Our Registered Agency Claims Inbound Marketing vs. Outbound Marketing Arguments Are BS!
By Brian Bennett, president
Inbound marketing is a tremendous advancement in our trade. It is a brilliant culmination of new, integrated technologies and methodologies. The analytical capabilities and accountability it provides are a great leap forward. Soon, inbound marketing will be a cornerstone in our industry.
Unfortunately, many of the pioneers of this breakthrough have gotten too wrapped up in their own efforts to market and differentiate this new discipline and are actually hindering its development with their myopic claims. To them, I say, hear this:
You don’t need to bash outbound marketing to promote the advantages of inbound.
The development of inbound marketing will not render outbound obsolete or replace it entirely.
Practitioners of outbound marketing are not, by definition, ignorant.
It would be irresponsible to recommend inbound marketing as the appropriate strategy for all marketing objectives. Inbound marketing must be integrated into marketing plans; it should not dominate them. Many outbound techniques such as pay-per-click, event marketing, public relations and advertising are absolutely essential to the success and development of inbound efforts, and to preach to the contrary would be disingenuous on the part of any truly enlightened and capable marketer.
To say that inbound marketing makes outbound obsolete is akin to saying:
Velcro shoes will replace laced shoes
Four-wheel-drive vehicles will replace two-wheel-drive vehicles
Aspartame will replace sugar
Smartphones will replace laptops
Traditional agencies are dead and will be replaced by digital agencies
Remember that last one? Go back about six years and read the headlines in marketing trade journals and you’ll find that this was the buzz. Some digital shops were flush with success and quite certain that they would dominate the industry. Instead, the established marketing community adopted and absorbed digital disciplines when they became established and credible. Those true marketers then integrated that discipline into greater holistic solutions.
Today, inbound marketing is dominated by those who have mastery of the software and core activities that make up the craft. They tend to focus primarily on tactics, but there are many sophisticated techniques that must be applied outside of these core tactics. My advice and request for my soul mates – those early adopters of inbound marketing – is not to degrade the discipline by pitching it as a replacement to outbound but rather understanding that it should be integrated with outbound marketing efforts as part of a company’s holistic marketing plan. Inbound marketing is worthy of great respect on its own merit – don’t try so hard!
