Inbound Marketing vs Outbound Marketing by Neil Saviano

By Guest Contributor Neil Saviano of CRM Boston.

As many businesses keep working with traditional outbound sales and marketing strategies to find new customers, they need to take a step back and find out if it’s really working!  They need to start measuring the return of the “old” tried and true tactics such as outbound cold calls, telemarketing from prospect lists, email blasts and trade shows.  Most will find out that success rates are really down.

Why? Prospects block out these tactics with tools such as caller ID, spam filtering and voice mail-to name a few.  Cold calling in an office building in any city is now almost nonexistent!  Sales people need to get by security-and they’re not getting by unless they have an appointment.  Let’s face it-prospective customers look at these traditional outbound marketing tactics as an intrusion.

They want you to stop trying to find them!!  They want to find YOU when they’re ready!!

Inbound marketing such as the program developed by Skillman Video Group called “Social Video Marketing”  is rapidly taking over for outbound marketing (cold calling, direct mail etc).  Search engines, blogs and social media put companies in a position to be found.  When this happens, the prospect takes the initiative and they become a “qualified” prospect.  Just ask a sales person about the value of a qualified prospect, and the high rate of conversion to a new customer.  Better yet-ask them how many telemarketing calls it takes and at what cost.
Skillman Video Group’s SEO strategies in their service  Social Video Marketing truly enhance inbound marketing, helping clients get found by search engines, social media sites and blogs that results in more leads.  And it costs substantially lower than outbound marketing such as outsourced call centers or going to distant trade shows.  In some markets the cost of an outside sales call is $150.00 per call!

At CRM Boston we’re excited about our strategic partnership with Skillman Video Group.  We add another whole dimension to inbound marketing by helping clients “take action” on those incoming leads using SugarCRM.

SugarCRM’s functionality creates a lead record, assigns it to a campaign and begins the sales process through automated workflow.  Typical workflow can include an automated email response and a task assigned to a sales person for follow up.  This is sales and marketing automation that includes dashboard graphics and metrics that clients use to measure campaign effectiveness.  Please contact us to learn more about the synergies between exciting new Boston CRM’s programs and Skillman Video Group’s Social Video Marketing service.