What Is Outbound Marketing? Types, Key Channels & Best Practices To Boost Your Sales

Outbound marketing is any marketing where a company initiates the conversation and sends its message to a targeted audience. 

 Traditional types of marketing and advertising, such as radio ads, TV commercials, print advertisements, tradeshows, outbound sales, and email spam, are examples of Outbound marketing.  

Outbound marketing is contrary to inbound marketing, where the customers discover you when they need you. 

Content marketing, SEO, Blogging, and opt-in email marketing are examples of inbound marketing. Outbound marketing is generally less profitable, yet ironically, organizations spend 90% of their budgets on outbound marketing. 

Organizations looking to refine their sales and return on marketing spend should reallocate an increasing percentage of their marketing budget to inbound marketing techniques. 

Types of Outbound Marketing:

If you are familiar with traditional media or advertising, you would have heard the terms "above the line" and "below the line" What do these terms mean, and what outbound marketing paths can you utilize to widen your reach and drive sales? 

Here are seven types of outbound marketing to get you started: 

Traditional Advertising 

It is also known as "above-the-line" advertising. Traditional advertising includes television, radio, print, and more. Conventional advertising methods help you convey the message to the masses but need more refined targeting capabilities. 

ATL advertising avenues are adequate for top-of-the-funnel activities such as brand awareness campaigns. 

Digital Advertising 

The first digital ad that ran in 1994 was unsuccessful in targeting, but after 25 years, the digital advertising industry is as worldly as it gets.

 Here are some types of digital ads to give you an outline of how expansive the advertising landscape is:

• Display Ads

• Search Engine Marketing(SEM)

• Over-the-top ads (OTT)

• Social Media Ads

• Video Ads

• Email Ads

• Native Advertising 

Through the line (TTL) Advertising 

The brand's promotional mix in TTL advertising comprises ATL and BTL ad types. For example, a brand might run an awareness campaign across television, newspapers, and social media platforms. 

TTL can include digital out-of-home advertising (DOOH) and emerging advertising layout that uses traditional outdoor media to display dynamic ads. 

Cold Calling 

Cold calling or telemarketing is the most infamous form of communication. In cold calling, the salesperson calls a database of people, who could be prospects, to scale their interest and convert them into paying customers. 

The salesperson still needs to communicate with the customer, hence the cold calling. 

The next step of telemarketing is warm calling, where a prospect has expressed interest in your offerings. 

Email Marketing 

Whether email marketing is, an inbound or outbound tactic has been debatable. However, any push tactic, whether the customer has agreed to receive it or not, can be classified under outbound marketing since the sender initiates the communication. 

Email marketing allows organizations to connect to a vast subscriber base to identify opportunities. 

Content Syndication

You publish your content on a third-party website. It could be a guest post, thought leadership piece, interview, or a rehash of an existing article from your website. 

Sometimes content syndication can also occur through brand collaborations, where you work with another brand to create a captivating content piece such as a downloadable guide.

Events and Tradeshows 

Events and tradeshows enable organizations to meet their prospects and customers face-to-face to generate leads, convert prospects, or retain existing customers. 

Five best ways to get better at Outbound Sales 

Target the right leads. 

Outbound sales allow you to select the precise type of customer you want to target before contacting them. 

However, this only helps if you go after the wrong demographic. 

To improve your outbound sales, you must target the appropriate leads. Spend some serious time creating a thorough customer profile by posing inquiries like these to yourself: 

• Size of the company 

• Revenue they generate

• How long has the business been operating?

• What sort of technology are they using? 

Surround yourself with the right team.

Teamwork is essential in sales. If you want your business to expand, your team must consist of the best individuals working effectively.  

You may want some people who are excellent on the phone, others who can write great emails, and others who are good at prospecting and qualifying leads, depending on how your sales team is set up. 

In some circumstances, you will need people adept at all three. 

Know your value, then promote it. 

Knowing your value is crucial to any sales pitch. Why would a prospective client pick you over a rival? Or why would that customer choose you if you don't have a direct competitor? 

Too many companies try to cater to everyone's needs or satisfy every conceivable customer. 

Your company ends up sounding generic as a result of this strategy. 

Use Multiple lead sources.

There are numerous ways a company can go about obtaining leads. If you discover that your outbound sales are having trouble, the issue may be that you need to get more different tips. 

Avoid shady marketing tactics.

 

Marketers frequently employ dubious and ineffective strategies in their pursuit of quick gains. 

Examples of this behavior are purchasing email lists, sending unsolicited bulk emails, omitting unsubscribe links from emails, etc.