions arise in the heads of businessmen curious about this new type of marketing.
The main one is usually: is it worth changing my outbound sales strategies and business strategy for Inbound? But, to answer that question, it is necessary first of all to understand in fact what Inbound Marketing is, in addition to knowing its particularities and differences in relation to Traditional Marketing.
That way, it will be easier to decide which one makes the most sense for your business.
The analysis of the metrics of your digital marketing has to serve, first of all, to give a new vision to your sales team. They have to be able to see how Inbound and Outbound strategies are not at all fought.
In fact, they can be combined to increase sales and grow your business. Analytical tools are increasingly easy to use within automation software, which means you must spend more time optimizing your sales strategy and less time tracking information.
If you are still using only an outbound strategy, you are sure of all the challenges you have. On average, 89% of consumers say they usually add companies to their undesirable call lists so they don’t answer the phone.
Just what inbound marketing proposes is to help your sales teams better understand their potential customers and identify the most effective way to talk to them and deliver valuable content according to what they are looking for.
These are 3 ways in which inbound marketing can be combined with outbound sales strategies.
Use strategic information to make effective calls
Even when a prospect visits your site, fills out a form and does not return in a long time, you still have the opportunity to follow it, attract it and turn it into a lead with that information you obtained.
This is very useful for the sales area to understand exactly how to approach the conversation with the customer, focusing on responding to what he exactly wants to know.
The important thing is not to scare them. You have to use this information to engage in a constructive and educational conversation, instead of “firing” commercial information, which will put your prospect on the defensive or simply will not read.
Use the CRM to improve your responsiveness
Using a CRM will allow you to transfer all marketing information to sales in seconds. The important thing is that they can share, in real-time, data that is easy to understand and use.
Your sales team must know how to access all leads and understand the exact characteristics of each customer.
When a leader begins to approach being a customer, the CRM will automatically generate a report to let sales know that Inbound Marketing strategies are being successful and it’s time to go close business.
The system allows you to identify who to talk to so that your sales team reaches the right person on the first contact.
Improve the emails you are sending
It is very important to segment your database and customize the contents of your emails according to the needs of each lead creating relevant and effective campaigns.
With Hubspot, for example, sales and marketing teams can access the full information of each lead, including every interaction they have had with your website: when and how often they visit their pages, what they have downloaded, and what emails they have previously opened.
Use the data obtained through inbound marketing to discover which emails have the best response rate and then provide information for each audience segment.
Alert and follow-up to re-visits
If a lead returns to your website after a prolonged period of absence, you must alert the vendors. That will allow you to contact them when you know they are more interested in learning more about your product or service.
By using free tools like Hubspot’s Sidekick, you can see when that lead opened your emails and visited your site.
These tools give information to decide if it is time for a quick approach, precisely when your business is in the top-of-mind of the lead.
This tool analysis seeks to show you how Inbound Marketing is not necessarily fought with Outbound Sales.
They can complement each other more often than you think. Because nothing is destroyed, but everything is transformed.
Conclusion
In this post, you have seen that working with Inbound Marketing does not exclude the possibility of working with Outbound, and vice versa.
Even with well-marked differences, these two methods can complement each other and, together, form a powerful marketing strategy for your company.
Below we made a comparative chart with the main characteristics of each methodology. Now it’s just to understand your audience well and put your hands in the dough!
And your company, what strategies do you use today? Are you already working with Inbound Marketing or are you still only in Outbound?
Tell us in the comments about your experience with Inbound, in case you already use the methodology.
Or, even, if you already mixed Inbound and Outbound, tell us how your results have been.
And if you still have doubts about how to implement an effective Inbound Marketing strategy and Inbound Marketing book, talk to one of our specialists and ask for your free Digital Marketing diagnosis.