Outbound versus Inbound Marketing

Before we examine the concept of digital marketing, let us first understand the relationship between outbound (push) marketing and inbound (pull) marketing. Outbound marketing, also known as Above-The-Line (ATL) is the age-old traditional marketing concept, where we “push” our marketing messages to our targeted audience through radio ads, TV ads, billboard ads, print ads, making cold calls, participating in tradeshows and so on.

We do all these with the goal of attracting the attention of our target audience with the intention of creating awareness for our products and services, with the intention of making sales or making the customer response to our message by taking the actions we desire. In other words, we “push” our message out, and hope that some will stick.

On the other hand, with inbound marketing or Below-The-Line (BTL) marketing, we are doing the exact opposite. We design our marketing messages with the intent of “pulling” our target audience to our products or services. We do this by creating quality content (content marketing) with our blogs, whitepapers, podcasts, video, eBooks, e-newsletters, SEO strategy, and by using other social media platforms to target our customer segments. Much like outbound (push) marketing, our intent in inbound (pull) marketing is also designed to draw the attention of our customer segments so that they will take the desired but appropriate actions we want. With inbound marketing, we realize that our intended audience have particular pain points, are searching for the best solutions in our industry, are respectively in particular stages along the sales funnel, are comparing our proposed solution with what is on offer from our competitors before making the final buying decision. This is why we must attract the buyer through compelling content, blogs, keyword searches, and social media that addresses their pain points. Then we must convert them through our landing page, an invitation to subscription-based relationships, and with compelling call-to-action. And finally, we must close the transaction, and delight our customers so they can subsequently become our product or service evangelists. A compelling argument can be made that inbound marketing is synonymous with digital marketing. To execute an effective digital strategy, we need to know what effective digital fundamentals are.

So, what is a digital marketing strategy?

Strategy, whether online or offline is not a stand-alone element. As a module in an engine, it is a key component of a holistic plan (of an engine), which plays a part in the process of revving an engine. It is the “how” of achieving a goal. It is preceded by the “what” that we want to achieve (our objectives). A strategy must have a list of steps or “tactics” that will logically lead to the actualization of the strategy. Tactics are the to-do list of getting the engine (strategy) working with an end goal in mind. Therefore, in setting your digital strategy, the following five fundamental elements are key:

• Use SMART or OKR to Set Your Digital Marketing Goals.

We know the importance of setting goals in major areas of our lives. For instance, in our personal lives, we know it’s important to set our career goals, health goals, spiritual goals, financial goals and so on. Having goals are also important in setting our digital marketing strategy. The acronym SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time-bound) is popular in the time management industry, though it has come under critical scrutiny in recent times. In applying SMART to our digital goals, the goals should be aggressive and stretched but realistic in its attainment. Low bars that are easy to attain, maybe realistic and time-bound but they are not too helpful because we are not stretched. Our SMART goals must be consistently difficult to attain within a given time period as this will stretch us, requiring more efforts in specific areas of particular goals.

Specific examples may include:

1. Leads generation: Increase the number of leads from 100 to 150 within 30 days, as long as 150 leads in 30 days is a stretch goal.
2. Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC): Decrease customer acquisition cost for an additional 50 leads by 10 percent in 60 days, where 50 additional leads, representing 10 percent of CAC within 60 days is also a stretch goal.

In his bestselling book, Measure What matters, venture capitalist John Doerr, who introduced OKR (Operations and Key Results) to Google in 1999 explained that for each key objective (O), there must be a number of equally measurable Key Results (KR) areas. According to John Doerr, for every key objective, set and attach a number of key results (metrics) for measuring the goal’s attainment.

The general formula for OKR is something like:

Objective (O):Set a particular objective, for example: Use SEO to improve page rank from 20-30 to 10-20 during the next quarter.

Key Results (KR):- Design a number of key metrics that are aligned with this key objective, for example:

1. Use appropriate keywords to write three articles per week during the next quarter.
2. Use Per-Per-Click (PPC) to drive SEO during the same quarter.

In the final analysis, whether you use SMART goals or OKR goals, they must sync with your overall corporate goals.

• What’s Your Target Buyer Persona?

Your digital marketing buyer persona is a fictional construction of your ideal customer. This construction of your buyer persona should be done in the early stage of your product or service launch. Its purpose is to serve as the guardrail in your digital marketing segmentation process. They are culled from both the demographics and the psychographics of your intended market segment. Demographics descries the age, gender, race, marital status, family size, occupation, annual income, and education of a particular population. Psychographics is a qualitative description of a population and they include personal values, attitudes, interests, and lifestyles. Real data from past transactions and data constructed from your ideal fictionalized prospective customers are what you should use to construct your digital marketing buyer persona.

It is best to construct more than one buyer persona. For instance, one persona may describe a fictional Jane Doe, age 27, who is married with two kids, ages 2 and 4. Jane is college-educated, lives in the suburb with her spouse, aged 30. Jane is internet savvy, reads Harvard Review articles, loves to vacation with her family in the Caribbean Islands, and is a lover of vegetarian meals.

