Any business marketing strategy majorly involves stimulating and capturing audience interest in their product or service with the sole aim to develop a sales pipeline. The leads in the sales pipeline are then gradually nurtured until they are ready to buy. Broadly speaking, there are two ways in which you can approach your Lead Generation – inbound lead generation and Outbound Lead Generation. Of the two ways, it is the outbound lead generation that can be more effective in actively distributing your content and campaigns to your prospects.

Inbound Vs Outbound Lead Generation

Whether you are into the B2B or B2C segment of the business, lead generation is useful for any type or size of business. A lead generation process in any business usually consists of identification, short-listing promotional methods, creating the sales funnel, building relationships, and connecting to engage.

The main objective of the two lead generation approaches, namely – Inbound Lead Generation and Outbound Lead Generation is to generate leads, and further create the demand. Both of them require a good understanding of target audience segmentation! But, as we continue with our discussion ahead, it is essential to understand the main difference between the two types.

Inbound Lead Generation

In the inbound lead generation approach, you let your prospects determine the consumption of your content via the exchange of information. It is the prospects that discover you based on a convenient time. The inbound assets usually have a longer lifespan as compared to your outbound campaigns. Also, they typically have lower costs associated with them.

Outbound Lead Generation

In the outbound lead generation approach, it is entirely you that decides when your prospects will see your ad campaigns, receive calls, or open their e-mailers. You do not have the knowledge about your prospect’s readiness to receive your campaigns, nor do you really care about it. Outbound campaigns have a shorter lifespan as compared to the inbound assets. They are finite and shorter in length mainly due to the delivery mechanism costs involved, and risk levels.

Which is The Right Approach for Your Business?

Though the inbound approach is a much better foundation for B2B growth, the outbound approach still continues to have a place in the B2B marketing and sales mix. Strategies involved in inbound lead generation include content marketing, blogging, SEO, lead nurturing, live chat, etc. On the other hand, the outbound approach involves a paid delivery mechanism thereby adding to the cost of running any campaign. Apart, there’s the risk – outbound campaigns often tend to create a perception to sell rather than help or educate.

Though inbound approach reigns supreme, what most businesses finally realize and conclude that to meet their monthly or quarterly sales targets, inbound lead generation is a time-consuming process, and they cannot wait! That’s where the outbound lead generation approach steps in.

Outbound Sales Process Flow

The outbound approach is a proactive, integrated sales and marketing approach; generates qualified leads at a much faster pace. The image shown below depicts a typical flow process in the outbound lead generation approach.

Now let’s find out how you can make the outbound lead generation work for you, to be precise let’s understand the outbound lead technique.

Outbound lead generation involves a collaborative approach between your sales and marketing teams. They need to work together in identifying the target accounts, the buyer details, and the content to be used in communicating with the prospects. The collaborative approach enables you to select the companies you wish to target, identify the key decision-makers or buyers within the organization, and accordingly address their requirements by anticipating their concerns.

The inside sales representatives are expected to monitor and know who opens the emails, who clicks on links, or who views content. Prioritizing their follow-up depending on the level of engagement with a prospect, the inside sales reps should coordinate with the marketing team and inform what worked.

Once the feedback loop between your sales and marketing teams is closed, it helps you to gain a better understanding of which prospects to target further. Even if some of the prospects are not ready to immediately take the next step, you can carry on with the passive inbound lead generation methods and establish connections with them.

Advantages of Outbound Lead Generation

As seen so far, the outbound lead generation is mainly to do with finding and engaging your potential prospects. The process involves your salesperson or marketer initiating the first interaction by sending messages or content to potential leads. Some of the major benefits of this method include the shortening of the sales cycle, building quicker brand awareness, and the ability to experiment with new markets.

Enables to Shorten Sales Cycle

The outbound method being a great way to hyper-target your leads that are ready to purchase your product or service indirectly helps to shorten your sales cycle. This way, you are able to showcase your value proposition along with providing target buyers with the information they need.

Enables to Build Quicker Brand Awareness

The outbound method being an effective way to actively put across your content to your target audience helps to increases overall visibility along with being displayed to the right set of people.

The outbound lead generation best practices can differ from company to company. But, the best outbound lead generation practice for any sales team is to have a process in place! It could be in the form of a workflow or a plan; but, it should be something that is measurable, which can be tested and modifiable until it’s perfect.

Enables to Experiment New Markets

The inside sales representatives usually come in contact with hundreds of prospects daily. This gives them an opportunity to gain more insights about what campaigns are working. Certainly, the real-time feedback helps to refine the product or service value proposition and further encourage you to test new markets.

Complement Your Outbound Approaches with Inbound Lead Generation

It’s been noticed that the most successful businesses use their outbound lead generation methods and complement it with their ongoing inbound methods. Thought outbound lead generation is not the primary focus of any business it does not mean it is dead. By using proper targeting and the right outbound lead generation approach, it’s more likely to help you deliver the desired results at a much faster rate.

For B2B businesses outbound lead generation is a preferable option. With this method, you can reach your target audience including the key decision-makers or top management in an organization much faster. And, scaling your outreach is easier too. But you should also bear in mind that the success of your outbound process depends on your complete understanding of the segmented databases which includes verified email lists and phone numbers.

If you wish to reach your desired customers and win those sales battles against your competitors, you have the option to outsource your outbound lead generation activities to an external source or consultancy. Best Data Provider, a company into the latest trends in digital marketing and dealing with the most reliable and updated databases can help you.  Contact at [email protected]

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