Construction Marketing: The Difference Between Inbound and Outbound Strategies

As a contractor or design professional you may be hearing more and more about different and new construction marketing strategies.  Successful marketing as a contractor requires that you continually keep up with where and how people find you, and how they view and understand your value proposition.

Two of the fundamental ways construction professionals market their business is through a combined strategy of Inbound Marketing and Outbound Marketing

You may be wondering what these mean.  In a nutshell the difference between inbound marketing and outbound marketing are as follows:

Inbound Marketing
is about having customers find you

Outbound Marketing
is about reaching out to and targeting customers

Outbound marketing includes traditional tactics that “push” your message in front of a broad range of people.

Outbound Marketing examples:

• sending out flyers
• direct mail
• pay-per-click (web ads)
• TV & Radio spots
• trade shows
• email marketing
• cold calling
• press releases
• yellow pages

Inbound marketing involves producing content that potential clients will find informative and helpful as they actively seek services that your business may provide.

Inbound Marketing examples:

• websites
• SEO (search engine optimization)
• blogs
• videos
• guides / tutorials
• consumer tips

In a sense Inbound marketing is a marketing strategy that focuses on getting found by customers. Construction professionals earn their way in by publishing helpful information that there target market is looking for.  In contrast to Outbound marketing where contractors have to buy, beg, or bug their way in through the purchase of advertisements, direct mail, and issuing press releases all based on the hope they are viewed, heard or read by someone that just happens to need their services.

The biggest advantage that inbound marketing has over its outbound counterpart is “intentional targeting.” While you can’t target users by demographic, you are targeting them by interest and mood. When they find your content through search engines, they’re actively interested in it. They’re in the mindset for this kind of content, which means they are that much closer to a purchasing decision.

According to Hubspot, the logic goes that:

because the content is helpful/informative, customers will go looking for the content, and when they find it, they’ll find you — and then might even share it with their network, which can be an added viral touch that helps their friends/family/colleagues find you, too.

Looking over the definition, inbound marketing might strike you as something that’s much more “ethical” or “humane” than outbound marketing.  After all, it’s “permission based” rather than “pushy” or “salesy”. It’s important, though, to remember that it has both its pros and its cons vis a vis outbound marketing.