Outbound marketing is any type of marketing in which a corporation initiates contact with its target audience and potential customers. Examples are TV ads, radio advertisements, trade exhibitions, print media, cold calling, cold emails, and other outbound marketing operations.
Outbound marketing is any sort of marketing in which a company initiates contact with and distributes its message to a specific audience. TV commercials, radio adverts, print advertisements (newspaper ads, magazine ads, flyers, brochures, catalogs, and so on), tradeshows, outbound sales calls (sometimes known as “cold calls”), and email spam are all instances of outbound marketing.
Outbound marketing is the polar opposite of inbound marketing (pull marketing), in which prospects seek answers to their problems and find you.
Because of its perceived intrusive nature, outbound marketing or push marketing strategies have earned a poor rap with the evolution of inbound marketing. The carpet-bombing strategy utilized in outbound marketing is an excellent technique for reaching the widest possible segment of a target audience, which may be why outbound marketing is labeled too aggressive.
Outbound Marketing Channel Types
You’ve probably heard the words above-the-line (ATL) and below-the-line (BTL) if you’re familiar with traditional media or advertising (BTL). What do these terms mean, and what outbound marketing channels can you use to broaden your reach and increase sales? To get you started, here are seven outbound marketing channels:
1. Traditional Advertising
Traditional advertising, often known as above-the-line (ATL) advertising, encompasses mediums such as television, radio, print (newspapers, magazines, and so on), and billboards. Traditional advertising approaches help you get your word out to the public, but they lack finer targeting capabilities. ATL advertising channels are efficient for top-of-the-funnel activities such as brand awareness campaigns.
2. Digital Advertising
The first digital ad, which appeared in 1994, was not particularly targeted. Still, the digital advertising sector is now as smart as it gets after 25 years. To give you an idea of how diverse the advertising landscape is, here are a few examples of digital ads:
- Search engine optimization (SEM)
- Display advertisements
- Advertisements on social media
- Over-the-top (OTT) advertisements
- Email advertisements
- Advertising that is native to the area
- Advertisements on video
Using digital ads, you can target your audience based on demographic, geographic, psychographic, behavioral attributes, interests, and habits. This is only the tip of the iceberg. Retargeting and bespoke audiences are advanced targeting approaches that can help you connect with a larger audience group. Because of their precision targeting, digital ads are classified as below-the-line (BTL) advertising.
3. TTL advertising
The brand’s promotional mix in TTL advertising includes both ATL and BTL ad formats. A brand, for example, may undertake an awareness campaign on television, newspapers, and social media channels. TTL can also incorporate digital-out-of-home (DOOH) advertising. This new advertising style displays dynamic commercials on classic outdoor media.
4. Cold Calling
The most infamous kind of communication is cold calling or telemarketing. The salesman makes cold calls to a database of potential prospects to measure their interest and convert them into paying clients. The term “cold calling” refers to a salesperson who has had no prior contact with the customer. Warm calling is the next step in telemarketing after a prospect has expressed interest in your offerings. Cold calling is one of the most difficult marketing/sales strategies to use because of factors such as not disturbing (DND) service activation or recipients unwilling to participate in the call.
Also Read, What is Inbound Marketing? What Strategies should you Follow?
5. Email Promotion
It is arguable whether email marketing is an inbound or outbound marketing approach. Still, any push tactic, whether the client has agreed to receive it or not, can be classified as outbound marketing because the sender initiates the communication. Email marketing allows businesses to communicate with a large number of subscribers to uncover new opportunities. The following are nine different types of emails you can send to your subscribers and customers:
- Email sequences for welcome and onboarding
- Campaigns for lead generation, nurturing, and follow-up.
- Newsletters are published every week.
- Product feedback, survey, and new product/feature launch
- Campaigns for customer retention
- Emails for upselling or cross-selling
- Emails were sent in response to cart abandonment.
- Discounts, promotions, and customer loyalty campaigns
Transactional emails have been omitted from outbound marketing because its goal is to keep customers up to date on their purchases, orders, product returns, and so on.
6. Syndicating Content
You publish your material on a third-party website when you use content syndication. It might be a guest post, a thought leadership piece, an interview, or a rehash of an existing article on your website. Content syndication can also occur through brand collaborations. You collaborate with another company to develop an engaging piece of content, such as a downloadable guide.
Platforms for content discovery are distant cousins of content syndication. Native advertising platforms that allow advertisers to distribute their content on third-party publishing websites are content discovery platforms. Because content discovery platforms need publishers to have a certain fixed monthly traffic (roughly 10 million page views per month) to be eligible for native ad spots, advertisers choose native ads to increase content reach.
7. Events and tradeshows
Events and tradeshows enable businesses to meet their prospects and customers in-person to create leads, convert prospects, and retain existing customers. Corporations can arrange their own events, such as Dreamforce by Salesforce, or they can participate as a sponsor or attendee at third-party conferences or events. The success of conference participation is determined by pre-buzz activities, which include the actions listed above.