In this present day and age, there are many
new and emerging ways to carry out marketing in business.
One of the most common ways is using social
media for marketing.
Studies by Forbes have shown that the popularity of using social media for business has skyrocketed significantly in the past few years.
This increase in popularity has brought
about the inquiry of many business owners into this new world of opportunities.
To adequately make use of this opportunity,
business owners seek to increase their knowledge on various aspects of the
subject.
And that brings us to answering the
question: IS SOCIAL MEDIA INBOUND OR OUTBOUND MARKETING?
To understand this properly, we are going
to cover;
2. What is social media marketing?
4.
What is outbound marketing?
5.
Differences between inbound and
outbound marketing.
6.
Is social media inboundmarketing?
7.
When social media is inbound
marketing.
8.
When social media becomes outbound
marketing.
9.
Why social media is an
important part of inbound marketing.
10.
Why you should use social media
in your inbound marketing strategy.
a)
Challenges you may face when
using social media for inbound marketing.
b)
Best practices to counter the
challenges you may face when using social media for inbound marketing.
11.
Why you should use social media
in your outbound marketing strategy.
a)
Challenges you may face when
using social media for outbound marketing.
b)
Best practices to counter the
challenges you may face with using social media for outbound marketing.
What Is Social Media?
You may already have a clear perception of
what social media is.
But, for a better understanding of what we
will be discussing later on in this post, I will state it.
According to Wikipedia, social media are
interactive technologies that facilitate the creation, sharing, facilitation,
and aggregation of content, ideas,
interests, and other forms of expression through virtual communities.
Social media
can also be defined as a number of internet forums making use of cutting-edge
technology to improve human socialization and communication via the internet.
What Is Social Media Marketing?
The once jolly age of using social media
for just some fun and communication is long gone and social media has become a
very important part of most businesses and their marketing strategies.
These series of changes and evolution have
led to the birth of social media marketing.
That brings us to answering the question,
what is social media marketing?
Social media marketing is the utilization
of social media channels to connect with an audience via a series of content
and community engagement for the sole purpose of increasing profits (i.e.
marketing).
Social media marketing is basically digital
marketing.
But, unlike other styles of digital
marketing, social media marketing takes a step further by trying to communicate
with the audience at a much more personal level.
To briefly explain social media marketing,
it is simply a way of marketing via social channels while ensuring that user
experience and satisfaction are not jeopardized.
What Is Inbound Marketing?
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Inbound marketing is a strategy that new
businesses focus on.
This is because new businesses do not get
any form of trust whatsoever from the public. And, without trust, a business
cannot hope to grow or scale.
Inbound marketing is a way to build this
trust that customers so need to make a purchase.
The process of inbound marketing is quite a
long and tedious one.
If you want to go on the journey of inbound
marketing, you must be prepared to be patient, consistent, hardworking, and diligent.
I mean, you have to;
II. Make your content customer-centric
III. Solve their problems via your content.
IV. Constantly study your audience (demographics, preferences, and behaviors.)
V. Not give up.
It is really a long process but, there is a
great reward to it.
You get an audience that you can ultimately
market to.
Before we move forward, let's consider some
examples of inbound marketing.
Here they are;
I.
Social media (of course).
II.
Events
III.
SEO
IV.
Blogging
Yup, I too am on the long journey of
inbound marketing. Wish me luck.
Let’s get back to business.
What Is Outbound Marketing?
From a basic understanding, I guess you
already know that outbound marketing is the opposite of inbound marketing.
Let’s break it down so you understand
better.
Outbound marketing is a type of marketing where businesses send out
their message to a large group of people regardless of consumer engagement,
experience, and satisfaction.
It is
meant to capture an audiences’ attention regardless of what they may be doing.
As such,
it has earned the name INTERRUPTIVE MARKETING.
The main
aim of this marketing strategy is to get their message across and provoke
actions of a large number of people for profit reasons.
This
kind of marketing focuses on getting the message out to a larger audience.
It is
pretty much based on the sales concept which holds that consumers will not
purchase if not actively marketed to.
