As a blogger, you're already used to creating content on a regular basis. That makes content marketing an ideal option for promoting your blog, increasing traffic, and growing your readership.
Today let's talk about the two different kinds of content marketing -- inbound content marketing and outbound content marketing -- and which makes more sense for blog promotion.
Outbound vs Inbound Content Marketing
Outbound content marketing is a form of "push" or "broadcast" marketing. This is when you create content or have a message that you push out into your audience's awareness, sometimes without their explicit consent.
Inbound content marketing, on the other hand, relies on earning your audience's attention. It's the content they want to see. Inbound content marketing also allows for greater two-way communication between you and members of your market.
Here are some specific examples of outbound and inbound content marketing tools to give you a better idea of the difference:
Outbound Content Marketing Tools
- News releases
- Email marketing blasts (especially if you purchased a list)
- Direct mail
- Purchased advertising (in any medium)
Inbound Content Marketing Tools
- Blog posts and comments (yes, your blog is one of its own marketing tools)
- White papers and reports
- Articles (print or digital -- like guest posts)
- Email newsletters (with readers choosing to subscribe)
- Social media marketing (engaging your readers in conversations)
As you can see, inbound content marketing tools are things your readers might actually seek out. It's all about convincing them to come to you, trust you, and keep coming back. Better yet, it's about building an ongoing relationship with those readers.
When it comes to promoting your blog, do you rely more heavily on outbound content marketing or inbound content marketing? What tools or strategies do you prefer, and why? Share your thoughts with us in the comments.
Great article. I also want to know more about Inbound and Outbound links, too. And how it differs from Internal and External links.
Inbound links are links on third party sites that point to your site. Outbound links are links on your site that point to third party sites.
External links are the same as outbound links — they exist on your site, but they point to another “external” site. Internal links are links on your site that point to other pages on your own website.