The Tale of Outbound, Inbound and Sideways Marketing

The Tale of Outbound, Inbound and Sideways Marketing:

from The LEADSExplorer Blog: Lead generation - Website visitors - CRM - B2B by The Leads Explorer


Almost since ever both Outbound and Inbound marketing have existed side by side.
When people are interested in a product or solution you provide then they will find you – even in the ‘Yellow Pages’. On the other hand advertising has been around for hundreds of years too.

Outbound marketing

However as affordable tools have become available for producing mass marketing and the communication costs have decreased the Outbound marketing has taken the lead. Up to such a level we almost forgot about Inbound marketing. Advertising and marketing campaigns ruled. The problems with Outbound marketing are the need to address to a massive amount of people, preferably to all in the target group with the appropriate timely message which decreases significantly your probability of success.
The big advantage of Outbound marketing is the quantify-ability: the number of outbound messages or the reach and the number of the success that can be related to the Outbound marketing efforts.

Inbound marketing

When the search engines started providing easy search Inbound marketing became the new point of interest of marketing as this brings really interested parties due to the fact they are actively looking for a solution to their problem. This increases the probability of success enormously due to their interest at the very moment.
Due to the fact there are no real marketing campaigns possible, marketing has the difficulty to quantify their efforts and investments. Moreover once content created will last for a long time which requires to consider the Return On Investments over a very long time.

Sideways marketing

Maybe we forget about a third type: Sideways marketing. This is the effect of Word of Mouth, the advice given by peers, … This type comes sideways from uncontrolled sources through uncontrolled communication channels.
It is probably the most effective marketing but which is not or hardly influenced by any marketing as it is the result of the deliveries of the entire company: the products or services, pre-sales and after services.
For Marketing this type is cannot be quantified in regards to the efforts made – if the latter can even be quantified.

Outbound – Inbound – Sideways marketing for lead generation

Inbound marketing is more effective than Outbound but more difficult to quantify and no real campaigns are possible.
The Sideways Marketing is probably the most effective but not to be quantified for a Return On Investment and campaigns are nonexistent.
What is your company best or most effective marketing for lead generation?