Are you "Dating" an Outbound Marketer? – Funny Pic of the Week

How annoying would it be to go on a date where the other person did nothing but talk about themselves the whole time?

I mean...the whole time. Imagine that they didn't ask a single question about you or show any interest in anything you had to say or what you're looking for.

Just take a look at this pic courtesy of HubSpot and you'll get a pretty good idea. This is what it would be like to "date" and outbound marketer.

And when I say, date, I mean rely on outbound marketing methods to execute your marketing campaign. Your prospects and consumers would feel much like that poor woman in the picture. Direct mail, cold calling, newspaper advertisements, HEY!, is anyone going to engage with me here or ask me what my goals and challenges are?

Of course they will. They're called inbound marketers.

Why the Shift Away from Outbound Marketers?

The answer here is pretty simple; consumers have gotten so much smarter thanks in large part to advances in technology.

• Those cold calls? Thanks to called ID, we don't even have to answer the phone only to hang up on them anymore.

• Newspaper ads? Well, thanks to 24-hour TV news stations and free online versions of the newspaper, subscriptions have plummeted.

• TV commercials? Thanks to TiVo and On Demand, we don't even have to watch them anymore.

• Direct mail? Well, people still get them, but thanks to all these advances in technology, our tolerance for them has greatly decrease, resulting in more "straight-to-garbage" instances.

Why Inbound Marketing?

The problem with outbound marketing was always its inability to engage with prospects and consumers. While this may have never been an issue 20 years ago, thanks to the Internet and social media, it's now a huge deal.

Inbound marketing focuses on permission based marketing, not polluting your inbox and voicemail with unwanted solicitations.

So ask yourself, are you annoying potential customers with your outbound marketing techniques?

If you're interested in learning more about how Inbound Marketing can help your company generate more traffic and leads, give us a call at IMPACT and learn how we can help!