When I was younger, I used to wonder if anyone ever purchased anything from those obnoxious telemarketers who always seemed to call in the middle of dinner. Would some poor man suddenly realize that he had been waiting years for someone to call him up and offer him a great deal on vinyl siding? And how about those teenagers who came to my door selling fancy sets of knives at exorbitant prices? Fact is, these simply are not very effective marketing methods. Telemarketers and door-to-door salesmen only continue to exist because they contribute just a bit more to their firm's profit than their near-minimum wage salaries detract.
Of course, outbound marketing is still necessary for most businesses. Print ads, television ads, billboards, PPC campaigns are all examples outbound marketing, and we still see these things every day. Actually, we see A LOT of them, and therein lies the problem. It is simply too easy to tune them out. Is your favorite radio station playing a commercial? Just turn the dial. Or, better yet, subscribe to satellite radio, which does not air advertisements at all!
The high costs of outbound marketing prove another detriment. To purchase a 30-second spot during Super Bowl XLV (2011, for those not following the Roman numeral system), you'd have to shell out almost $3 million! Will you be able to recoup that huge sum via increased sales? Possibly, but there is no way to be certain. I, for one, do not like those odds. This is obviously an extreme example, but outbound marketing efforts almost always come with a hefty price tag.
All of this leads us to a discussion of a (somewhat) radical, new idea referred to as inbound marketing, which will serve as the subject of my next post.
No comments:
Post a Comment