And to
then make this more effective, get your message out to as many people as
possible.
The
process of outbound marketing is not long and tedious like that of inbound
marketing.
Much
unlike inbound marketing, outbound marketing has the potential to get quick results.
Inbound
marketing is usually paid. This form of marketing is based on paid traffic
rather than organic traffic.
You may
ask, what then are the types of outbound marketing, give us some examples!!
Well,
here they are;
- Paid advertising: In 2007,
Facebook launched its advertising platform, which brought a
revolutionary change in digital marketing. Right after, other platforms
started following the same. Now, they are running paid advertising, which
is actually outbound marketing.
- Content marketing tools: Marketers now use content marketing tools for ads or promotions to engage potential customers.
- Social media influencer marketing: Businesses
partner with social media influencers. Then pay them to promote their products
or services to their followers.
To put it short, outbound marketing is typically more costly than inbound marketing
and the ROI is much lower than inbound marketing. But outbound marketing can be
an effective way to get your brand in front of a wider net of people that you
might not have been able to otherwise.
It is a pretty effective strategy.
Differences Between Inbound Marketing And Outbound Marketing.
To get as much information before we move
forward, we are going to compare both strategies and get in their key features.
Let’s go.
To begin
with, the primary difference between inbound and outbound marketing lies in the
different approaches to audience engagement.
Inbound marketing tries to organically attract interested audiences
through valuable content, based on specific interests, while outbound marketing
pushes messages out to a wider, often less targeted audience with things like
cold calls, traditional advertising, and direct mail.
Another
difference between inbound and outbound marketing is how actively or passively
their marketing strategies work.
Inbound
marketing is a more passive form of marketing. While you must plan, create and
schedule content consistently, if your content is effective, with time it will
find customers for you.
With
inbound marketing, it is up to how effective your content is to get you
customers.
For the
case of outbound marketing, it is a more active form of approach to marketing.
You have
to put up your message in front of as many people as possible and find your
ideal customer amongst them.
You are
actively finding your customers.
Much unlike
inbound marketing, it is not up to effective content to get you costumers.
For
outbound marketing, it is a game of numbers. The more the merrier.
Also,
the results of outbound marketing strategies are usually immediate and don’t
take long periods of time like inbound marketing.
With
this, I hope you have a clear distinction between inbound and outbound
marketing.
You now
have all the information you need to properly understand.
Let’s
move forward to the main question of the day.
Is Social Media Inbound Marketing?
Yes,
social media is inbound marketing.
This is
because social media involves the publishing of content that usually focus on
consumer experience and engagement.
But,
social media can be an outbound form of marketing.
It all
depends on your approach.
When Social Media Is Inbound Marketing.
Like I
earlier explained, social media is inbound marketing based on your approach.
Let’s
then take a look at the approach that makes social media inbound marketing.
Social
media is inbound marketing when you use social media conventionally, it is
inbound marketing.
By using
social media conventionally, I mean that:
You
create content that suits your audience, post them on a regular basis, grow
your followers, make a lovely audience out of them and let them come to you
whenever they feel they want to purchase your products.
In this
approach, you have to be consistent, diligent and hardworking to get customers.
Also,
the results are not seen immediately, they take time.
And,
this is how social media is inbound marketing.
Let’s
now see how social media is outbound marketing.
When Social Media Becomes Outbound Marketing.
The
whole idea of social media being a form of outbound marketing all started in
2007.
You may
ask, why 2007? Well, this is when Facebook launched its advertising platform.
In 2007,
Facebook launched its advertising platform and people could now go about, pay Facebook
and get their message across to a whole lot of people on the platform.
At
first, this was just a platform-based thing until other social media platforms
caught on and launched their advertising platforms.
Presently,
any business looking for a way to get their message to a wider audience using
outbound marketing can simply go to any social media platform, pay some money
and get their outbound marketing strategy on the way.
And
because of that, social media is a form of outbound marketing.
It is
then up to business owners to choose how they would use social media for
marketing.
