It’s tempting to try and find “the best” marketing strategy. Whatever is best, however, relies greatly on your situation, market, and company.

Inbound marketing has a particular zeal attached to it. This is because the creators of the strategy (HubSpot) positioned it. They spoke out strongly against their perceived opposite of inbound marketing: outbound marketing. Or, as they called it “interruption marketing”.

In other words, inbound marketing (backed up by marketing automation software) was superior to outbound marketing. Instead of bothering people, you would make sure people could find you on their own accord when needed.

This is still a good strategy. Creating content that’s actually helpful does generate leads. Making sure you show up in places where people look for answers does generate leads. And a lead that’s been reading your materials and has found them helpful generate does convert into an opportunity more easily.

But here’s the thing: a lot of people DO have a need for your product or service. They just don’t realize it yet. Or they haven’t taken the effort to start looking for an answer yet. Or they just don’t know where to begin.

For those people, outbound marketing is great. A classy cold call can be the start of a really good relationship. A thoughtful cold email can arrive at just the right moment. The problem is that, oftentimes, cold emailing and cold calling are very spammy and annoying. If you avoid that, you can be very successful (and keep your moral high ground).

So no, inbound isn’t the best marketing strategy per se. It’s awesome, but it’s not the holy grail. You need to find out what works for you best. Whether that’s attracting people through content and showing up in the right places. Or picking up the phone and calling them.

Your answer is probably: both. 🙂

In any case, marketing automation software can help you with both strategies. So regardless of which one you go with, at least make sure you have the proper tooling in place.

Subscribe to the Blog

Get the latest in digital marketing, marketing automation, and Net-Results updates.

Henrik Becker

Marketing Automation Consultant