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Inbound vs. Outbound Leads: What's the Difference? - Medium
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When it comes to lead generation, the obvious question is whether to do inbound vs. outbound. “Inbound leads are leads that initiate contact with you directly or through referral channels.” Outbound leads are developed through proactive, direct contact initiated by you. These are “cold” leads. That is, an outbound lead has not voluntarily opted into any communication with you. You found them when doing a Google or LinkedIn search, used sophisticated scraping methods, or just had a list of dream accounts and decided to reach out to them.
Inbound leads are leads that initiate contact with you directly or through referral channels. It might be that someone found out about you through social media, read your content, or got a direct referral from a friend or colleague. “Outbound leads are developed through proactive, direct contact initiated by you.” Navigating which one is “best” isn’t a simple decision. At this point, you’re probably wondering, ”Which one should I do? Inbound or outbound?”
Navigating which one is “best” isn’t a simple decision. At this point, you’re probably wondering, ”Which one should I do? Inbound or outbound?” “The question largely depends on your business model, your customers, and your ability to invest.” I’ll rate inbound vs. outbound leads based on these factors:
In a word: slow. Patience is required here. “Inbound lead generation is a slow process if you’re relying on organic channels like search, referrals, or word of mouth.” With the competition for attention today, having multiple promotional channels to amplify content is critical, meaning you’ll multiply your management and promotional tasks, too. Overall, it’s a lot of work!
Navigating which one is “best” isn’t a simple decision. At this point, you’re probably wondering, ”Which one should I do? Inbound or outbound?” “The question largely depends on your business model, your customers, and your ability to invest.” I’ll rate inbound vs. outbound leads based on these factors:
Timing is critical in sales. As in, is now the right time for this person to buy?If you’re selling higher-end services, active buying cycles can sometimes take 6–12 months. The bigger the company you target, the longer the sales cycle is likely to be. “Therefore, the timing of your buyer’s cycle is a consideration when weighing the relative benefits of inbound vs. outbound leads.” Inbound Timing
On the one hand, inbound has a considerable upfront time (and energy) investment. Once your relationships and content are created, you can reuse them, often for years. “Outbound requires ongoing and consistent investment both in the campaigns you create and the backend work that comes with following up with leads.” Overall Quality: Inbound vs. Outbound
Since it’s unlikely that prospects in your outbound campaign 1) trust you, or 2) are ready to buy now, you’ll have to invest a lot of time staying on top of those prospects. Most outbound prospecting reps use an 8–15 touch model to work their leads. So it’s not a matter of building a list and sending one or two emails to each person; it’s creating a list, then sending 5 emails, a LinkedIn request, a Twitter message, and a LinkedIn. DM. Or more. The time investment to run these campaigns is pretty big once they launch. “You can outsource research and prospecting. You can buy complex tools. Heck, you can even purchase lists of companies or prospects.” If you find a particular outbound campaign that works for you, the return can be fast and quite good. As opposed to inbound, though, your outbound campaigns are likely to have less staying power. You may have noticed that you get a higher volume of cold, outbound solicitations, which inevitably erode the effectiveness of your campaigns (or at least email as a channel).
In Strategy