A second buyer persona is Michael Brown. He is 45 years old African-American divorcee. Michael is a resident in the inner city of Chicago and loves watching Saturday Night Live. He is a construction supervisor and a fan of Chicago Bulls. His annual income is $95,000. Michael is a moderate consumer of alcohol and a very spiritual person who attends his neighborhood Baptist Church on Sundays. He is an activist for racial and gender equality.

And a third buyer personal is John Lin. He is an Asian-American with a college degree in computer science. John is the marketing vice president, software development of a mid-size internet start-up. He loves seafood and vacations in Japan during his Summer holidays. John Lin is single and a lover of pets.

With the construction of these three personas from both your past transaction data and near-fictionalized data, you can begin to segment, rank and tailor your digital marketing products to meet the needs of each buyer group.

• Know and Identify Your Brand.

What is your brand? What is your brand purpose? What is your brand personality? How is your brand positioned in the minds of these three buyer personas who are both your current and fictionalized potential customers? And how will your brand resonate with these customer groups? The design of your logo is important. Your choice of the color palette is important. Your market niche is important. Knowing your competitors is important. But they are not your brand. Take Walmart as an example. Its brand is more than the company’s logo and color scheme. When you think of Walmart, what comes immediately to mind? Is it value for the price? Deep and broad products assortment? Visual atmospherics of Walmart stores? How about Amazon? Netflix? What association comes to your mind?

Based on your real and near-fictionalized buyer persona, you must now attempt to identify, know, and define your brand so that you are able to relate with your customer segments better. You must answer, as objectively as possible the following questions:

1. Why are you in business?

A savvy and focused business exists to meet identified needs in the marketplace. Walmart corporate website states for that for the benefit of its customers, providing “Everyday Low Price (EDLP) is the cornerstone of our strategy” and that its“…..price focus has never been stronger” because“Today's customer seeks the convenience of one-stop shopping that we offer. From grocery and entertainment to sporting goods and crafts, we provide the deep assortment that our customers appreciate, whether they're shopping online at Walmart.com, through one of our mobile apps or shopping in a store. We currently operate three primary store formats in the U.S., each custom-tailored to its neighborhood.”

So, what is your brand’s proposition? Is it focused on your customers? What value do you deliver?

2. What is your business mission and vision?

Again, let’s look at Walmart. Its vision statement states that it is in business to “be the destination for customers to save money”.This is complemented with its mission statement of desiring “to save people money so they can live better”.To do this Walmart employs Porter’s generic strategy of cost leadership and Ansoff Matrix growth strategy. With an effective value chain delivery strategy, it has been able to deliver on its cost leadership proposition. Its marketing mix or 4Psof marketing emphasizes everyday low price, complemented with quality as value delivery.  This has catapulted Walmart to the zenith in the retail industry.

3. Who is your target market segment?

We have already touched on this in our discussion about your buyer persona. Your brand and what you offer must address the pain points of the buyer persona. Remember that digital marketing strategy or inbound marketing is a “pull” marketing strategy. In other words, your customers already have needs and are searching for solutions to meet their needs. Your offers must, therefore, resonate with their needs. What you offer must address these questions:

1. What is peculiar with your products and services that are in sync with what your current and potential customers are searching for?

2. What pain points will your products or services relieve?

3. Where along the customer journey are your customers?

If you are able to answer these questions, then the probability of patronage of your goods or services is almost certain. Therefore, your brand must resonate with their needs and interest, otherwise, they will exit to your competitors.

• Competitor Analysis.

I will suggest that you use Porter’s competitive analysis to determine how you stack up against your competitors. Ask and answer, as objectively as you can the following questions:

1. Who are the current digital marketing competitors in your market?
2. What are the substitute products or services?
3. What are the prominent keywords used in your industry?
4. What do the websites of your competitors say about them?
5. What are the click rates in your competitors’ sites?
6. Have you attempted buying from your competitors’ sites?
7. How efficient is their service delivery when compared with yours?

I will recommend that you visit the websites of your competitors as often as possible, buy from them, compare their site performance with yours. This will let you know what changes or enhancements you should make to improve your digital marketing performance.

• Measure Your Key Performance Indicators (KPI).

As stated earlier, your digital marketing goals should be SMART ((specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time-bound). You should decide on which digital Key Result Areas (KRA) you wish to track and measure. In digital marketing, there are many KPA’s from which to choose a number of critical Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). KPIs fall into five main categories; namely,

1. Lead generation; namely
   1. Monthly new leads/prospects.
   2. Qualified leads per month.
   3. Cost per lead generated.
   4. Cost per conversion.
   5. Retention rate.
   6. Attrition rate

2. Website & traffic metrics.
   1. Monthly website traffic.
   2. Returning versus new visitors.
   3. Visitors per channel.
   4. Average time on page.
   5. Website conversion rate.

3. SEO optimization.
   1. Inbound links to the website
   2. Traffic from organic search.
   3. New links from organic search.
   4. Conversion from organic search.
   5. Google page rank
   6. Keywords in the top 10 SERP.

4. Paid Advertisement.
   1. Leads and conversion from paid advertising.
   2. Cost per Acquisition (CPA) and cost per conversion
   3. Click-through rate on PPC advertising.
   4. Traffic from social media
   5. Lead and conversion from social media.

5. Social media tracking.
   1. Social media ROI