Inbound
or outbound.
Moving
forward, let’s consider;
Why Social Media Is An Important Part Of Inbound Marketing.
Social
media once viewed as a conventional and fun communication tool has undergone
certain stages of evolution which has made it a corner stone for the world of
inbound marketing strategies.
With
social media having the ability to connect to a global audience with little or
no effort, it has become a massive channel for the attraction of an audience
organically.
As we
have learned in previous sections of this blog post, attracting an audience
organically is no easy feat even with social media.
But, you
should stop to consider how inbound marketing would be without social media.
Would
you be able to attract customers to your business as easily?
Would
you be able to get customer feedback and interactions as easily?
And
lastly, without social media, every business owner who wants to use inbound
marketing strategies would have to become bloggers and SEO experts. And mind
you, your content doesn’t get to be as attractive when blogging.
The
point is, that social media has made inbound marketing much less tedious and
unproductive than it used to be without it.
One
thing to know is that social media is inbound marketing and inbound marketing
is social media in the world of business today.
Now that
you must have certainly acquired enough information on using social media for
inbound marketing, let’s talk about;
Why You Should Use Social Media In Your Inbound Marketing Strategy.
Here are
some reasons you should use social media in your inbound marketing strategies:
1. Social media increases brand
awareness, authority, and trust.
2. You get to attract an audience
more easily.
3. You get to know more about your
audience and their intent.
4. You can target your audience with
more precision.
5. It improves and supplements your
SEO.
6. It encourages content creation.
7. It has a high Return on
Investment (ROI).
1. Social
media increases brand awareness, authority, and trust:
Social
media is a very effective way to get brand awareness.
And, when
talking about purchasing and selling, brand awareness is an important criterion.
I mean,
nobody wants to purchase a product from an unknown rando with a sketchy
website.
Would
you?
Brand
awareness increases the likeliness of a sale. The more brand awareness your
business has, the more profits you can make.
When you
think about it, brand awareness leads to an increase in brand authority.
Take for
example, a brand with high awareness like Nike. Would you say such a brand has
very little authority? Of course not.
This is
because, when there is high brand awareness, a high brand authority is bound to
be present.
High
brand awareness inevitably leads to high brand authority.
Both
concepts we just spoke on both work hand in hand to increase trust.
A brand
ultimately has more trust when it has some considerable levels of brand
awareness and authority.
When you
use social media in your inbound marketing strategy, your business will
experience a chain reaction from brand awareness, ultimately leading too more
sales and profit.
2. You Get To Attract An Audience More Easily:
The main purpose of an inbound marketing
strategy is to attract an audience organically.
With social media, you get to achieve the
main goal of your inbound marketing strategy easily.
Unlike other ways of doing inbound
marketing, using social media is by far the easiest way.
This is because social media offers a
massive audience on a global scale who are ready to consume or view your
content.
If they get into it, you have successfully
attracted someone.
Social media makes your inbound marketing
pretty easy in such a way that pretty much all you have to do is create good
content.
3. You Get To Know More About Your Audience And Their Intent.
Another very valuable reasons why you
should use social media in your inbound marketing strategy is that you get to
know more about your audience easily.
In the process of content creation, understanding your target audience
serves as the guiding star that shows the path to resonance and engagement.
Social media, with its vast reach and deep web of interactions, have a specific page for the monitoring of your audience.
The information that these sort of pages
provide are always top notch and would be very hard to get otherwise.
With these information, closely
examine your audience’s activities, know what they want,
easily suit their needs and satisfy them.
This information
that social media provides is not just a strategic asset; it’s the very
core of content relevance.
4.
You Can Target Your Audience With More Precision.
The
information that social media provides can be a very useful tool for precision
when targeting an audience.
Besides
that, for an inbound marketing strategy to work, you must create content that
suits and resonates with your audience.
For
other forms of inbound marketing, this is not really easy as you have to do
keyword research.
But,
when you use social media in your inbound marketing strategy, you get audience
insight easily and you can be more precise when targeting an audience.
