Link Building

Inbound Marketing

Glossary  |  3 mins

Read the next term in our glossary

Inbound marketing is a marketing discipline focussed on passively attracting customers to a brand by crafting high-value experiences and content, and relies on customers finding the brand on their own accord, rather than actively putting these resources in front of their target audience.

Though inbound marketing isn’t synonymous with content marketing, the two methodologies have a lot of crossover, and many successful SEO campaigns rely on content as a tool of inbound marketing to attract organic traffic.

Outbound vs Inbound Marketing

To put it simply, the difference between outbound and inbound marketing is that outbound marketing is initiated by the brand, whereas inbound marketing is initiated by the people the brand is targeting.

Outbound marketing refers to active methods of marketing that interrupt the audience in their day to day lives. It covers many of the more traditional methods of marketing, such as TV ads, radio ads, and telemarketing, as well as methods that are still used extensively such as cold emails and PPC ads. The goal of outbound marketing is to actively reach as many people as possible by informing them about a product or service in the course of their day-to-day lives.

Inbound marketing, on the other hand, is a strategy that focuses on attracting potential customers to the company by passively offering content and experiences that are relevant and helpful to them. Inbound marketing has become hugely influential with common methods including search engine optimization (SEO), content marketing, and social media marketing.

Though inbound marketing is traditionally associated with B2B businesses due to them having more drawn-out sales cycles, it can be just as effective for B2C businesses, particularly when it comes to complex consumer products that require a lot of consideration before a purchase, for example laptops.

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Inbound Marketing FAQs

What is the difference between inbound and outbound marketing?

Inbound marketing refers to marketing strategies initiated by the customer that focus on attracting potential customers to the company through relevant and valuable content or experiences.

Outbound marketing, on the other hand, refers to forms of marketing that interrupt the audience with marketing messaging. The goal of outbound marketing is to reach as many people as possible through channels such as PPC and print advertising or cold emailing.

What are inbound marketing strategies?

Inbound marketing strategies include tactics such as search engine optimization (SEO), content marketing, social media marketing, and others that aim to attract potential customers to a brand’s site or other platforms.

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