Is inbound marketing better than traditional marketing for B2B?
Choosing inbound vs. “traditional marketing” is entirely dependent on your target market and its characteristics. Two quick examples:
Well Data Labs is 4 or 5 year old company (approximately, I’m not directly involved but know one of their founders) that is growing like crazy and does so with 100% outbound marketing.
- No similar solution existed in their market when they launched
- Nobody was searching for a solution like theirs as awareness was literally zero
- No inbound content offer was going to target their prospects well
- Same with search, social, etc.
The founders of Well Data Labs wisely decided to go 100% outbound, leveraging account based marketing tactics. The results have been truly excellent.
I’ll use my own company, Net-Results (marketing automation platform competing with/replacing Marketo, Pardot, etc. every day) as example #2.
Net-Results’ go-to-market strategy has been almost exclusively inbound for several years.
- People search online for marketing automation solutions
- We are able to build trust with great content
- Companies are often under contract with competitors or otherwise taking many months (or more) to make a decision
- We are able to target our prospects via search, and social fairly easily
While outbound has an increasing role in our marketing mix, inbound tactics have kicked growth into gear.
Two different companies, two very different approaches. Both are dictated by logic and the facts of the situation.
Understand your market. Understand the people that comprise that market. Understand how they discover solutions, consider them, and make decisions. Deciding the appropriate mix of inbound and outbound will then be easy.