5. It Improves And Supplements Your SEO.
Social media’s impact on search engine optimization (SEO) should not be
underestimated.
Engaging content from your website can be shared on social platforms which can drive traffic
to your website, positively impacting your rankings.
Social signals—such as likes, shares, and comments—contribute to your
website’s authority in the eyes of search engines.
The
realization of this just hit but, other forms of inbound marketing depend on
social media for total effectiveness.
Don’t
underrate the power of social media when it comes to marketing.
6. It Encourages Content Creation.
Without content, you can’t be successful on social media - it's the
heart of what you publish on there.
For those that decide to include social media as an integral part of
their inbound marketing strategy, you must be committed to creating good
quality content that appeals to your audience.
This helps
to encourage content creation.
7.
It Has A High Return On Investment (ROI).
It is a
known fact that social media platforms are free to use unless of course, you
purchase a premium account.
When
practicing inbound marketing with social media, the profit potentials are
really massive.
With
social media, one can make or break a business.
When
talking about return on investment (ROI), we take into consideration the amount
of money spent as opposed to the amount made (capital and revenue).
When we
look back at using social media for inbound marketing, we can see that doing it
is free and it has the potential to generate a high revenue.
From a
basic understanding of ROI, a high revenue and no capital suggests a high ROI.
When you
use social media for inbound marketing, there is a high return on investment.
Challenges You May Face When Using Social Media For Inbound Marketing.
Though social is undeniably the most effective tool
in inbound marketing. There can still be some common
issues with social media marketing plan.
You must be aware of the challenges and be
pre-prepared to get the most out of your efforts.
Here, I
have highlighted 6 challenges you
may face while using social media for inbound
marketing.
1. Poor content
quality.
2. Choosing the
wrong platform.
3. Changing social
trends.
4. Established
social competitors.
5. Falling
engagement rates and fewer
post-interactions.
6. Negative feedback.
Best Practices To Counter The Challenges You May Face When Using Social Media For Inbound Marketing.
1.
Create More Visual Content - We
humans are visual creatures and only love things that are appealing to our eyes.
To avoid the problem of poor content quality, try using and incorporating
visuals into your posts.
2.
Choose the right platform for
your target audience.
3.
Always be on the lookout for
new social trends.
4.
Create unique content that
stands out from that of your competitors.
5.
Study your audience and try to
create content that can engage and connect with them more.
6.
Keep grinding and ignore
negative feedbacks. If it is something you can deal with, try to make amends.
Why You Should Use Social Media In Your Outbound Marketing Strategy.
As we
have covered before, social media can be used for outbound marketing. Here are
some reasons why you should and want to use social media in your outbound
marketing strategy.
1.
You can reach a larger audience
and get you a lot of leads.
2.
It helps spread your business’
messages quickly.
3.
It gets you results quickly.
4.
It can increase brand
awareness.
5.
It has the potential for a high
return on investment.
Challenges You May Face When Using Social Media For Outbound Marketing.
1.
Lack of technical know-how.
2.
Confusing platform operating
style.
3.
Low return on investment.
4.
Scam gurus and marketing
agencies.
I may not have mentioned all the problems,
feel free to make contributions in the comment section.
Best Practices To Counter The Challenges You
May Face When Using Social Media For Outbound Marketing.
The
problems that I have listed above are ones that you should not fall prey for
when using social media for outbound marketing. Here are some best practices to
avoid them.
1. To get over the lack of technical
know-how and confusing platform operating style, simply hire an agency or learn
it.
2. For a low ROI, scam gurus and
marketing agencies, hire me, my agency will take good care of your marketing.
I get
that you may not want to work with my agency as you don’t yet trust me.
Don’t
worry, I’ll win you over soon enough.
Conclusion
Is
social media inbound marketing?
The
answer is yes and no at the same time.
It
depends on how you use social media to determine if it is inbound or outbound
marketing.
I hope
you have learnt a lot and gotten quite some value.
See you
in the next post (not that I actually see you) but, you get.
Byee.