Inbound vs Outbound Marketing: Which should you focus on in 2024?

One of the things I love about marketing is that it’s always changing, which means there is always something new to learn. 

If you’ve been in the industry or marketing your own business for a while, you’ve likely heard rumblings about the need to prioritize inbound versus outbound marketing strategies. While I agree that there are many considerations to keep in mind as the digital landscape continues to change, it’s important to understand both terms so that you can be prepared to create the most effective marketing mix for your brand.

Outbound Marketing

TechTarget defines outbound marketing as “a traditional form of marketing in which an organization initiates contact with potential customers, or leads.” This can include tactics such as cold calling or emailing, TV and radio advertisements, billboards, direct mail and the like. Online advertising such as display ads and paid social media campaigns also fall into this category.

I like to think of outbound tactics as using a megaphone to get your message out to your audience.

Inbound Marketing

In contrast to outbound, inbound marketing focuses on attracting customers through relevant and helpful content and interactions rather than interruptive messaging. Inbound tactics are largely focused on content in the form of blog posts, organic social media, podcasts, video, and more.

If outbound marketing is like a megaphone, then inbound marketing can be thought of as a magnet–your brand has something your audience needs, and they come to you in search of it.

By providing valuable information and building trust with potential customers, effective inbound marketing strategies are able to establish strong customer relationships, leading to increased brand awareness, customer engagement, and ultimately, business growth.

Striking a Balance

Inbound marketing isn’t new, but recent shifts in the digital landscape have brought about a renewed focus on these tactics. 

For example, new privacy measures and regulations signal the end of third-party cookies which will have a large impact on digital marketing, and specifically related to tracking, targeting, measurement, personalization, and the overall understanding of user behavior. This shift will require marketers to adapt their strategies and has led many to consider adding a greater emphasis on inbound techniques. 

In an age where privacy is of the utmost importance and users value authenticity, investing in creating valuable content that appeals to your audience (and that they’re actively seeking) can open so many doors for your brand. Most importantly, it allows you to provide helpful information to potential customers who are hungry for it, resulting in more highly engaged leads that you can effectively nurture and build relationships with. 

So, if you were to ask me whether you should focus your efforts on inbound or outbound marketing in 2024, I’d unfortunately give you a bit of a non-answer: It depends.

For most businesses, the most effective strategy likely includes a mix of both. Outbound marketing tactics are still effective at building brand awareness and filling the top of your sales funnel. Leveraging inbound tactics at the same time can help fill the middle and bottom of the funnel, and can even help retain traffic from your outbound efforts by providing an exceptional website experience. A skilled marketer or agency partner will be able to identify the best mix of tactics to develop an effective marketing strategy for your brand.

Written by Kelsey Miller

Kelsey is a digital marketing professional with experience in a range of industries and a special interest in the higher education space.