Outbound on the rebound from inbound!

In a footnote or companion piece to our blog of yesterday on the bottom feeding species, "socio mediaphobicus gurubilis", we now come to a major reason why this parasitic new species has been able to thrive. We are of course talking about the close-to-extinct ancient beast: the outbound marketer! 

Jill is quite right in her conclusion, because how much blah-blah-blah can one person sit through? It is our experience that outbound marketers by day, do not suddenly become selfless and attentive by night. All they ever want to do is talk about themselves, their job, their new website, their new clients. While our Jill sits bored out of her mind, as the incessant noxious emissions from the motormouth make her queasy, and she has to race to the ladies room to throw up and get put onto an oxygen mask.

The corollary to this scenario, in business, is,  never hire an outbound marketer to handle an inbound marketer's job. That is an unforgivable error. People have become so confused with all the new tools being introduced, and social media popping all over the place, that they tend to believe that as the outbound woolly mammoth (sorry, marketer) still belongs to the "marketer" species, they can be trusted when they proclaim: "Social media marketing and filling up your funnel? Ahmm, yeah, of course we can do that for you. Cough."

Let's quickly define in general terms what is the modus operandi of the "outbound" and "inbound" marketing sub-types. I often tend to a degree of verbosity, so I will simply direct you to the cartoon above, for a nail-on-the-head visual on what an outbound marketer does: they talk. A lot. About themselves. And what they can do for you. Traditionally, kings of the telephone, and little else. Often defined by being older (because when they went to school, there was no inbound marketing) and more often than not, technological philistines. They didn't like email when it was rolled out, still prefer a Rolodex to a computer, and were rendered almost suicidal by the words "Facebook" and "Twitter" and "Social media marketing". One could label them perhaps as Luddites, but that would be attributing a level of philosophical-intellectual choice in their anti-progress stance that is simply not there. Resistance to change or pure laziness is what lies beneath, not Luddism.

The inbound marketer, on the other hand, does a lot less (or none at all) of the cold calling, lunches, happy hours and blah-blah-blah about me-me-me in their daily routine. They use all of the modern tools available to them via the internet to drive traffic to them, rather than chest-beating. Although the tools they use may vary from one to the other, the common thread should revolve around one key word that EU does love: content. Whether it's a podcast, or blog, or video, or website or an e-book, inbound marketers attract prospects to themselves by producing engaging, interesting and attractive content. They fill up their funnel and then tease the prospects further down into it by engaging content, as they are processed from prospects to leads, which are further nurtured and ultimately converted into sales. All of this can occur with the marketer barely having to leave their office, which is way more efficient in terms of their precious time, and allows them to more readily handle multiple accounts simultaneously. It goes without saying that inbound marketers adore social media, unlike their elder brethern.

Now we come to the six million dollar question! Can an old school outbound marketer become a master of inbound marketing, and help you introduce it into your own business? As tempted as we might be to say "No!", we will temper our opinion, and offer a "It is possible, yes." instead. But while it might be possible, we think it's very rare. You can't really teach an old dog new tricks, or, even if you can, it takes way too long. Those outbounders who took years to do so but eventually stuck a Facebook icon on their website in 2011, and a CEO who said something on Twitter in 2012, are simply going through the motions. One look at their content underlines that conclusion perfectly; they demonstrate readily that they just are not comfortable, at best, or that they clearly have no idea what they are doing, at worst. 


Be smart. Would you go to a family doctor to treat a major life-threatening disease? No. Would you go to your regular dentist for a procedure requiring major jawbone surgery? No. Would you hire a general laborer to raise the sinking foundations of your 100 year old house? No; again, you would see a specialist. So why would you use someone who is a classical outbound marketer to handle your inbound marketing needs? You need to be informed enough to realize that throwing a couple of logos onto a website in 2012, and having posted something on Facebook this year, is not what the pros mean by "social media marketing" or "inbound marketing". In general terms, any outfit who were not on Facebook, Twitter or running a weekly blog before 2011/12 are by definition old school outbound marketers. They have their place, naturally, and there is room for everyone, but they have no place in social media marketing and no business taking your hard-earned cash to run your inbound marketing campaigns. They resisted changing anything in their own business until it was their own wallets that were being eviscerated, and they were forced into social media marketing. It was not a choice, nor the result of having "gone back to school" to learn something new for a change;  it was not welcomed through the door, it kicked it's way in!

People, such types are clinically resistant to change! They panic over change. Why in God's name would you place your trust and your business in their hands? Especially if you are not so different, and your business has suffered due to the same phenotypic resistance to any change. Hire someone who is fearless, and who has already proven that they can use all of the modern tools with great ease and consummate skill, and is willing to show you what they have achieved. You only have to ask someone how many social media campaigns or inbound marketing campaigns they have directed, and their face will tell you all you need to know. Beware the blah-blah-blah, and cut to the chase: "Show me those clients, and their websites and their social media accounts, and give me the data on what percentage increase in sales you achieved for them." When you are still hearing blah-blah-blah? You have your answer.

The scariest beast of all is the classic outbound marketer who's blah-blah-blah has recently become about inbound marketing: now ranting about their new Facebook page, or their Twitter followers (the same number they are following; a dead giveaway) and who suddenly seem to feel that they do it all. All because they finally managed to join Facebook and Twitter in 2012. That in and of itself should have you running a mile! Those who are susceptible to the chest-beating rah-rah's can get taken to the cleaners by a beast that is all mouth and trousers, and little-to-no-content.  Now that's a beast that sends a chill down our spines, brrr! Maybe extinction is a very useful part of natural selection after all, even in business?! You gotta love evolution! - EU