Inbound VS Outbound Marketing: Theoretical debate and comparison of the two marketing approaches

Abstract

For a long time, companies made sure to implement their marketing strategies in order to satisfy their target customers and acquire new ones. If the outbound marketing, also called the push strategy, was the most commonly used method, the inbound marketing strategy (Pull strategy) has only emerged more recently due to the appearance of social networks. It is true that this method had a lot of success during the Covid-19 period in 2020, since it was one of the major solutions to this crisis and encouraged firms to continue their activities. The fast-digital development has allowed the pull strategy to gain more importance, and has taken the outbound marketing down to a level below. Indeed, it was much more common to see brands chasing after their customers. However, with the increasing use of web marketing, digital marketing and the inbound strategy are now more common approaches. These currently stand out as the strategies and disciplines of choice, as they stand in contrast to the much more intrusive nature of the inbound method. Several doctrines, influenced by their environment, bring with them marketing theories regarding the two approaches, basing them on a system of knowledge and beliefs, that companies take into consideration before putting their strategies into action.We will therefore raise an important question in this article: Are the inbound and outbound marketing methods complementary or totally heterogeneous and incompatible with each other? from one another? The goal of this article is to theoretically analyze both marketing strategies, compare traditional methods to digital methods, and to evaluate their efficiency and efficacy from the consumers’ perspective.

Keywords: Digital marketing; Inbound marketing, Outbound marketing; Marketing strategies.

JEL Classification: M31

Paper Type: Theoretical Research.